Not too long ago I wrote about the Chemistry Set as an endangered species. This seemed to hit a resonant chord among the readers of the blog with a notable exception [You know who you are Clintus.] Thorazine, commenter #38 asked if anyone remembered the Perfect brand. I remember going into one the the early strip malls in Peoria, Illinois (Sheridan Village) as a child and looking at the Perfect displays. I can’t remember which store although I think it was a bookstore. I used to look longingly at the gear, although most of it was way too expensive for my meager budget.
Shopping around Champaign, I was looking for some brass metal strips and stopped in at Slot and Wing Hobbies, Inc. (803 W Anthony Drive, Champaign, IL 61822 (217) 359-1909). In the aisle, along with a myriad of motors, tools and model parts, I was astonished to find a Perfect Laboratory Apparatus and Chemical display. True, it had seen better days and the phenopthalien solution bottles on sale were dust dry, but there were the rows of small bottles I fondly remembered from my Gilbert chemistry set.
The two part display had glassware on the left with pictures of flasks, tubes and bottles; and the right display was the apparatus: tongs, clamps, clay triangles, and Bunsen burners. They had four Bunsen burners and a couple of alcohol lamps. Also quite a few bags of lamp wicks. For your viewing and reminiscing pleasure:
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The last photo on the bottom right is of a display of Estes model rocket motors, of which they also had a significant number. Apparently model rocketry is also rapidly becoming endangered. I asked whether they were under any constraints with respect to selling rocket motors (as in “terrists” shooting down planes with home made missiles). They can sell but cannot ship — go figure.
The proprietor is Mark Thompson. I suspect that if you made him an offer you could obtain the entire display and its contents. Unfortunately, the display didn’t have any potassium carbonate. [Many thanks for commenter suggestions as to where to obtain some.]
December 17, 2007 at 10:35 am
[...] unknown: [...]
December 17, 2007 at 12:35 pm
This reminds me of a number of stores I’ve been in over the years, but most of all of a store in the South-Park-esque “quiet little white-bread redneck hill town” in the rural upper Midwest where I grew up. Taylor’s, run by a harridan by the name of Dorothy Taylor and her milquetoast husband whose name eludes me. (I want to say Roger but that’s the bass player of Queen.) They had all sorts of total, utter crap collected over the years, such as several year old candy and twenty or thirty year old toys, which may or may not work. Decades-old chemicals for chemistry sets were, no doubt, in Taylor’s. I have no idea what they made their money on. In my more cynical adulthood, I’d suspect drugs but I’m pretty sure that is wrong. I think they were just living on the meager income they got from their store. If they’d made it to the advent of the collector’s market on EBay they may have cashed in and are now living in Bermuda!
December 18, 2007 at 4:36 pm
[...] See also Sightings in the Wild on this blog. [...]
December 19, 2007 at 5:37 pm
Chem sets! I remember those. Boy, the good ole days, throwing together whatever chemicals didn’t harden to the bottom of the bottles, mixing in some water, then sticking your nose into it to see what it smelled like. Boy, I’m amazed I didn’t scramble my brain.
September 23, 2008 at 5:42 am
[...] vanilla Zinc (I can’t afford Mercury, although it still might be available somewhere.) the Twelve Angry Men will probably know about this movie [...]
July 9, 2009 at 7:12 pm
[...] Twelve Angry Men Blog – ‘Endangered Species – the Chemistry Set….’ [...]