Holy fuck this is a splendid thing. From the packaging, to the Dagwood Splits the Atom comic, to a government-promoted pamphlet called “Prospecting for Uranium” to the fact that there are multiple forms of uranium included, it’s just… I don’t… GUH. There’s a geiger counter, an electroscope, a miniature cloud chamber, a spinthariscope… I don’t even.
“Science kits these days don’t contain many items that you couldn’t already find around the house: salt, balloons, magnets and a few odds and ends. But kids who were lucky enough to have wealthy parents in the early 1950s had the unprecedented chance to play with uranium ore in this very cool science kit. The Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab was only sold from 1951 to 1952, and at the time its $50 price tag was too steep for many families.”
So they discontinued it. Nowadays, on auction sites, full kits go for thousands of dollars to avid collectors.