Need to speak with someone old: Gilbert Glass Blowing Kit for Boys

[LeftInTX]

Manual: https://glassian.org/Making/Gilbert/fcover.html (fonts are not original)


30 years, before he created the Home Atomic Energy Kit (remember that??), AC Gilbert marketed this Glass Blowing Kit for Boys.


I cannot imagine this. It's 1920: People are more afraid of fire and burns than they are now. Pumping stations for water were not as reliable. I have no idea if skin grafts were around etc etc.

What parent would purchase this?


I wonder if any were sold? Glass blowing requires 1,000 degree F...

There is a manual that came with the kit and it shows boys sitting at tables wearing shirts and ties while blowing glass as if they are doing something no more serious than drinking a glass of milk!


I wonder if any of these actually sold? (A tag some place said it was $10, but that is all I could find) The glass blowing kit is not in their 1950 catalog, so by then it was long gone.

I really can't find out much about this oddity.

I ran across this tonight and was a bit blown away...

Sure there were lots of dangerous products where the dangers were invisible as in the atomic energy kit, patent medicine, cigarettes, but a glass blowing kit for boys? 1920?

[lapfog_1]

1. I had these as a kid

and because we were lazy... one team would stand next to each target... and we switch colors every turn... red team throws, the blue team throws at red team, then that team throws blue darts back, etc

[LeftInTX]

2. I hated those things!!!

I'm glad they're gone!!

They were also very popular.....

"Let's play Jarts.."

[mr_lebowski]

3. Meh ... children

are way overrated anyway.

[intrepidity]

6. well damn me for laughing

[dweller]

4. Well, there is the inferno hearth in the background

which all homes I presume kept stoked for the boys experimental activity ...
although that 1 guy to the left in the background has his arms full of ?
sorry, not that old here, I was of the baking soda frogman in the bathtub, sea monkey generation, graduating to chemistry sets, and eventually a plethora of
mind chemistry experiments as time swiftly flew by ..

perhaps it’s a prohibition age urban legend ?


✌🏻

[LeftInTX]

12. It's real...The Smithsonian has one...

The guys' posing is odd, but I think it was a product of the times: Market toys to boys wearing nice clothes...Was this kit marketed to upscale kids? The boys on the box have a Leopold and Loeb vibe..LOL

All of Gilbert's sets from the 1920s have boys dressed like this.

Gilbert was the creator of Erector Set (1913)...He came with some neat stuff and some not so safe stuff..LOL

[Kablooie]

5. What about the Gilbert Atomic Lab?

It came with a real, radioactive piece of uranium. Gilbert must have secretly hated kids and Wanted to kill them.

[LeftInTX]

9. Much more is known about that kit. Only 5,000 were produced and sold poorly

They cost $50

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[Mabel]

7. There weren't any laws at that time governing toy safety

The first laws created weren't until 1969 when Nixon signed the Child Safety Act. I remember receiving an electric toy iron for Christmas when I was 5 in the late 50's, which I played with unsupervised. It was just a different time.....

[LeftInTX]

11. I had Creepy Crawlers (1964) and singed my fingertips numerous times.

I played with them unsupervised also. Constantly burning my fingers took the fun out of creating them.

[intrepidity]

8. Well, at least for the stretched glass tube as shown,

that doesn't require much heat, just a bunsen burner (or stove).

I totally would have played with a kit like that.

[LeftInTX]

10. Interesting.......

[Demovictory9]

13. dangerous!