To Love Science is to Hate Freedom, and Vice Versa

Johno Johno

With my first kid's arrival growing ever more imminent, I have like any responsible father been looking forward to the day when my young son (for a son it is) gets his first chemistry set. More even then that, I have been looking forward to the day when the boy successfully blows something up using ingredients found in said chemistry set.

But apparently, that makes me a terrorist. Wired has a spectacular and detailed article about the difficulties facing home science enthusiasts these days - to buy a couple Erlenmeyer flasks is to be flagged as a producer of crystal meth, and to go so far as to purchase sulfur, potassium perchlorate, and powdered aluminum in one go is to presumptively contravene the Federal Hazardous Substances Act. We are living in strange days if the Feds are raiding private homes and carting off science stuff in the name of national security, but it's undeniably happening. As a consequence, the chilling effects are making it harder and harder (in this age where the drumbeat goes "America is losing its edge in science!") to do nifty stuff at home that kids can take with them to MIT, CalTech, or, hell, even little Hiram College, the Harvard of the Midwest.

American society in general has taken some great steps forward in ensuring the safety of young children. Many of the laws enacted to protect kids more or less do that job. But for my dollar, just as I oughta be able to smoke a fat doob in the comfort of my own living room and watch Blazing Saddles, and just as I oughta be able to procure Vioxx for myself if that's what takes care of the chronic pain that keeps me from any kind of rewarding life and I'm fully aware of the risks of heart attack that I am taking on, I oughta be able to spend some time with my kid making stinks, crystals, and small scale bangs in the garage.

Glenn Reynolds has been posting recently about a few books that I'm surely going to keep around the house: the recently published The Dangerous Book for Boys and 211 Things a Bright Boy Can Do, and The American Boy's Handy Book, originally published in 1888 and featuring all manner of entertainingly dated knowledge like how to make a blowgun, and the rudiments of home taxidermy.

I can't in good conscience raise children who can't use a screwdriver, can't light a fire with two matches, have never made a home volcano, and have never had the oh-shit thrill of packing a D size rocket engine inside a B-rated model rocket and watching that sonofabitch fly high and drift at least a half-mile off course into the housing development three treelines away. It wouldn't be American.

Posted by Johno Johno on   |   § 11

§ 11 Comments

1

I already have two of those three books, and another besides - "Backyard Ballistics" that I plan to inflict on my boy in another couple years. The waiting gets harder as your boy gets older - I really can't wait until we make our first potato gun, first batch of black powder, first field expedient molotov cocktail...

There's lots of good info, of course, on the internets. While Mrs. Buckethead patiently and thoroughly downloads great books, lesson plans, etc.; I am scouring teh interweb for plans for trebuchets, snares, deadfalls, explosives and the like.

Another book that is on my list for this sort of thing is something like the SAS survival manual, and I've already acquired a ca. 1950 Boy Scout manual that is about five thousand times better than the current edition.

Fun, fun, fun.

Buckethead Buckethead

3

Funny man, Mike Patton. Funny man.

B - where'd you get that 1950s era Scout manual? I had one of those when I was a kid, and it was endlessly inspiring.

Johno Johno

4

J:

Be careful - when B responds, he'll have realized that you, like me, have developed a habit of overusing our scarce natural resource, the "category tag".

Patton Patton

5

Patton, I just aspirated my coffee. Bitch.

Johno, I found it by chance at a used book/antique store somewhere in the hill country. I imagine that you could track one down on the internets. Even my own seventies-vintage BSM is pathetic in comparison, let alone the current one.

There are lots of old stuff - real boy's adventure type stuff that I'm accumulating for the next few years. The world today is not well disposed to boys, and I aims to provide (as much as I can) a sense of wonder, adventure, and imminent death for my boy.

Buckethead Buckethead

8

Johno,

I happily watch Blazing Saddles with my son. It's one of the best teaching aides for history, IMO. On the other hand, let our boy be himself. He'll be a reflection of your good character.

NDR1 NDR1

9

D engines are bigger diameter than B, ain't they? It's been a while, but back in the day a D wouldn't have fit a body tube that would take a B.

My thing was to take a B14-5 and put it in a design rated for A8-3 or B6-4 to see if it would strip the fins at launch.

Ken Ken

10

Ken - of course, if you fail to remove the engine housing for the B before gluing the D in place using balsa wood struts and wood glue.

Muohahahahah!!

NDR- "He’ll be a reflection of your good character" - that's exactly what I'm afeard of!

Johno Johno

11

I could never afford those big rockets like you cake-eaters had. ;-P My best friend had a Saturn 1B and a Mercury-Redstone, though. Those were sweet.

Ken Ken

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