In 1951 there was a children's U-238 Atomic Energy Lab playset for $50

Ha! Remembering back all the nights I hovered over electronics, soldering, breathing all those fumes, blown capacitors with nasty smoke billowing into a small apartment. You know you got a heavy dose of all kinds of nasty compounds when you can tell what kind of component blew by the smell only.

I cannot believe my parents let me do ANY of that. The joys of growing up in the USSR.

German: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleigießen English: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molybdomancy

and several chemistry sets

Edit: I "played" with most of those as a "kid" (the radioactive kit excluded, that would have been awesome.) I put those words in citation marks because I wouldn't call it play, per se, and there's obviously an age limit. But, believe it or not, "kids" (something like 12 and up) are capable of being perfectly responsible and learning proper respect for things like using tools. Heck, in many countries kids are saddled with real responsibilities at those ages.

Receive responsibility and you will learn responsibility. But if you lived the sheltered life that typical American kids seem to live, I guess you have no way of knowing that...

We had chemistry sets and carbide cannons, played with mercury, painted with red lead, and cleaned spots off clothing with benzene. I have inadvertently taken a swig of gasoline. We played with firecrackers, cherry bombs, roman candles and rockets. We were always lectured on safety first and took those lessons to heart.

I honestly can't say that I learned anything useful from the chemistry set (although at the time I believed it was an absolute necessity, something I regret putting my parents through). OTOH work in chemistry labs as an adult confirmed that I was not inclined to that profession.

But from each particular encounter I learned interesting and useful facts which could later be tied into the theoretical frameworks of formal physics and chemistry.

Odd thing is I wasn't allowed a BB gun until I was 16! I never shot a living thing with it - it was simply fun to hit something at a distance. Anyway I'm still alive and doing better than ever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radon:

Radon is responsible for the majority of the public exposure to ionizing radiation.

This is a wonderful book because it covers so much ground and the writing and drawings give a physical sense of the topics: static electricity, magnetism, electrochemical cells, induction and capacitance, even semiconductors (cat's whisker detectors and selenium photocells).

Or whatever address those rosy-cheeked little scientists decided to put on the form. I remember sending ants to unsuspecting neighbors using the refill from that came with my ant farm.

http://www.sparehed.com/2007/05/14/dagwood-splits-the-atom/