It’s funny where treasure is buried. Sometimes it’s just somewhere you always knew, but never looked at it in the right light. In this inaugural posting, I’d like to call your attention to the following 1960′s era Sears Microscope:
The wife (as will soon become evident) is a Halloween enthusiast. In looking for additions to the halloween display, she remembered she had a microscope growing up. Asking Dad if he could search around his basement was more successful than expected.
A vertitable cornucopia of dangery goodness. They used words like cornucopia back then.
What gets me, and what really doesn’t come across in the pictures, is the colors used. The box is _baby_ baby blue. The print on the transformer box is _gold_.
You get the choice of any two colors for all your printing. Choose wisely.
It’s at this point I should wax philosophically about my childhood, the odors, memories, safety of youth. How I’d play with matches, and used razor blades in hotels were disposed of by sliding them down slots in the wall…that led nowhere.
dispose of with care
But this is my first post on a site who’s future I’m not entirely sure of. So, I’m just going to comment on this kit’s general lack of litigious protection we’re used to today. There were most assuredly lawyers in 1963 (the publication date of the manual included. I’m assuming that’s close enough to the sale date for our purposes), but I suspect they had more important things to do.
When did you last see an eclectic mix like this? At Sears? I'll just bet that blue would overpower Scotchguard®.
Boracic Acid, Basic Fuchsin, Canada Balsam, Xylol, Ethylene Blue…and Salt. I honestly expect the missing vial contained Sodium Cyanide.
But it gets better!
Whaddaya want cut or burnt?
Included in the selection are a number of scalpels (still sharp!) and an alcohol burner. But the pieste resistance!
Tastes like chicken!
A perfectly preserved, 46 year old amphibian! Try not to breathe too deeply.
Things take a turn for the creepy when you check the slide set….Blood. Human Blood. Japanese Human Blood!
Incidently, I think we can clone Eric (the neighbor) but that's a different lab.
This doesn’t even get to the POINT of the lab. The microscope! So, let’s check our Fisher Price score: Sharp, pointy objects, Glass, Chemicals with complex chemical composition, and Biologicals! We’ve got a veritable who’s who of what you can’t take on an airplane anymore! It’s almost a downer to behold the centerpiece of the collection.
If you could market this today, you’d have to call it the Young Scientist’s ‘WARNING: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.’ Lab.
Man I love the past!
