I had a chemistry set once and I mixed up some concoction in a test tube and put a cork on the end and shook it up, well, it went pop and splattered some sort of red pigment across the front of my Mother's harvest gold washer and dryer and stained them both for life. Yeah, the set disappeared shortly after that. Lol.

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^^^ that's funny..about the same that mine ended up.

I can remember thinking that I was mixing up some super solution that would be 'one of a kind'

My mom used to take us to the pharmacy to buy salt peter. We mixed it with sulfur and charcoal from the chemistry set to make things go bang!

Edit. At least I think that was the formula.

My son is milling/building a Stirling engine as part of his Engineering studies.

I had the chemistry set. Making invisible ink was the coolest thing to me. Lots of stinky stuff, and I had to open the window to my room to do any of that.

Lots of very poisonous compounds in that set, and a Bunsen burner running of denatured alcohol. Perfect for a grade school boy!

I had the microscope, the chemistry set, the electronics kit, LEGO, Tinkertoys, Lincoln Logs, old Erector sets - every single one of them got repurposed to build something unique (and usually only vaguely dangerous...). My parents didn't buy many toys, but what they did provide was educational. Probably why I'm an engineer today...

Yep. I can't remember where we sourced the charcoal and sulpher. Maybe Hobby Center? Rexall drugs for the saltpeter.

Anyhoo, depending on how you mix it you can make really effective smoke bombs.

Below is the "Fun Spot" roller skating rink in my old home town. It didn't have air conditioning back in 1970. Just two humongous intake fans built into the rear, unlit wall at ground level. Vents were in front of building allowing air throughput.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1675545125.jpg

You can put together the rest of the story.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1675545213.jpg

My parents bought me a gyroscope that I spent hours playing with.

Yes, I forgot about the microscope. I killed a lot of flys/bugs to use with it.;)