AC Gilbert Company is located in New Haven, Connecticut in the early 1950’s. The July 1950 Popular Science issue had an article “Home Atom Labs Are Coming”. The article focusses on the low cost of science kits dealing with geiger counters and radiation measurements that are coming on the market. Toy geiger counters that actually work will soon cost $18.50 and whole sets for radiation experiments can be purchased for $42.50. The most famous is the A.C. Gilbert Atomic Energy Lab which will include a geiger counter, spectroscope, electroscope, Wilson cloud chamber, spinthariscope, radioactive standards and specimen ores. The units comes with the Gilbert No. 100 Carnotitie uranium ore sample.

AC Gilbert Atomic Energy Lab 1950s

AC Gilbert Geiger Counter 1950

AC Glibert U-239 Ad 1950

AC Gilbert Geiger Counter U-239

A.C. Gilbert produced the U-235 Geiger Counter in 1949. Although the unit was a U-235 geiger counter, the box read Gilbert U-239 Geiger Counter another Gilbert Hall Of Science product. The A.C. Gilbert Company was located in New Haven, CT. The box reads “developed at the Gilbert Hall of Science with country's leading atomic energy scientists. Counter clicks rapidly when radioactive material is near; clicks heard through earphones. Neon light indicator recessed in Geiger Counter top also indicates radioactivity by means of flashes. $10,000.00 Reward! That's what the United States Government will pay to anyone who discovers substantial deposits of Uranium Ore!”

AC Gilbert DeLux Model Box Cover

AC Gilbert Geiger Counter Toy Box Cover

AC Gilbert Model U-239 1953

AC Gilbert U-239 Toy Geiger Counter

Bell Products Company of St. Louis, Missouri produced toy geiger counters in the 1950's. They were advertised to detect "alpha, beta, gamma, cosmic and x-rays". One model was the Geiger Counter De Luxe.

Bell Products Geiger Counter Toy

Geiger De Luxe Toy Kit

Bell Products Geiger Counter Toy 1950

Bell Products Geiger Counter Toy

The article explains the properties of basic radiation, how a geiger counter works, opportunities such as uranium prospecting, several experiments which can be performed, and games that can be played.

The Wilson cloud chamber is one of the earliest methods for detecting and studying radiation. The radiation rays are caused to streak through supersaturated vapor above the surface of an ink-colored mixture of alcohol and water. As the rays plow through the vapor, they ionize the air molecules in the path. Vapor condenses on these molecules forming a telltale cloud track that trace the radiation’s course.

Bell Products Geiger Counter

Bell Products Geiger Counter

Super Atomic Uranium Toy 1950’s

Uranium Rush Game by Gardiner Educational 1950’s