This kids’ toy had real radioactive components! The Gilbert U-238 Energy Laboratory was not a hot seller, and was only on shelves in 1950 and 1951.

The set originally sold for $49.50 (equivalent to $520 in 2018) and contained the following:

• Battery-powered Geiger–Müller counter
• Electroscope
• Spinthariscope
• Wilson cloud chamber
• Four glass jars containing uranium-bearing ore samples (autunite, torbernite, uraninite, and carnotite from the “Colorado plateau region”), serving as low-level radiation sources of:
  • Alpha particles (Pb-210 and Po-210)
  • Beta particles (Ru-106)
  • Gamma rays (possibly Zn-65)
• “Nuclear spheres” for making a model of an alpha particle
• Gilbert Atomic Energy Manual — a 60-page instruction book
• Learn How Dagwood Split the Atom — comic book introduction to radioactivity
• Prospecting for Uranium — a book
• Three C batteries
• 1951 Gilbert Toys catalog

Wait what…the batteries were included? That can’t possibly be true!