Sciencemadness Discussion Board

BBC RADIO 4, Nostalgia on chemistry sets broadcast.

MR AZIDE - 2-8-2012 at 15:15


The almighty broadcaster BBC, has a radio programme that was Broadcast yesterday, about nostalgia on the chemistry set that any young experimenter desired and enjoyed back in the day, and probably how most of them are now pathetic due to paranoid health and safety nuts.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01l7wv0

It may only be available to UK people, though due to policy.

Im just going to listen to it now via the 'i player'.


DDTea - 3-8-2012 at 01:51

I was just reading something about this on BBC News. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19050342

Definitely in the vein of this discussion board. Comments on that article generally mirror what members here would say, that today's chemistry sets are "sterile and uninspiring."

Vargouille - 4-8-2012 at 05:18

I can attest that it works for me in Florida, so it should work in the rest of the US. Also, I noticed that they included audio bits from members of Periodic Table of Videos. Quite nice.

MR AZIDE - 5-8-2012 at 10:27

Quote: Originally posted by Vargouille  
I can attest that it works for me in Florida, so it should work in the rest of the US. Also, I noticed that they included audio bits from members of Periodic Table of Videos. Quite nice.


Nice to year you guys in the US might be able to hear it.!!!.......but its only available for a week from first broadcasting......so a computer boffin had better copy and paste it somewhere.!!

I heard Martyn Poliakoff on the program( periodic videos, LOVE those videos!!), reminding that one of the universal memories most fowk have, even if they aren't into chemistry now is the ' brilliant Blue Of CuSO4.'
I prefer the red of Cobalt (II) chloride myself though.

Rogeryermaw - 5-8-2012 at 10:49

i was able to listen to it as well.

malcolmf - 5-8-2012 at 23:59

Quote: Originally posted by MR AZIDE  


Nice to year you guys in the US might be able to hear it.!!!.......but its only available for a week from first broadcasting......so a computer boffin had better copy and paste it somewhere.!!


"boffin" is an exaggeration. The program get_iplayer takes about a minute to grab a copy for reference. Any suggestions for a location to copy/paste to?

Vargouille - 6-8-2012 at 05:09

Perhaps upload it to mediafire or a similar site?

Hexavalent - 6-8-2012 at 13:46

Ahhh....nostalgia...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Equip-From-a-1940s-Chemistry-Set-f...

Dave Angel - 11-8-2012 at 07:11

Nice find MR AZIDE. Worth listening to if only because at one point the Cambridge Historian of Science guy states that potassium nitrate "is an explosive"... Oh dear.

As Vargouille suggested, I have used mediafire to create a shared copy:

http://www.mediafire.com/?xrz1ceabv9iahtw

Please forgive the low quality - I have little experience with stream ripping and have gone for a low quality on-the-fly encoding for minimal file size. And let me know if there are any problems with the link - I can always email it; just drop me a PM.

And speaking of nostalgia Hexavalent, I was gifted with the remains of a relative's childhood chemistry set some time ago, so here's a couple of nostalgic shots:

Box.JPG - 41kB

Tubes.JPG - 30kB

The vials recovered are labelled:

Slaked Lime (Calcium Hydroxide)
Litmus Powder
Sodium Bisulphite
Alum
Log Wood
Magnesium Sulphate
Charcoal Decolourising
Copper Oxide
Manganese Sulphate
Sodium Sulphate
Sodium Borate

I have a feeling the most 'exciting' chemicals were selectively used by my relative!

triplepoint - 12-8-2012 at 05:14

Mr. Azide: I, too am contemptuous of the current Luddite trend toward demonizing all scientific inquiry as dangerous and suspicious. However, I like to read old amateur science experiment books, and some of them did go too far in the other direction. I read one recently, don't recall whether it was a textbook. In order to learn about the characteristics of compounds, it advocated things like touching NaOH to observe the slippery feeling it produces on the skin and tasting it to observe the sour taste. I am not a safety nut, but I think that advice did not encourage a healthy respect for the potential hazards of chemistry.

Lest I come off as too preachy or whiny, I will admit to tasting the NaCl produced when I heated and disproportionated bleach into salt and sodium chlorate. (it tasted salty). I just think stuff like that needs to be a judgment call, after learning when it is reasonable to go a little off the beaten path.

[Edited on 8-12-2012 by triplepoint]

[Edited on 8-12-2012 by triplepoint]

malcolmf - 28-8-2012 at 08:04

Quote: Originally posted by Dave Angel  

As Vargouille suggested, I have used mediafire to create a shared copy:

http://www.mediafire.com/?xrz1ceabv9iahtw

Please forgive the low quality - I have little experience with stream ripping and have gone for a low quality on-the-fly encoding for minimal file size. And let me know if there are any problems with the link - I can always email it; just drop me a PM.


Ah right. I was not at all familiar with mediafire, but mediafire turned out to be much simpler than I expected. So I finally got around to it and sorted out the conversion from my iplayer aac file to mp3.

This should be higher quality, but it's about 4× the size of Dave's, if anyone wants to archive it somewhere:
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?88i2g2bag8k4kqa