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Our childhood toys

Morturn said:
About two weeks before Christmas, my older brother took me to mom wardrobe and showed me the present she had bought and told me how farther Christmas was only a story and it was my mom who came inot the room in the night. I was gutted.
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I discovered a comic book annual in my parent's wardrobe. I kept sneeking a look, eventually I had read it all. Guess what I had for Christmas!
 
Gosh. how protected the children are nowadays, this last set of posts has brought back so many memories, as a child in the war our toys were few and far between and it was only after the war that the bombs, guns, swords etc appeared. Nowadays, it would be 'No you cannot have a model AK47 to play with @ £5.35, but here is a tablet @ £300.00, go and sit down and play games on it and see what else you can find to do with it' and the child stays shrouded indoors, no fresh air, no dirt and no knowledge of the real world, in fact judging from what I hear around me the fact that I do not subscribe to social media is apparently the ultimate sin. Thank goodness I was young when I was, poor and enduring rationing, I sometimes think we were better off. My first real toy after the war was a Dinky car, a Buick, always remember repainting it green while listening to the cup final either 46 or 47, Charlton were playing. It was hot and the smell of the paint made me feel sick.
 
Morturn said:
I had a merit chemistry set one Christmas, I absolutely loved it. I would spend hours with it.

Its did contain a few chemicals that folks would see as dangerous today. I certainly made hydrogen sulphide, the bad egg gas in stink bombs. Managed to make some chlorine gas too and the odd thing that wold go off with a fizz.
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I had a chemistry set, all the test tubes were sealed with wax. I can't remember doing much with it as all the 'good' experiments seemed to need the bigger sets. One 'chemical' was wood chips, not much use. It did get me started doing various electrolysis 'experiments' with hydrogen, oxygen and chlorine, helped by what must have been my dad's old secondary school text book. I did start to make a Sodium Hydroxide cell using 'Pyruma' fire clay. The carbon rods from old battery cells made good electrodes, not having any platinum!
My neighbours six year-old is 'in' to slime. How come USA kids can get borax and ours can't? (US kids always had access ro exciting stuff - wanna make TNT kid? Sure thing!).
 
Out in the sticks Brummy said:
After reading all the above comments about caps, rockets,spud guns and how to make the dustbins lid blow off, I think its amazing we have got to the ripe old age we are now!!!! could imagine elf and safety having a field day lol
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The people who fell foul of “elf and safety” are not here to tell their story of who needs “elf and safety” and it will never happen to me.
 
The logwood chips contained a water soluble dye that could be used to show acidity or alkalinity. I seem to remember that the kits also had litmus paper though, so not much point in having the logwood, but expect it was cheap to put in the sets
 
Bob Davis said:
Gosh. how protected the children are nowadays, this last set of posts has brought back so many memories, as a child in the war our toys were few and far between and it was only after the war that the bombs, guns, swords etc appeared. Nowadays, it would be 'No you cannot have a model AK47 to play with @ £5.35, but here is a tablet @ £300.00, go and sit down and play games on it and see what else you can find to do with it' and the child stays shrouded indoors, no fresh air, no dirt and no knowledge of the real world, in fact judging from what I hear around me the fact that I do not subscribe to social media is apparently the ultimate sin. Thank goodness I was young when I was, poor and enduring rationing, I sometimes think we were better off. My first real toy after the war was a Dinky car, a Buick, always remember repainting it green while listening to the cup final either 46 or 47, Charlton were playing. It was hot and the smell of the paint made me feel sick.
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nice post bob...one i totally agree with...i would not change my childhood days for all the tea in china :D ...thanks

lyn
 
mikejee said:
The logwood chips contained a water soluble dye that could be used to show acidity or alkalinity. I seem to remember that the kits also had litmus paper though, so not much point in having the logwood, but expect it was cheap to put in the sets
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I recall the logwood chips too. Used as an indicator. There was also a blue(?) substance that was also an indicator?
 
I vaguely remember using a bike pump to shoot out a `missile` ( a berry, can`t remember the name ) Pushed the berry in to the pump, pulled back the handle & then rammed it forward & the missile would shoot out. You could also make some weird noises with the pump!!
 
We used to fill a small can with calcium carbide, drop it in the River Cole where it wasn't fast flowing, and then shoot pellets at it with an air rifle. Eventually one would pierce it, let some water in, and blow the top off.

Maurice :)
 
Smudger said:
I vaguely remember using a bike pump to shoot out a `missile` ( a berry, can`t remember the name ) Pushed the berry in to the pump, pulled back the handle & then rammed it forward & the missile would shoot out. You could also make some weird noises with the pump!!
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I vaguely remember doing the same using Hawthorn berries.
 
Morturn said:
Mike, this was a power in a test tube that you could dilute with water and then make litmus paper from, so would it have been litmus powder?
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Yes. It would have been. I think it was already as litmus paper in the set I had. There was also, for some reason or other that I never fathomed, a little pot of salicylic acid, but no explanation as to what I should do with it. Possibly make aspirin ?
 
mikejee said:
The logwood chips contained a water soluble dye that could be used to show acidity or alkalinity. I seem to remember that the kits also had litmus paper though, so not much point in having the logwood, but expect it was cheap to put in the sets
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I don't remember any purpose being given for the wood chips in my set. I was certainly familiar with indicators having found that the half-penny yellow BCT bus tickets worked better than litmus paper. (The dye must have changed eventually as newer tickets didn't work). I think there was copper and iron sulphates, the only use for the copper sulphate was coating a steel pen knife. The smaller sets certainly needed a better instruction book. Meccano played the same trick, a picture of a crane that needed at least the No. 10 set on even the smallest set!
 
Of course they gave you the instruction book for all 92 odd experiments (I could only do the first 39 with mine). I think it was to get you to buy the bigger set.
 
My first toy after the war was a car made from chalk with wooden wheels on thin wooden axles.
When the wheels fell off we used the chalk car to draw the hop-scotch on the road. Not much traffic on the back streets in those days. Cheers
 
I was lucky enough to get a mamod steam engine on my birthday when I was nine, mom and dad were quiet happy to see there only son playing with fire and steam in the garden at such a young age :):) it was duly confiscated at nine years and two days old when a meths spillage set fire to dads curtains in his shed, happy days
 
ade said:
I was lucky enough to get a mamod steam engine on my birthday when I was nine, mom and dad were quiet happy to see there only son playing with fire and steam in the garden at such a young age :):) it was duly confiscated at nine years and two days old when a meths spillage set fire to dads curtains in his shed, happy days
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That to funny brings to mind the movie A Christmas Story "you'll shoot you eye out kid".
Mamod is still going strong to this day, found them selves a niche.
 
MBWB001.jpg
Everyone had a teddy bear. This one is from around 1952/3. He was always regarded as being 'royalty' because he had a royal warrant tab on one of his foot pads. I think he was a Chad Valley bear.
Notice the varnished woodwork, woodstained edges to the stair steps and the thin 'runner' up the centre, kept in place with wooden stair rods. Bear and boy now have a lot less hair. One is blind and the other is heading that way. The growl of one has gone; the growl of the other improves with age!
 
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Pedal cars, not so common now?
The jeep was passed down from my cousin, (does that still happen?). It had metal wheels with a rubber strip as a very thin tyre. They didn't usually last long so everyone heard you coming.
The car with the pram wheels looks like it was home-made with a wooden frame and aluminium sheet body. I can't remember where it came from and I never remember it being 'shiny new'. The paint work, such as was left, was red. We would take it to the top of Coalway Avenue, Sheldon, and there would be kids all over it, front and back. I still got to drive but as I had no forward view I would look down at the paving slabs and take my line from that!
 
ade said:
I was lucky enough to get a mamod steam engine on my birthday when I was nine, mom and dad were quiet happy to see there only son playing with fire and steam in the garden at such a young age :):) it was duly confiscated at nine years and two days old when a meths spillage set fire to dads curtains in his shed, happy days
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How times change! The Mamod engines are still going strong today. I didn't have one unfortunately but solved this by buying one at auction about a year ago. It was an early 60's example and after some cleaning, polishing and youtube tutorials, I finally got it into steam with the help of my 9 year old grandson. He was enthralled. He loved the need for hands-on down-and-dirty working. He was as fascinated as me when the machine hissed and burst into life! He now fully understands how steam works and can explain it to anyone. A great shared experience for us both!
 
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