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How to grow your own geek at home in your spare time

Are you an Old Fart? Did you have a Chemistry Set as a kid?

Learn how to smelt copper, purify alcohol, synthesize rayon, test for drugs and poisons, and much more. The book includes lessons on how to equip your home chemistry lab, master laboratory skills, and work safely in your lab, along with 17 hands-on chapters that include multiple laboratory sessions.

which is exactly what every smelly schoolboy really wants to do, of course.

But today's kids can't buy proper chemistry sets. As Mark Baard, of The Boston Globe wrote:

I don't know whom to blame for the demise of chemistry sets: nervous moms or Homeland Security. Mom worried that my brother and I would splash ourselves with acid. And science junkies today claim that chemistry sets are toothless, with the best materials removed, because manufacturers fear lawsuits and terrorists. If you're feeling cheated by your store-bought kit, the Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments is for you." 

It's all in the Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments - a book to let your kids enjoy the same experience you had when you were a Young Fart, making what kids in those days called "stinks".

And they can move on to electronics experiments later...

There's a sample chapter in PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format.It begins:

To state the obvious, a home chemistry lab requires chemicals. Years ago, laboratory chemicals were pretty easy to fi nd. Dozens of small businesses specialized in supplying chemicals to home chemists, Fisher Scientific and other large specialty chemical suppliers were happy to sell to individuals, and even many corner drugstores did a side business in supplying home chemistry hobbyists.

Nowadays, laboratory chemicals are a bit harder to come by. Concerns about safety, liability, terrorism, and illicit drug labs have made it more difficult to obtain the chemicals that you need. Many vendors nowadays sell only to businesses, schools, and other institutions, refusing to sell chemicals to individuals. Fortunately, there are many exceptions. It’s still possible to get every chemical you need, if you know where to look.

In this chapter, you’ll learn everything you need to know about laboratory chemicals—from how they’re named to how to handle them safely and where to buy them.and goes on to explain why one substance, copper sulphate (for example) has so many names.

We can add one more "vernacular" name for cupric sulphate: "Bluestone." No, you'll have to Google for that; this isn't that sort of web site...