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JOM • April 2007 12 Materials World Feature A Look at Atomic-Themed Games and Collectibles Toys that Radiate Fun: kelly roncone zappas INTRODUCTION Nuclear energy and radioactive materi- als may not seem the most obvious choice of playthings, but, particularly in the 1950s, atomic-themed toys and games were all the rage. The enthusiasm of that era is now preserved by collectors of all things atomic, including toys, games, and trains. Though they may have begun as children’s toys, many have evolved into collectors’ items for adults. A VISIT TO THE ATOMIC TOY MUSEUM Radium bath salts, atomic movie post- ers, and irradiated golf balls are just a few of the unusual items preserved in the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) Health Physics Historical Instrument Museum. The museum, which started in 1986, presents a varied collection of items that chronicle the scientific and commercial history of radioactivity and radiation. The objects in the museum are collected by Paul Frame, a specialist in radiation protection and an instructor in health physics at ORAU. The physical collection is housed in display cases in the hallways of the professional training programs facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The museum’s atomic artifacts are also presented, with photos and information on each item, on the ORAU web site at www.orau.org/ ptp/museumdirectory.htm. A small segment of the museum’s extensive collection is devoted to atomic- themed toys produced from the 1950s to today. This portion of the collection began with the donation of a few labora- tory kits from the 1950s (Figure 1), and, like the rest of the museum, has grown through the help of donations and a few e-Bay purchases. Figure 1. The Atomic Energy Lab science kit from the American Basic Science Club was released around 1960. The kit includes a spinthariscope, cloud chamber, electroscope, and two radioactive sources (uranium ore and radium). Figure 2. The Uranium Rush Board game from the mid-1950s requires players to make money at uranium prospecting. The game includes a Geiger counter and a wheel that shows players where they can prospect (mountains, desert, or hill country). Figure 3. The Uranium Game, also from the mid-1950s, is similar to Uranium Rush. Play does not begin until a player spins the pointer and lands on “Grub Stake,” a term that refers to supplies or funds advanced to a mining prospector in return for a promised share of the profits, and ends when a player strikes uranium and makes it back to the claim office.

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Page 1: Toys that radiate fun: A look at atomic-themed games and collectibles

JOM • April 200712

Materials WorldFeature

A Look at Atomic-Themed Games and Collectibles

Toys that Radiate Fun:

kelly roncone zappas

INTRODUCTION

Nuclearenergyandradioactivemateri-alsmaynotseemthemostobviouschoiceof playthings, but, particularly in the1950s, atomic-themed toys and gameswere all the rage. The enthusiasm of thatera is now preserved by collectors of all

thingsatomic, includingtoys,games,andtrains. Though they may have begun aschildren’s toys, many have evolved intocollectors’ items for adults.

A VISIT TO THE ATOMIC TOY MUSEUM

Radiumbathsalts, atomicmoviepost-ers, and irradiated golf balls are just afew of the unusual items preserved inthe Oak Ridge Associated Universities(ORAU) Health Physics HistoricalInstrument Museum. The museum,which started in 1986, presents a variedcollection of items that chronicle thescientific and commercial history ofradioactivity and radiation. The objectsin the museum are collected by PaulFrame,aspecialist inradiationprotectionand an instructor in health physics atORAU. The physical collection is housed indisplay cases in the hallways of theprofessional training programs facilityinOakRidge,Tennessee.Themuseum’satomic artifacts are also presented, withphotos and information on each item, onthe ORAU web site at www.orau.org/ptp/museumdirectory.htm. A small segment of the museum’sextensivecollection isdevoted toatomic-themed toys produced from the 1950sto today. This portion of the collectionbegan with the donation of a few labora-tory kits from the 1950s (Figure 1), and,like the rest of the museum, has grownthrough the help of donations and a fewe-Bay purchases.

Figure 1. The Atomic Energy Lab science kit from the American Basic Science Club was released around 1960. The kit includes a spinthariscope, cloud chamber, electroscope, and two radioactive sources (uranium ore and radium).

Figure 2. The Uranium Rush Board game from the mid-1950s requires players to make money at uranium prospecting. The game includes a Geiger counter and a wheel that shows players where they can prospect (mountains, desert, or hill country).

Figure 3. The Uranium Game, also from the mid-1950s, is similar to Uranium Rush. Play does not begin until a player spins the pointer and lands on “Grub Stake,” a term that refers to supplies or funds advanced to a mining prospector in return for a promised share of the profits, and ends when a player strikes uranium and makes it back to the claim office.

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2007 April • JOM 13

Shifting Public Perceptions of Atomic Energy

A look at the atomic toy section of theHealthPhysicsInstrumentationMuseumreveals a number of interesting toys andgames, but it also shows the shift inpublic perception of nuclear materialsthrough the years. “During the1950s, atomicenergywasperceived by the public and the mediaas a positive influence in society,” saidFrame.During this time,nuclear reactorswere being developed and there was anexpanding use of radioactive materialsin medicine. “It was the golden age ofnuclear medicine, and the public andmedia picked up on that.” Toys from the era reflected an opti-mistic view of nuclear energy. Uraniumboard games encouraged players to bethe first to stake a uranium claim andprofit from the atomic energy boom(Figures2and3).Laboratorykitsencour-aged children to experiment with theirown(mildly) radioactivematerials.Toysfrom the 1950s include laboratory kits,boardgames,andGeigercounters,whichallowed users to learn about and playalong with the technological develop-ments of the time. Then in the 1960s, Frame said, atomicenergy began to receive a lot of bad pressdue to concerns about nuclear fallout,and the anti-nuclear movement cameabout to stop above-ground nuclear test-ing. At the same time, atomic energyand radioactive materials began to gaina more prominent role in science fictionas the source of mutants and monsters. A board game from 1965 in the col-lection, called Nuclear War, is describedas a “comical cataclysmic card game ofglobal destruction.” The toys in the col-lection from the 1990s consist mostly ofmutants. There is a Radiation Rangeractionfigure,describedas“anuclearizedsinister stormtrooping soldier . . . withglowing gamma eyes.” Other examplesof toys from this era include HomerSimpson’s nuclear waste truck (picturedwith the title—a look inside showsHomer being attacked by mutants grow-ing from the hazardous waste he istransporting) and Doctor Dreadful’sNuclear Explosion mix, a do-it-yourself“nuclear” experiment that results in afoaming liquid you can drink to grossout your friends.

Try This at Home: Radioactive Laboratory Kits

The ORAU museum has two labora-tory kits in its collection: the PorterAtomic Energy Kit produced by PorterChemical Company and the AtomicEnergy Lab produced by the AmericanBasic Science Club. Frequently, thekits contained some radioactive mate-rial—usually small samples of uraniumore—but Frame says the material wouldhave no long-term adverse effect on itsusers. “The energy kits often containedlow-level radioactive materials, but thelevel of radiation contained in the kits

waspretty innocuous,”Framesaid. “Thelevels of radioactivity from a typicalwrist watch from the 1950s would havedwarfed what a kid would get in one of

these sets.” Of all the items in the toy collection,thesekitsaresomeof themost indemandfrom collectors. “There’s a Gilbert Atomic Energy kitthat I would love to have, but it goes forthousands of dollars if it’s complete ornear complete,” said Frame.

COLLECTORS’ ITEMS: TOY TRAINS

Joel O. Lubenau and Jack W. Hornormet about 30 years ago when both were

Figure 4. This Lionel Geiger Green nuclear waste tank car is part of Joel Lubenau’s collection.

Figure 5. This photo of Lionel’s Plutonium Purple nuclear waste tank car is also from Joel Lubenau.

Figure 6. Lionel’s Glow-in-the-Dark tanker car, one of the company’s most recent Atomic Energy Commission-themed cars, was produced in 2000. Photo courtesy of Lionel.

Figure 7. The new Atomic Energy Commission Locomo-tive from Ready Made Toys. Photo by Steve Chorozak.

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JOM • April 200714

working as health physicists—individu-als who ensure that radiation sources areused safely—with the U.S. NuclearRegulatoryCommission(NRC). Inaddi-tion to similar jobs, the two shared acommon interest in train collecting. Oneday, at a train store near Three MileIsland in Pennsylvania, these two inter-ests merged. Lubenau, who had been part of theNRCteamthat responded to theaccidentat the Three Mile Island nuclear powerplant in 1979, struck up a conversationabout his work with the owner of thetrain store, and the store owner told himabout a Three Mile Island train car thatwas available. About 1,000 of the boxcars had been produced by members ofa private train collector group. ForLubenau and Hornor, the cars were thestart of a new collection. The two began looking for otheratomic-themed cars and found that thehistory of atomic toy trains dated backto 1957, when a subsidiary of plasticsmanufacturer Kusan introduced “TheAtomicTrain,”whichincludedalocomo-tive, a nuclear reactor car, and a flat carcarrying an atomic cannon, amongothers. Lionel, the most well-known manu-facturer of toy trains, had been hesitantto produce toys with military themes atfirst, but in the years following WorldWarII,military toysbecameincreasinglypopular. To meet the changing interestsof its target audience (primarily youngboys), the company introduced its firstatomic train in 1958, the Atomic Energydisposal car. “Space exploration, military, andAtomic Energy Commission cars wereall Lionel’s attempts to keep young boysinterested in trains at that time,” saidLubenau. Through the years, the cars have peri-odically appeared in train car manufac-turer catalogs. Lubenau and Hornordocumented the history of these trainsin thearticle“AtomicToyTrains,”whichappeared in the July 1999 issue of TheTrain Collectors Quarterly.

Plutonium Purple and Other Fan Favorites

In 1997, Lionel introduced a seriesof nuclear waste tanker cars in theprovocatively named colors: BiohazardBlue, Geiger Green, and Plutonium

Purple (Figures 4 and 5). There was alsoa black tanker car, but it was not nearlyas popular, according to Lubenau. Thebright-coloredcontentsof the tankercarswere meant to look like nuclear waste.Most recently,Lionel introducedaseriesof cars in 2000, including a glow-in-the-dark tanker from the Atomic EnergyCommission (Figure 6). Cars like these,with interestingcolors,and those that light up to indicate glow-ing radioactive waste tend to be the mostpopular, according to Lubenau, who hastaken his portable train display on theroad in thepast, tomeetingsofhisHealthPhysics Society chapter and to a chil-dren’s hospital at Christmas time.

aged the development, use, and controlof nuclear energy for military and civil-ian applications from 1946 to 1974. Thisyear, Walter M. Matuch decided it wastime to bring back the Atomic EnergyCommission through a series of trainsproduced by his toy train manufacturingcompany, Ready Made Toys (RMT). The New Jersey-based company hasjust issuedanewseriesofAtomicEnergyCommission locomotives.Painted in thered and white colors used by the AECon equipment at the New Mexico testsite, two locomotives were created: theAEC #57 1946 Alamogordo Test Rangeand the AEC #57 1974 Los AlamosScientific Laboratory (Figure 7). These model numbers were not ran-domly selected, but part of a plan tocreate a model with as much detail aspossible. “The number 57 relates to the yearAEC items were first manufactured astoy trains. 1946 denotes when the AECwas authorized by Congress, and 1974was the year the AEC was absorbed intothe Nuclear Regulatory Commission,”said Matuch, who is president of ReadyMade Toys. While rendered as realistically as pos-sible, however, the AEC trains are stillonly an imaginary reproduction of whatsuch a car would look like. “ArealAEClocomotivewouldn’thavebeen nearly as explicit, since everythingwas top secret then,” said Matuch. A matching caboose is also available,and the company soon plans to releasea set of matching uranium ore freightcars to complete the set. For more infor-mation, visit www.readymadetoys.com.

NOT JUST FOR KIDS

The long-range appeal of atomic-themed toys seems to lie in the personalconnections that people make with thetoys. That was why Matuch chose tocreate a new AEC train, fifty years afterthe first atomic trains appeared. “The people who would purchase thistrainwouldmost likelyhaveaconnectionto that time period in the ’50s wheneverything was atomic, because theywere children then,” said Matuch. “Wewanted to make something that peoplewould find special.”

Kelly Roncone Zappas is news editor for JOM.

In 1997, Lionel introduced a series of nuclear waste tanker cars in the provocatively named colors: Biohazard Blue, Geiger Green, and Plutonium Purple.

Hornor keeps his collection at home,for the most part, where he has anelaborate layout and display cases. Thelayout includes a reactor that has a flash-ing light to indicate when it is “in use,”aswell as radioactive signs, andapictureof Hornor taking measurements super-imposed on the scene. Hisfavoritecar isoneof thefewatomictrain cars to become a collector’s item,the Lionel 6805 atomic energy disposalcar. Hornor describes it as a flat car thatcame with two nuclear waste containers.Lights that glow periodically inside thecontainers are supposed to represent theradioactivity decaying. It was Lionel’sfirst atomic car, produced in 1958 and1959. Hornordoesn’tconsiderhimselfa truecollector, however. “I don’t buy piecesbecause they’re rare,” he said, but ratherbecause they interest him.

Atomic Energy Commission Makes a Comeback

TheU.S.AtomicEnergyCommission(AEC) was the federal agency that man-