Many over-the-counter compounds now require what is essentially a (poor) background check. Mail order suppliers of science products are raided. Sulphur and potassium nitrate, both useful chemicals, are being classified as class C fireworks (here is a good precursor link). This is thanks to their use in manufacturing methamphetamine. Some metals, like lithium, red phosphorus, sodium and potassium, are almost impossible to purchase in elemental form. In some States, you need a FBI criminal background check to purchase chemicals. Today’s sets cover perfume mixing and creation of luminol (the ‘CSI effect’ I suppose). No glass tubes or beakers, certainly no Bunsen burners or alcohol burners (remember the clear blue flames when the alcohol spilled out over the table). There are no chemicals except those which react at low energy to produce color changes. Today however, the Chemistry Set is toast. Sometimes knowledge comes with pain - one-shot induction. So yes, I have to admit that there is a risk involved. I remember the joy of finally obtaining some nitric acid which allowed me to nitrate basically everything in the house (cotton for gun cotton, glycerine and alcohol for nitroglycerine). I remember mixing potassium nitrate and sugar to make rocket engines and quickly evolving to higher specific impulse fuels.
#CHEM C3000 POTASSIUM IODIDE FREE#
I remember mixing up chemicals that evolved free chlorine gas and having to evacuate the house. I will freely admit that one of the first things I did with my chemistry set was to attempt to make an explosive. Some of Gilbert’s original sets included such items as sodium cyanide, radioactive samples (complete with a Geiger counter), and glass blowing kits. Gilbert, in 1918 was titled the “Man who Saved Christmas” with his innovative ideas of packaging a few glass tubes and some common chemicals into starter kits that enabled a generation to learn the joy of experimentation, and the basis for the scientific method of thought. What do Islamofacism, methamphetamine production, tort lawyers, and homemade fireworks have in common? The answer is that they are all part of the seemingly inevitable process of destroying the childhood Chemistry Set.
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