• TrackenDaKracken
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    5 days ago

    Oh, you know:

    Actually, the atomic energy lab is before my time. I think the chemistry sets were the first to be cracked down on for safety.

    I found this in my brother’s boy scout book and wanted to build a crystal radio just like it. My dad took me to an electronics shop, a real one, not Radio Shack, and I pointed at the drawing of the crystal and asked for one. They handed me a packaged crystal. I was a little disappointed, but I did get the radio to work, it could pick up a couple of stations.

    I did a little searching to find the store we went to. It’s long gone, but I did find this tidbit. Quement Electronics is where my dad took me. It’s a check signed by Steve Jobs to buy components for Wozniak’s Apple computer prototype.

    • cheese_greaterOP
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      2 days ago

      Listen to the Atomic kid episode on The Dollop, this guy definitely had shit like this lmao :)

    • Admetus@sopuli.xyz
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      5 days ago

      Holy crap, a cloud chamber. I thought that’s usually a university grade piece of equipment.

      • grue
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        5 days ago

        It’s essentially just a glass jar with alcohol vapor in it. It’s the radioactive source material itself that’s the “university grade” part, not the detector.

        Although to be fair, you are literally correct. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_U-238_Atomic_Energy_Laboratory :

          Columbia University purchased five of these sets for their physics lab.