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Banned: The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments ($600 book for free)

chrisbrunner.com — Back in the late 60's this book was pulled from all public libraries and store shelves by the government. It was said that the experiments and information contained herein were too dangerous for the general public. It currently sells for $690 on Amazon. Great book. This is the only place on the internet I know of to get a copy.

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  • badangel, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18interesting book. now where would i be able to source some uranium?
    • Artifez, on 10/12/2007, -1/+56Doc Brown could probobly get some from the Lybians.
    • n8r0n, on 10/12/2007, -1/+24Just give some terrosits some old pinball machine parts.
    • PowerCow, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4there are many places you can get it online.. there is a "real" periotic table of elements
      i think they use uranium nitrate.. i always wondered how it would be for my garden.
    • CamoChris, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Try here: http://unitednuclear.com/ Unfortunately I think they only ship to America, but it's good to know these places exist.
    • brunner, on 10/12/2007, -0/+28Sorry, folks. I didn't really expect this one to hit the front page of digg. I'll have my server fixed up in just a moment. Bare with me.

      Thanks,
      Chris
    • Phrag, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6@Powercow - "i think they use uranium nitrate.. i always wondered how it would be for my garden."

      It would work great! Until harvest time that is.... then you may have a vege-revolt on your hands. :D
    • WaterDragon, on 10/12/2007, -3/+15@ Brunner
      "Sorry, folks. I didn't really expect this one to hit the front page of digg. I'll have my server fixed up in just a moment. Bare with me.
      Thanks,
      Chris"

      HAHA You underestimated the mighty Digg Effect.
      All your servers are belong to us!
    • Battlecry, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7You can get Americum out of a smoke detector. Is that close enough?
      • tintinteslacoil, on 12/24/2007, -0/+0That's Americium 243. Every try one on a Geiger Counter? It's more dangerous than the smoke!
    • brunner, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3Nah, the same thing happened yesterday, I just didn't expect it to hit the front page again today. The server is handling it fine now that I setup it to handle digg properly. Even with the full digg effect, the server is still able to handle the 85 shell account users who are logged in right now and all of their tasks.
      By the way, if you guys like the article, please consider getting a shell at http://silenceisdefeat.org/
      Thanks!
    • WaterDragon, on 10/12/2007, -9/+7@ powercow
      "i think they use uranium nitrate.. i always wondered how it would be for my garden."

      Early in the 20th century, the US gov't. passed a law forbidding the practice of crop rotation by tobacco farmers.

      Since then, the only way US tobacco farmers could get anything to grow from the dead, grey, overused soil, was to add a certain high potency fertilizer -- called uranium tailings.
      Conveniently, it was a by-product of another big american industry: uranium mines.

      Since then, and including the present, the commercially grown tobacco from the US all has two detectable radioactive compounds in the leaf. One is a Lead compound, and the other is a Polonium compound. (followed by a three digit number, of course.)

      It has been found that these radioisotopes get into the lungs of those who smoke the tobacco. It is precisely where these radioactive compounds accumulate that the pre-cancerouus lesions form.
      So...guess what? Lung cancer is apparently NOT caused by the tobacco itself, but by the radiation it gets fom this fertilizer...still added, for fun and profit, by our most-ethical american corporate farmers. These idiots still use the stuff, even though, nowadays, we know that radiation causes cancer.

      Anyhow, you get radioactive particles from American cigarettes, every time you smoke them.

      (I only smoke organic tobacco, if I need to occasionally.)

      Source: Jack Herer's book: The Emperor Wears No Clothes
      http://www.jackherer.com/
      • tintinteslacoil, on 12/24/2007, -0/+0I don't believe tailings were ever used as fertilizer. Chemists know that Uranium itself is a toxic heavy metal like Lead, even if it weren't radioactive (U238 is slightly). It would be like dumping old batteries on your plants, and geting Pb, Cadmium, and other nasties in the harvest.
    • capran, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9Sorry, waterdragon, but I call B.S. on that conspiracy theory.

      For one thing, the **NAZIS** were against smoking in the 1930s! LONG before there was a nuclear industry. Nazi scientists had shown there was a correlation between smoking and lung cancer even back then, and because of the fascist ideology of theirs, it was considered immoral and illegal to smoke, since it damaged your body...a body that belonged to the Fatherland. Hence damaging "state property."

      See the History Channels' Modern Marvels show "High Tech Hitler."
    • sievo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@ capran, It's not a conspiracy theory at all, this is the truth!
      The Surgeon General of the US even said so on national tv in 1990.

      Check this out: http://www.acsa2000.net/HealthAlert/radioactive_tobacco.html

      People get cancer from the fertilizer that the tobacco industry uses. That's why people who smoke pot don't get cancer. They still get amphysema, which isn't much more fun I'd bet, but at least its not cancer...

      I wonder why no one is aware of this fact?
    • BadgerOU, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1While fertilizer with uranium in it can't help, tobacco is one plant that actually pulls uranium and lead (and polonium, I think) right out of the soil, concentrating these heavy metals slightly in their leaves. There is a bit of uranium in the soil almost everywhere -- so almost every tobacco grown anywhere gets some of these heavy metals in its leaves, helping cause cancer.

      One interesting tidbit (that may not actually be true, but I think it is), if you're married to someone who's a smoker, you're exposed to more radiation than the average person, because you're sleeping next to someone every night who's lungs are radioactive!
  • M4tt3r, on 10/31/2007, -2/+31mirror

    http://rapidshare.de/files/33904018/The_Golden_Book_of_Chemistry_Experiments.pdf.html
    • Rowen7, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2This book was originally posted on the demonoid tracker quite some while ago.

      Also for history on why it was banned search Amazon.com for the "Radio Active Boyscout". Apparently an Eagle Scout using this book doused his neighborhood in radiation.
    • ICSU, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12I think this book will help to bring some hilarious darwin awards.
    • itistoday, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Thanks!

      I just finished skimming through the entire book. I really don't see why it was banned, there's nothing really bad about it, in fact it seems like a great book to give to your kids as they'll surely love the approach it takes to chemistry--a practical, do-it-yourself-at-home, see-how-awesome-chemistry-is, don't-worry-about-complicated-equations-until-end-of-book, approach.
    • fishbert, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1That link is not a mirror... it's just a cut-n-paste of the download link provided in the article.
      Mirrors are copies of a site which are made in order to spread out the network traffic load among different servers (or to provide a physically closer download point for people around the globe).
    • M4tt3r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@fishbert, no it's not just a copy and paste of the link.

      I uploaded the file to rapidshare, and they're hosting the file for everyone else, not a link back to the original site. Did you even click on the link?

      In turn, it becomes a "mirror". So that way the original host isn't being pounded with requests.
  • dbalaski, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Very cool -- I just flipped thru the book....
    Ahhh Gotta love these old books -- modern stuff is so sanatized.
    • petroK, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11its sanitized so kids won't know the right way to do the things they'll end up doing anyway (playing w/ fire, chemicals, etc)
      ...evolutionary acceleration is part of "THEIR" plot

      (adjusts tin-foil hat)
    • Technopundit, on 10/12/2007, -1/+25Non-availability of materials/techniques/workspaces for kids to do hands-on experimentation with chemistry, electronics and science are the reasons America has totally lost its leadership roles in industry and technology (and in many cases, even the ability to participate on a global scale).

      But hey, if the planet ever needs video game players, we'll be THERE, Jack!
    • zadadka, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Agreed, a beautiful book...

      Ignoring the "potentials" of performing these experiments and accessing some of the chemicals for the moment, it is extraordinary how such books of that era (50's / 60s) manage to make the subject interesting, if not absorbing....

      I hated chemistry at school, mostly because I didn't understand in all probability, and even the white heat of burning magnesium (hopes it *is* magnesium) was not enough to get me past the dryness of the curriculum.

      I'll be poring over this for days....thanks brunner.
      Dugg + My#1.
    • WaterDragon, on 10/12/2007, -6/+4@technopundit
      "But hey, if the planet ever needs video game players, we'll be THERE, Jack!"

      YES..and the real tragedy (for the rest of humanity) is that....video game players are precisely the kind of dumbed-down, uneducated, uncultured, violence-loving, mindless automatons that make the best fighter pilots, and other lethal button-pushers, for the great new fascist war machine of the fake-president bush, and monster cheney.

      So keep playing WoW, bitches. (...and I say that in the nicest, most respectful way!)
      How does it feel to be pwned by the fascist corporat-ocracy?

      Note: fascists could never do their takeovers without an army of mindless fighters!
    • vikingcoder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@WaterDragon

      Exactly. Fascists never *take* power. They are freely given it - either by a desperate or an apathetic populace.
    • princessangry, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4by petroK

      yes but why our our kids growing up wanting to be supermodels and actors rather then wanting to grow up to be brilliant scientists then? the media is doing this. And we are having a "babied down" culture. My uncle played around with chemistry stuff that was way wilder then imaginable, and yet he is still there, still good and the neighbrohood is still the same as it ever was even after he did experiment. the govt seriously brainwashed people.
  • InfamousX241, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3This book spawned David Hahn, you know ;)
    • stilldavid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6That kid used to be my hero growing up... didn't he join the Navy or something?
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn for those who don't know
    • Technopundit, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1And the Bible spawned Jim Jones. What are we talking about here?
    • WaterDragon, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1HAHA
      I bet the Kevin Mitnicks of the world could easily kick the asses of the David Hahns!
  • Ub3rg33k, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Awesome. I read about this book in MAKE and was wanting to check it out.
  • Kuipo, on 10/12/2007, -20/+2How is this legal? Or are we just "acquiring" a copy of this book?
    • Technopundit, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12Just go away. Avert your eyes. Go back to your comic books.
    • fishbert, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Or, alternatively, you could read the ***** article... the guy explains the legality of what he's doing.
  • MxxCon, on 10/12/2007, -20/+2but you are aware that this is piracy?
    just because a book is a rare and/or expensive, doesn't mean publisher gave up copyright or allowed to distribute it for free
    • adml_shake, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Well wouldn't this apply in the same way that ROM's do? There was just a court ruling that said that you could download it and own it if there was no reasonable way for you to get a copy of the item. So I would think that a book thats been out of print for a number of years would qualify. But since it's on amazon, I'm not sure. I'm not even sure if they would consider $650 resonable.
    • dbug, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6sue me!
    • Sp0rAdiC, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7True, but once it was banned by the US government and stopped being printed I doubt the publisher planned on making much more money from it.
    • jabelar, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Plus copyright expires, especially if the publisher didn't put any effort into freshening the content to keep the copyright.
    • ICSU, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8With 100 GB of films on my disc I don't think this should bother me.
    • edzieba, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Seeing as the copies on Amazon are almost certainly second-hand, then the original copyright holders wouldn't be getting any money from the sales anyway. If they're not producing new books to sell, they're not making money.
    • brunner, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4@MxxCon
      "because it was published in 1960, before the US copyright laws were rewritten, and because its original copyright was never renewed (yes, I checked myself), it's legal for me to share with you online."
      A quote from the article you could have read before commenting.
  • tommycai, on 10/12/2007, -12/+3just like something normally put on digg, the server gets so freakin slow and then I have to put my strenuous wrist at work and click on the mouse button an additional two times oh-my-god like don't we have a maid for these kinds of things i'm sorry what we talking about again?
  • karn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Too bad your most likely going to end up on a terrorist watch list for obtaining some of these chemicals
    • blankman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3probably end up on the list just by downloading the book
  • brstilson, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1n/m
  • Sp0rAdiC, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9http://torrentspy.com/torrent/304495/Banned_Golden_Book_of_Chemistry_Experiments_196
    http://torrentspy.com/torrent/753843/The_Golden_Book_of_Chemistry_Experiments_banned_in_1960s_PDF
    http://torrentspy.com/torrent/509377/Golden_Book_of_Chemistry_Experiments_banned_in_1960

    There's three different torrents for it.
  • Kontra, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Also available at 102 libraries in the US, including many public libraries:

    http://worldcat.org/oclc/1157339&tab=holdings?loc=United+States#tabs
    • umrgregg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Awesome! Thanks for the link.

      It's at my university library in circulation and not checked out.
  • popfrogs, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Wordpress = dead. Don't even bother clicking the link for the article at the top.
  • Lane, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Coolest Book ever!! Go to page 29 for a depiction of a nuclear explosion! LOL
  • zwilliams, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Whoa, whoa, whoa... I have this book in my parent's attic. $600 you say? Time for me to become an Amazon Seller.
    • postmaster3000, on 10/12/2007, -7/+7@zwilliams
      "I have this book in my parent's attic. $600 you say?"

      Don't you mean your /parents/ have this book in /their/ attic?
  • nikoniko, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I have a 1st edition of this, plus several other old but great science books. I had no idea it was worth anything, so thanks for the heads up! Aside from eBook sales on eBay, the cheapest I could find it going for is $152.18 through a New Zealand seller on AbeBooks.com.
    • zadadka, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Don't sell them dude....not unless you *really* need the money.
    • nikoniko, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Nah, I don't want to sell them. I still enjoy reading them, and from time to time I've done some of the experiments. I'm just happy they're becoming collectible. I can leave the kids a note when I die -- "Hey, DON'T throw these out! Sell them if you don't want them!"
  • gundammman2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I love how the link on United Nuclear's website to uranium reads:

    Looking for some uranium? Click Here!

    Not to mention the very suspicous looking man with the pulsating eyebrows. At least now I know where to go every time I have the urge to buy uranium, which is pretty much every day.
  • InfamousX241, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Heh this book is really good, provided you're not an idiot. Like David Hahn, though, I'm kind of obsessive when it comes to anything. I actually had plans very similar to Hahns...
  • andygravity, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0any other mirrors up? the ***** barracuda is blockin it on my network (porn?)
  • genius33, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0rapidshare sucks, any other mirrors? preferrably megaupload
  • brenthals, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1http://duggmirror.com/general_sciences/Banned_The_Golden_Book_of_Chemistry_Experiments_600_book_for_free/
  • JackHererUK, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Am i missing something, i am only on page 44 and so far it seems to be simple chemistry experiments like i used to do at school when I was 13
  • VinceNoir, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Hehehe... I actually had a copy of this book when I was a kid. I bought it at a library book sale for $.50. I'll have to see if it's still in my folk's basement. I remember asking my dad if we could go out and buy some supplies because I wanted to build a small reactor for the house at age 6.
  • WaterDragon, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Haha great pictures.
    The pages appear old and yellow, in the PDF.

    I wonder why they didn't include a fire extinguisher in the picture of a home lab table?

    And I bet they didn't include any kind of fume hood.
    Chemistry teachers of that era were notoriously not too concerned for the safety of their students.
    In my high school, they knew they could always send you 'to the nurse', in case of injury.
    So, it's ok to breathe the fumes of some of the acids they will have you use.
    Dorks!
    Some of those same 'scientists', years later, told everyone that the air was perfectly safe to breathe near the ruins, after 9/11 in NYC.

    But the pictures of the old scientists are priceless.
  • CaptainRotundo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Wow. I just saw this in Make and it brought back memories. I practically grew up on this book, the copy I had was my fathers when he was a boy. I am going to have to go to my mother's house and see if I can find my copy so my son can use it in a couple of years!
  • andygravity, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1any direct links to a pdf? i cant p2p/torrent/etc from here
  • SIDSI, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Thanks for posting this dude, Im gonna have the best meth lab on the block now.
  • princessangry, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I still think this is sweet! I love chemistry!
  • olegk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1$196
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000IEOZ0E/ref=dp_olp_2/002-3814736-5184843?ie=UTF8

  • sullys, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0One of the better parts of the book is the section for Chlorine: Friend or Foe.

    Hey kids, make sure you work in a well ventilated room. Or outside.

    Yes this book tells you how to make chlorine gas (Make sure you keep some diluted ammonia around just incase!).
  • Twango, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It'd be wonderful to see a list of all the chemistry books that have been pulled from US library shelves. They were getting pulled -fast- in the late 1980s. One year there it was, the next year ... gone missing.
    A century ago there were lots of books being published that gave out all kinds of formulas for making things on your own, like soap and candles and medical supplies: people needed them to survive in the middle of nowhere. Some were bound in leather and had gold titles. Fascinating reading if you can find them.
    • tintinteslacoil, on 12/24/2007, -0/+0Try lindsay.com. He reprints all kinds of old formula books, etc.
  • cryptocom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Something to consider...it may have been banned because of incorrect information. If an experiment was reproduced using incorrect information, injury could very easily occur.
  • zbeast, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Nice find.
  • darkamster07, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0"Americum" lol sounds like it's from the periodic table of porn
  • strax, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Printed and bound: $9.81 (b&w print) http://www.lulu.com/author/item.php?fSubmitContentView=1&fCID=437956
  • bbrown, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I made a mirror on my blog (I've got over 2 TB of bandwidth, so have at it):

    http://www.foundontheweb.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/The-Golden-Book-Of-Chemistry-Experiments.pdf
  • Himself, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1mirror
    http://rapidshare.de/files/34149158/The-Golden-Book-Of-Chemistry-Experiments.pdf

    coralized:
    http://www.foundontheweb.org.nyud.net:8080/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/The-Golden-Book-Of-Chemistry-Experiments.pdf

  • Thor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1No ones mentioned this one point. Its this expensive only because its a collectors item. So if you find one in the attic and it looks like a peice of crap then you'll get paid accordingly.

    The book looks familiar. I probably saw it in school.
  • ScienceGuy23, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0I loved the old school pictures and all the chemicals they mention that will probably put you on a watch list these days!

    They have the PDF here too:

    http://homebrewscience.com
  • tintinteslacoil, on 12/24/2007, -0/+0I can't access the book. How?
    Also, one Great thing about this country is that Information isn't banned (unless it's spooky CIA frequencies, or something--I know, I had a clearance once--and the Taliban probably knows it all, anyway.) The book must have been Voluntarily pulled. You can get all kinds of info on anarchy, etc, from a public library or gun show. No one will stop you from reading it.
  • tintinteslacoil, on 12/25/2007, -0/+0I could not connect to any mirror, torrent, etc. Finally got it thru eBay. This book is no bfd. The only things I see not kosher are lighting magnesium, sniffing fumes, putting thumb directly over test tube, etc. This was probably not selling. I don't believe it was ever "banned" (NOT in the USA--we have no Kristallnachts). Maybe the PTA suggest it be removed--it had to be voluntarily from the publisher. I DO see some interesting 'spearmints in analysis, though; it should have gotten into titration.
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