My (14 year old) son was given a pseudo chemistry set for Christmas which was branded by a famous celebrity but turned out to be a bit of damp squid.  This particular celebrity is well targeted at boys of this age being associated with glamorous cars and cool comedy.  The set contained a few basic acid/alkali reactions and some inadequate, disposable apparatus.   However, he did seem to enjoy the prospects of the box-front promises which were inevitably not achieved: a "self-inflating balloon" reaching the similar proportions of a piece of seaweed bladder.

My happy childhood memories (from the 1970s) made me think that we could have some fun using more advanced  (from the 1990s) chemistry sets.  A couple of internet bids later I was the proud parent-owner of a new chemistry set boasting 100 experiments ready for a forthcoming birthday. 

Oh dear!  On opening my purchase, I found that the prospects were just the same; limited chemicals and apparatus. The sets were accompanied by manuals containing such a bombardment of safety warnings that anyone in their right mind would be too scared to do any of the (benign) experiments described.  One instruction manual even had a sticker on the front cover which encouraged you to complete, in pen, the telephone number of your local hospital.   I think you could probably swallow the whole kit and end up with nothing but wind (a comment not to be tested).  Health and safety legislation had taken over “The Chemistry Set”.  But I wanted to demonstrate some experiments that involved smelly chemicals, corrosive stuff and lots of flames!

Plan B  
So I reasoned:  if I acquired some older chemistry sets, we would stand a better chance of replicating the (more dangerous) fun I had in my younger years.  And with my great experience and knowledge, it would be perfectly safe - as I know what I am doing, well almost.

Oh dear again.  Whilst these second-hand £5 sets (from the 1980s) had some more interesting chemicals, there was still little fun to be had and even less useful glassware.  There was no mention of any of the intermediate practical chemistry techniques: distillation (single or fractional), sublimation, etc… Even the basics were lacking; like popping a tube full of hydrogen or flaring a taper in a tube of oxygen. Even worse, such things as the gagging caused by the creation of ammonia, hydrogen sulphide, chlorine and sulphuric acid were avoided.  All dangerous fun was suppressed, like gravel surfaces in playgrounds: "the scuffed knee was not an option".

Plan C
OK, enough already!  I will “build” my own chemistry set out of gathered information.  My own childhood books that stumbled me through Wednesday's Chemistry Club with Mr. Cook, had long since gone.  Goodness, what I would now give to get my hands on those late 19th century archaically written books does not bear thinking about.   I thought the first step should be to accumulate a library of instructions from much older sets and then gather the chemicals and necessary bits and pieces.  Nope! – that didn’t work. The internet is surprisingly devoid of free instructions (something I need to correct).  Wiki was moderately useful for isolated experimental information, but one single source I found was really useful: http://www.practicalchemistry.org/ (external link, opens new page). Hurrah!  Dangerous experiments and fun things happening, though it was aimed at teachers with plenty of apparatus and fume cupboards at their disposal.

Then I was lucky enough to come across a 1970s “small school” chemistry lab that had most of what I was looking for.  This did involve a trip to a remote west Wales farm, a very bumpy dirt track that was suited to tractors rather than cars, and some very large dogs.  The set is now on my site as a great example of a compact be-all chemistry set. See Aimer.  If you come across one of these grab it.  However, do bare in mind that some of the included chemicals can be quite dangerous and some do decay over time.  There is also sufficient kit in this set to make vodka and whisky etc. which may explain why it was discovered in a house-clearance lot from an even more remote farm; and the distillation bits were the only ones that looked used.

Warning! No really, I mean this: the above kit contains potassium chlorate which is very dodgy stuff and also contains sufficient ingredients to perform the “thermite reaction” which will burn a hole in your concrete floor.

A few more 99p eBay bids later (OK, I only win one out of every twenty) completed the glassware kit.

So armed with enough kit to be illegal, I set about entertaining my son with some fun experiments, with the goal to sneak in some chemistry knowledge at the same time… to be continued.