This Just Ain't Right

Chemistry 60: The Chemistry Set Without Chemicals

...The set, called Chemistry 60, is a set that includes “60 fun activities with no chemicals.” You’re presumably supposed to raid the kitchen for vinegar and baking soda. Instead of selling parents the tools they need to have a blast with their kids, this chemistry set is basically a cop out that says “We, the ostensible science educators, don’t want to be responsible if your little hellions kill each other.”

I remember my first chemistry set that I got as a Christmas present.  Jars of odd chemicals you could mix and make dye, sulfur powder you could melt and turn into something like rubber (or gunpowder if you could find some nitrate), or burn and make acid. Phenolphthalein  you could test for the acid with.  Good fun for geeky kids.  Of course, later I learned how to make explosives out of common household ingredients (our high school suffered a rash of minor explosions after me and the rest of my friends discovered nitrogen triiodide).  I still have all my important parts.