December! Lots of gifts! In Holland we celebrate Sinterklaas, a kind of Santa Claus, but with as strong catholic background. Sinterklaas was a bishop from Turkey. I went to see his grave in the place of Demre. But the story our parents want us to believe is: he lives in Spain, he travels by boat to Holland, together with his Zwarte Pieten, some kind of black slaves, to see if Dutch children have been good. Children leave their shoes next to the chimney. Zwarte Piet climbs on the roof, lowers himself into the chimney, leaves the presents, and everybody is happy. I found some nice presents from the past. What to think of: the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab? Read and weep: "For a mere $49.50, the kit came complete with three "very low-level" radioactive sources, a Geiger-Mueller radiation counter, a Wilson Cloud Chamber (to see paths of alpha particles), a Spinthariscope (to see "live" radioactive disintegration), four samples of Uranium-bearing ores, and an Electroscope to measure radioactivity."
It's unclear what effects the Uranium-bearing ores might have had on those few lucky children who received the set, but exposure to the same isotope—U-238—has been linked to Gulf War syndrome, cancer, leukemia, and lymphoma, among other serious ailments. Even more uncertain is the long term impact of being raised by the kind of nerds who would give their kid an Atomic Energy Lab.
The kit was on sale in 1951, for a few months. Maybe they introduced it again in London ...
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