Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Department store with a whole isle of home lab supplies

The WiZard is In - 16-11-2010 at 12:30

"The Tokyu Hands department store has a whole isle of
home lab supplies including beakers, Bunsen burners and
chemicals. You've have to hand it to a country where
you can buy nearly everything you need to make
gunpowder in a chain store (as opposed to ours, where
you can only the finished gunpowder.)"

Theodore Gray
Big In Japan
Popular Science December, 2010 p.92
[December ed not found on line at posting.]

Recently purchased and highly recommended by id.

Theo Gray's — Mad Science : Experiments You Can Do
at Home But Probably Shouldn't
Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers New York 2009

hissingnoise - 16-11-2010 at 12:38

Gee WiZ, I dunno' - it's tempting, but Japan always looks kinda crowded to me . . .
And I'm not the gregarious type!

psychokinetic - 16-11-2010 at 16:52

Islands of lab stuff. I knew they had a lot of islands in Japan but...

-ahem-. Yep, the stark differences in societies, eh?

The WiZard is In - 17-11-2010 at 08:29

Quote: Originally posted by psychokinetic  
Islands of lab stuff. I knew they had a lot of islands in Japan but...

-ahem-. Yep, the stark differences in societies, eh?



Times change ... I remember at the age of 14-15 going to Fisher
Scientific then in lower Manhattan... they would sell me anything —
Red phosphorous, K chlorate, Pb nitrate, Titanium tetrachloride;
Conc. H2SO4; HCl; HNO3, &c., &c.

15-20 years ago there was a letter to the editor of the NY
Time from NY Scientific noting that in the v/ recent past they
would offer 10% discounts to college students... now after
visits from the obvious 3-letter organization ... they wouldn't
sell sodium chloride to an individual.


Time for this yet again —

Hard Times for Curious Minds
By Oliver Sacks
Letter to the Editor New York Times 13v99

There has been an increasing restriction on the availability of many chemicals for the
past 40 years, and the recent events in Colorado have underlined how horrific misuse
can be. But chemicals have other uses, too, not least as vital educational tools for
individuals and schools - and these are endangered by excessive regulation.

One thinks of the days, a generation ago, when a boy or girl could set up a chemistry
lab at home and get everything needed from a chemical supply house or even a
hardware store. I myself had such a lab as a boy, long before I did science at school,
with (now I come to think of it) chemicals enough to poison or blow up much of greater
London. I had my share of stinks and bangs, but I never hurt myself or anyone else.
Having such chemicals taught one respect and responsibility, as well as providing intel-
lectual delight and fun.

Many of my colleagues had similar introductions to science via chemistry, and some of
them injured themselves in the process. And yet they remember their chemical days
with passion, as an awakening to the pleasures of science.

The importance of fun, of intellectual play, in youth - including playing with dangerous
chemicals - was perfectly understood in the last century, when books like Griffin's
"Chemical Recreations" and Pepper's "Playbook of Metals" inspired, delighted and
educated generations. But many of the chemicals available to us 40 or 50 years ago
can no longer be obtained by individuals and are now severely restricted even in
schools and industrial labs. One friend of mine, an analytical chemist at the
Smithsonian, has had to resort to hiding some of his own reagents, lest they be
confiscated according to Government regulations.

Linus Pauling, in an autobiographical sketch, describes how, as an 11 year-old, he
obtained potassium cyanide, a deadly poison, from a local druggist:

"Just think of the differences today. A young person gets interested in chemistry and is
given a chemistry set. But it doesn't contain potassium cyanide. It doesn't even contain
copper sulphate or anything else interesting because all the interesting chemicals are
considered dangerous substances. Therefore these budding young chemists don't have
a chance to do anything engrossing with their chemistry sets. As I look back, I think it is
pretty remarkable that Mr. Ziegler, this friend of the family would have so easily turned
over one, third of an ounce of potassium cyanide to me, an 11-year-old boy."

In this same sketch, Pauling speaks of the delightful (and some. times hazardous)
experiments he did in his bedroom, and his sense that it was such a spontaneous and
playful experimenting that set the stage for his entire creative life. Would Pauling have
become Pauling without this early play?

One wonders whether the present atmosphere, with its nervous, insurance-driven
restrictions, its precluding of hands-on chemistry, may not have dire effects on
upcoming young scientists, and indeed on all of us. El

Oliver Sacks, a neurologist, is the author of "Awakenings," "The Man Who Mistook His
Wife for a Hat" and a forthcoming memoir of a chemical boyhood.

franklyn - 17-11-2010 at 19:57

Curiosly civilian possesion of firearms is virtually banned in Japan
but chemistry supplies are readily available in a department store.
Firearms for all intents and purposes to the contrary , are a way
of life in the U.S.. Macy's once sold Gilbert chemistry sets , it is
now easier to score narcotics than this child's toy here.

.

entropy51 - 18-11-2010 at 07:36

Quote: Originally posted by franklyn  
Macy's once sold Gilbert chemistry sets , it is
now easier to score narcotics than this child's toy here.
You must be looking in the wrong places (for the chemistry sets). All you need is a credit card to buy these chemistry sets.They have better equipment and chemicals than were in my Deluxe Porter Chemcraft set in 1960, and the price is better because the Porter set cost $ 30, a huge sum in those days.

mr.crow - 18-11-2010 at 10:20

Japan is full of notoriously weird people who can't find girlfriends. They have Akihabara for the electronics people, I bet there are lots of Science Otakus too

Why aren't there more Japanese science experiments on the Internet? It seems to be all English or German language.

There is retail store in the States that has glassware and chemicals, HMS Beagle I think. There is a place in Toronto too, you just have to look.

The WiZard is In - 18-11-2010 at 11:27

Quote: Originally posted by franklyn  
Curiosly civilian possesion of firearms is virtually banned in Japan
but chemistry supplies are readily available in a department store.
Firearms for all intents and purposes to the contrary , are a way
of life in the U.S.. Macy's once sold Gilbert chemistry sets , it is
now easier to score narcotics than this child's toy here..


-------
Wal Mart will not sell Playboy or Penthouse, however, they
do sell cigarettes... curious morality me thinks.

---
djh - who just lost his job in the cytology lab...
they didn't appreciate him sniffing the pap smears....!

madscientist - 18-11-2010 at 12:45

The last time I was in Wal-Mart I saw jugs of OTC black powder not even 5 aisles down from the pipe section.

Providing material aid to mad bombers while censoring pornography and other horrors reminds me of a particularly amusing segment from the Colbert Report where, during an interview of a medical marijuana patient, the subject proceeded to "medicate," and to protect the children, the corrupting influence was replaced with a crazy woman hacking people to bits with swords.

[Edited on 18-11-2010 by madscientist]

bfesser - 18-11-2010 at 12:46

Found a photo on some random blog (Thanks, Google!):
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xv4K6lGa_tU/SQWm-YV7IDI/AAAAAAAAAG...

[Edited on 11/18/10 by bfesser]

The WiZard is In - 18-11-2010 at 13:36

Quote: Originally posted by madscientist  
The last time I was in Wal-Mart I saw jugs of OTC black powder not even 5 aisles down from the pipe section.



------
Jugs?! Smokeless powder comes in jugs — BP usually comes
in 1 lb cans. I remember when you could pull up to the factory
and buy 2Fa BP in 50lb box's.....



djh
----
One of the squares in the town of Leyden
is significantly named ' De Ruine,' in
consequence of the explosion in 1807
of a gunpowder barge in a canal, which
destroyed three hundred houses standing
on the site.