I am looking for this book, but I'm having problems finding one and dont have timeon this public computer.

The golden book of chemistry experiments;: How to set up a home laboratory -- over 200 simple experiments

thanks

Greetings Mitch   et al,

I had assumed that the site was allowed to do its thing by the author since there is obvious de facto censorship. Obviously he is not benefiting from the high prices for this book caused by the banning (unless he is selling them for 2k). It never occurred to me that there might be some copyright issues. I did not notice the Russian extension on the link.

I agree that keeping the link off your web site is prudent, since the patriot act has been enacted. I doubt that you could take up the gauntlet against censorship and win.

If this book is so good then it is a shame that it has such a high price due to the censorship. It makes one wonder if high praise for science literacy is just lip service.

In any case if I can find it using Google, then anyone can if they know it is there.

I thoroughly enjoy this forum and hope it thrives. Some of the censorship here I do not agree with but I like it here too much to quibble.

Regards,
Bill

PM me your email

I have an original copy of "The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments" that is in near-mint condition. I checked it out of my elementary school library when I was 8 years old and my friends and I thought it was the greatest book we'd ever seen. I loved the book so much that my parents bought it for me for Christmas. We performed all of the experiments in it. I don't think it was a dangerous book at all because it promoted mature, scientific behavior. The chemicals it recommended using were dangerous in many cases if used improperly, but the book was geared toward their safe usage for scientific study. Some of the chemicals included in the book's experiments were:

Carbon Tetrachloride
Hydrochloric acid
Lye
Sodium Bisulfite (Sani Flush)
Wood alcohol

Some of the toxic substances produced by experiments in the book included:

Amonia
Chlorine gas
Hydrogen gas
Hydrogen sulfide
Sulfuric acid

All of these substances were produced in small quantities and the aparati that were used usually included some sort of neutralizing component. I did all of the experiments in the book and performed some for my 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade science classes.  

The point is that there used to be a lot of chemistry sets and books like this one and kids could only mess with these things after they'd demonstrated they were responsible enough to do so on their own, or if they were too young, they did experiments under their parents' supervision. When I was 9 I got a Gilbert Chemistry Set (which was a fantasy gift) and I recall it having Cyanide in it.

Anyhow, I've always loved that old book and am surprised it was banned.  :twitchsmile:

I don't think it was a dangerous book at all because it promoted mature, scientific behavior. The chemicals it recommended using were dangerous in many cases if used improperly, but the book was geared toward their safe usage for scientific study.

So you say the book isn't dangerous, however the chemicals it recommends are?? Sure the book may promote safe use of the chemicals but it is naive to think that children (or adults) won't misuse or misunderstand the book.

Carbon Tetrachloride
Hydrochloric acid
Lye
Sodium Bisulfite (Sani Flush)
Wood alcohol

Some of the toxic substances produced by experiments in the book included:

Amonia
Chlorine gas
Hydrogen gas
Hydrogen sulfide
Sulfuric acid

These are not chemicals that "kids" should be playing with. Although not all necessarily "toxic".

I recall it having Cyanide in it.

Thankfully times have changed! Why does a chemistry set need cyanide? I assume this is sodium cyanide or similar and not cyanide gas?

you can just get almost any chemistry book and find dangerous chemicals in it..

True, but why should we promote it?

but how is hydrogen gas dangerous..

Read the MSDS!! It is extremely flammable!

and i really do not see anything wrong with the golden book of chemistry experiements,

Ok so I haven't read the book, but my first guess is that it doesn't reference any MSDS or other up-to-date safety literature (this is one thing I can think that is probably wrong with it)

there are some factors that would apply to the copyright laws

Correct, maybe go and find out the specifics then, different laws for different countries and different circumstances....

Please practice chemistry safely and promote the safe use of chemicals.

but i said that is dangerous under high concentrations, the lightness of hydrogen means that the hydrogen molecules would disperse very fast in air, and would thus not pose such a great threat.

Remember that high and low concentrations are relative terms. Have you checked the flammability limits for hydrogen? This will tell you at what concentrations hydrogen is safe and dangerous. Although you are probably correct in saying that not enough hydrogen would be produced to  pose a serious danger. The problem comes when the student, on successfully completing the reaction decides it would be great to see what happens when the reaction is scaled up etc etc....

I am intrigued as to what use the cyanide would have had in the chemistry set, anyone know?

And by the way, who banned the book in 1960? and where is it banned from?

Cheers

I do not know of any cyanide compounds which are blue colored.  What you may have had was a cyan colored dye which probably had the cyanide name in there.  (As cyan blue like color).  I know that the chemical dye "cyanine" is still used extensively today.  So there's a high chance that you had cyanine dye in your set and NOT cyanide salt.

For the hydrogen, if memory serves me correctly, it forms an explosive mixture with air at concentrations of as little as 5%.  So if you have a 10 liter container and there was 500 mL of hydrogen gas, there would be an explosive mixture.  In addition, in experiments that generate hydrogen gas, the concentration of H2 at the site of generation is ENORMOUSLY higher than that of the surrounding room.  Even if the H2 does disperse quickly, any source of ignition where the H2 is being generated can cause a vicious fire or explosion.  Finally, while I hate to say it, the general public is incredibly ignorant in terms of safety so it has to be assumed that any possible accident can and will occur if a misinformed individual is doing it.  I know that in every experiment I've done involving hydrogen, the gas is collected into some type of container.  We aren't just letting H2 generate and escape out into the atmosphere.  

There are a few Gilbert chemistry set photos on the net and from what I can tell the "cyanide" is sodium ferrocyanide (although I don't think this is blue?? maybe yellow??)