The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments, available online

You've long heard it spoken of in hushed whispers. Not just a book of kids' chemistry experiments, but THE book of kids' chemistry experiments. Supposedly, according to utterly unsubstantiated rumor, the experiments contained therein are so dangerous that the book has been banned by the government and removed from America's libraries.

Granted, this is a book that encourages young people to play around with things like hydrogen sulfide. But even on a quick read-though, The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments is far less giddily homicidal than its reputation would have you believe. (For instance, children are warned, in bold red letters, to only play with said hydrogen sulfide outdoors, and to not breathe in the fumes. Also, judging by illustrations, the book seems to be clearly aimed at young teenagers or 'tweens. And it appears to support adult supervision in some circumstances. Yes, even the legendary Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments does not seem to advocate setting a bunch of 7-year-olds loose with toxic, flammable gas.)

Mark has posted about this book before, as has guest blogger Bill Gurstelle. Unfortunately, while it may not be formally banned, The Golden Book is out of print and rather difficult to obtain. Fortunately, there is the Internet. Last week, Cliff Pickover pointed me towards a full scan of this classic tome of DIY science ready to be downloaded from Scribd. Enjoy!

NOTE: A couple of people have pointed out that there is a paywall of sorts here, at least for downloads. Reading the book online is free. But if you want to own the PDF, you'll have to either upload a document to Scribd yourself, or pay for a $5 day pass.

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

Maggie goes places and talks to people. Find out where she'll be speaking next.

MORE: Happy Mutants • Jaw-droppingly awesome • Kids • Science

More at Boing Boing

Ants and Stars: Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic visit the Sardinia Radio Telescope in Italy

The Snowden Principle

Anonymous

I have fond, fond memories of reading this book as a kid. I think it had belonged to my grandfather, a chemistry professor. Wish I still had it.
speleothem

This book sure brings back memories! I got it for my 13th birthday back in the 60′s. It was truly a fascinating book that I poured through for hours at a time, but I remember only doing one significant experiment: I created a hydrogen balloon by dropping pieces of zinc from old batteries into a Coke bottle partly filled with swimming pool hydrochloric acid and then stretching a balloon over the bottle’s mouth. Unfortunately my “mini-Hindenburg” only lasted a few minutes until the acid fumes deteriorated the latex balloon.

I kept the book for years but finally gave it away a while back to the local library’s book sale. Sure wish I’d hung onto it. I’m glad I still have my copy of the “Golden Guide to Hallucinogenic Plants!”

Another classic and dangerous chemistry book is “Henley’s Twentieth Century Book of Recipes, Formulas & Processes”. I think you can find pdf copies out there.
Bill Beaty

The rumor I heard: it was banned for describing ethanol distillation. They show innocent little kids how to make their own, um, “alcohol burner fuel.”

The older ABOUT.COM page describing the book is:
http://chemistry.about.com/b/2007/12/07/the-golden-book-of-chemistry-experiments.htm

Another good one is “Granddad’s Wonderful Book of Chemistry”, author of Poor Man’s James Bond. If looking for pdfs, note it’s about 1gb long.
Knocturn

I had A .PDF of this over 5 years ago And If, one were so Inclined, to find more dangerous books, Paladin Press and Loompanics will provide. Why find a book that CAN be potentially dangerous, When you can find a book that’s INTENTIONALLY dangerous.
Gregory Bloom

Almost as awesome was the Golden Guide to Psychedelic Plants.
“Look, Timmy, this book says morning glory seeds are magical. Mom’s got some of those growing on the trellis out back. Let’s pick some!”
Anonymous

Oh, yeah! We had this book when I was a kid. I did a few of the experiments, too. I wonder if my father still has it on the shelf somewhere?
Anonymous

I love the book, but the site hauls out some hoops to jump through before you can download it; starting with access to facebook acct, info and then after you’ve agreed to that… again refuses downloading until a paid subscription has been agreed to. I’d have been a lot happier if you had elaborated on this before so jovially exclaiming on the wonders of their making the book available. Their initial insistence on my facebook information smacks of deceit, and I refuse to trust the site.
- http://maggiekb.com/ Maggie Koerth-Baker
  
  My apologies. I failed to notice the paywall. I’ve edited the post to reflect its existence. I also killed a link that was here in the comments, purporting to offer the download for free. That was actually just spam for About.com and the book wasn’t really available there.
  - proginoskes
    
    Reading the book online is NOT free! I only got as far as page 34 (logged in, free non-Facebook account) and it wants me to pay to see more. Scribd is deceitful.
Haroun

Umm, the GBoCE was considered kinda lame by me in the 60′s-70′s. I looked through it & couldn’t find the process for making sulphur dioxide, something I found in another book & did as an early teen. Can’t remember the book that that recipe was in, but it was the only one I could do given that all I had access to was 20% hydrochloric, 20% nitric & 20% sulphuric acids. The rent wouldn’t let me have full strength even though I PROMISED I wouldn’t do something dumb like make nitroglycerin. The sulphur dioxide making got kinda outta hand so I put a bandanna around my face to make breathing easier & opened every window in the basement, the back door, & stunk up the other 3 floors of the house. It was fun, but only ’cause I didn’t kill myself with the fumes.
I remember several other much better books available in our home bookshelves, with the chemistry sets, & @ the library. Maybe I can’t remember them due to the so2 fumes?
Anonymous

Thank you for your comment re the paywall etc. I was the first anon who got cranky. I appreciate your message and think that is just darn owwsome! Sorry I don’t use my usual login but i’m lazy today, and earlier hehe.
BUt, I WOULD like to say that i do NOT consider this a dangerous book, and in fact its information which is NOT dangerous at any time. To say it is, is just silly. The point is that such “protections” are becoming more and more part of our horrified culture and is NOT conducive to a growing society. I used to drink water from a hose, from a faucet, and used sticks as toys. Now, what do we have? A sterile, faceless, uninteresting bunch of ppl who all seem to want degrees in business. We have back-slid into mediocrity. Danger is our pedigree, our stance, and our heart, its where ppl of character come from… keep up the good work Boingboing
Anonymous

Anyway to download a PDF without Scribd posting anything to my FB wall or creating a FB account for me?
Chevan

I’m sorry, but I really can’t condone a book telling children to play with hydrogen sulfide or chlorine gas, no matter what the circumstances. The rest of the book seems great, but I really don’t think that the book gives the more dangerous items a proper precautionary treatment. And no, telling someone “Make sure you’re outside and have adult supervision” is not enough.

And I know I’m going to be called a concerntroll for this, but let’s break that down for a minute. To be a troll is not just to have unpopular opinions, it’s to say unpopular opinions in a way that is meant to provoke a reaction and start a fight. I’m not saying any of this because I want to rile any of you up; I’m saying it because I sincerely believe what I’m saying and I’m not comfortable with some of the information found in that book.
- AnthonyC
  
  I don’t think you’re trolling. Some chemicals really are dangerous enough to require more than being outside with adult supervision.
  
  However, since these are *children* we’re talking about, we have to assume they’re being watched by their parents. Those parents should not simply buy their children dangerous chemicals (and if the kids bypass the book and get info online, then the parents can, too).
  
  We’ve gone too far in the direction of excessive caution, and need to push back.
Anonymous

Please note, requires a subscription or one-off payment to download – I wish I knew that before I gave Scribd access to my Facebook account!
Chris Tucker

So, there’s this book, the “Rocket Manual for Amateurs”. Published in the 1960s.

Imagine the typical kid of that era, interested in rocketry, he sees the book on the rack at the drugstore, picks it up and thumbs through it. LOTS of math and chemistry. He stops at the ‘first aid’ section when he sees the words, “First Aid for Belly Wounds”. That shiver down the spine makes him realize that THIS is the real thing, and worth every penny of the 75 cents he’s going to drop for this book.

Now THAT’S a ‘dangerous book’.

PDF Here
- holtt
  
  I had a copy of the rocket book as a kid – what an amazingly cool resource. I also believe I checked that chemistry book out of the local library several hundred times.
  - Chris Tucker
    
    The author of The Rocket Manual is also the author of the 4 ‘Mad Scientist’s Club’ books.
    
    I am proud to say that my personal library contains the Essential Brinley Collection!
    - Infinitude Tortoises
      
      Seems not only essential but also complete. And indeed, what mad scientist’s (or rocketeer’s) library is complete without the complete works of Bertrand R. Brinley?
      
      Another old-timer worth remembering is Kenneth M. Swezey, author of “Science Magic” and “After-Dinner Science”. Good luck finding those.
      
      And yet another hushed-tones tome is Alfred Powell Morgan’s “The Boy Electrician”, thankfully available in reprint from Lindsay Publications.
Anonymous

This was one of my favorites when I was young (think Kennedy era) Reading it – over and over again- was probably a large contributor to my choosing to get my degree in chemistry.

I also remember seeing the Golden guide to Hallucinogenic Plants in the public library. Unfortunatly, most of the plants listed were not growing in the upper Midwest in the late 60′s, and I knew that the few that were were also quite toxic (amantia muscarina, and angel’s trumpet).

While I can appreciate the previous writer’s concern “the book gives the more dangerous items a proper precautionary treatment” there were, and are, far more dangerous instructions than that in the library, even today.

Note to moderator – I hit enter too quickly on the last entry, please delete it and this note referring to it.
Anonymous

To Chevan and the other “Helicopter Parent” types: I HAD this book as a kid in the 60s. I’m still here. Lots of kids had this book, and lots of kids had REAL chemistry sets, too. None of them freakin’ died. It’s people like you and the other “nanny staters” who have dumbed down and softened children throughout the past 30+ years to where all they do is sit in front of a d*mn video screen and get thumb problems…or walk out in front of cars while they’re absorbed in “texting” and refuse to LOOK UP AND WATCH WHERE THEY”RE GOING, poooooor little snowflakes! AAAAARGH! I hate what has happened to this country and its people. Nowadays I actually HOPE that the world ends on Dec. 21 of next year…it will (at least) wipe out cretins who are so afraid TO LIVE that they don’t freakin’ deserve to be here in this wondrous place. Today I read that SanFransico wants to ban the sale of ALL pets….WTF (to coin a phrase from the yungins). SHEEEEZ…there’s really no hope for so-called humanity.

NOW GET OFF MY LAWN!
Anonymous

Love the pictures, the KekulÃ© structure section is great, I have always loved that story, I may print out that page poster size for my wall.
I also like the idea of children learning the haloform reaction at an early age in case they need to chloroform their parents.
jeffbell

My grandfather was a chemist and gave me a copy of that book. I wish I knew where it went.

I did the experiments on page 25 that involved chopping up carbon batteries to get the carbon rods. I probably should have cleaned up better because the knife was all rusty the next day.
Joseph Hertzlinger

Memories of The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments made Lucifer’s Hammer years later seem more realistic.

Making poison gas from ordinary household cleaning supplies? Can’t everybody do that?
Anonymous

The file I get from scribd is flagged as containing a trojan (by Avast). The file i get from the link in Comment #9 is not flagged, and is approx 2500K small in size.
Anonymous

I know a link to About.com was just deleted here, but I just went hunting for a PDF of this book and found an about.com link that has a true, live PDF of the whole book. This is a direct link to the PDF: http://chemistry.about.com/library/goldenchem.pdf – it’s 28MB and 114 pages. Hope the mods will allow this!
nanojath

There is an unencumbered download link available here:

http://chemistry.about.com/b/2010/11/30/download-the-golden-book-of-chemistry-experiments.htm
- p. observer
  
  aww and i uploaded it elswhere already. oh well, if for whatever reason the about link doesn’t work here’s a multiupload link
  http://www.multiupload.com/78XP0O487Z
Anonymous

Youngsters setting fire to a “toxic, flammable gas”. Happens at most Frat parties.
penguinchris

I’ve had a copy of the PDF for years; I believe I got it from the pirate bay, where it is still available (though with only a few seeders).

If you look through it with a critical eye, other than the dangerous gases and so on already mentioned, it doesn’t seem that dangerous overall and it’s probably not really worthy of its infamy (though I am a scientist and may be biased).

Until, that is, you go to a bookstore and check out what passes for an equivalent book for kids or teens these days. I wouldn’t say they’re dumbed down, exactly (though in many cases they are), but they’re a lot less appealing and the focus is different.

Part of the appeal of chemistry (and other experimental sciences) is that you don’t always know what’s going to happen, and you don’t know if something’s dangerous. Well, ideally you do know, but it’s only theory until you try it :)

And kids know when they’re being given something kid-friendly; if they’re not using the real-deal chemicals why should they remain interested? Especially these days where a suitably curious kid is going to be on the internet researching the things in his chemistry experiments