Porter Chemical Company
Encyclopedia
Porter Chemical Company was an American toy manufacturer that developed and produced chemistry set
s aimed as educational toys for aspiring junior scientists. The company's Chemcraft kits were first sold at major retail by Woodward & Lothrop
, and appeared soon after at other retailers in the country. The company would later form a relationship with the Lionel Corporation, famed American maker of toy trains. The company also made the Microcraft line of microscope sets. The Chemcraft and Microcraft line competed with similar sets offered by A. C. Gilbert Company
as part of a boom in science educational toys spurred by the Space Race
between the US and USSR in the late 1950s.
It reached the height of its popularity in the 1950s when it would even mine its own chemicals, give out scholarships, and was the biggest users of test tubes in the USA. It sold over a million chemistry kits before going out of business in the 1980s over increased liability concerns. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.06/chemistry_pr.html
Chemistry set
A chemistry set is an educational toy allowing the user to perform simple chemistry experiments. The best known such sets were produced by the A. C. Gilbert Company, an early and middle 20th century American manufacturer of educational toys...
s aimed as educational toys for aspiring junior scientists. The company's Chemcraft kits were first sold at major retail by Woodward & Lothrop
Woodward & Lothrop
Woodward & Lothrop was a department store chain headquartered in Washington, D.C. Woodward & Lothrop was Washington, D.C.'s first department store, opening in 1887. Woodies, as it was often nicknamed, maintained stores in the Mid-Atlantic United States...
, and appeared soon after at other retailers in the country. The company would later form a relationship with the Lionel Corporation, famed American maker of toy trains. The company also made the Microcraft line of microscope sets. The Chemcraft and Microcraft line competed with similar sets offered by A. C. Gilbert Company
A. C. Gilbert Company
The A. C. Gilbert Company was an American toy company, once one of the largest toy companies in the world. It is best known for introducing the Erector Set to the marketplace....
as part of a boom in science educational toys spurred by the Space Race
Space Race
The Space Race was a mid-to-late 20th century competition between the Soviet Union and the United States for supremacy in space exploration. Between 1957 and 1975, Cold War rivalry between the two nations focused on attaining firsts in space exploration, which were seen as necessary for national...
between the US and USSR in the late 1950s.
It reached the height of its popularity in the 1950s when it would even mine its own chemicals, give out scholarships, and was the biggest users of test tubes in the USA. It sold over a million chemistry kits before going out of business in the 1980s over increased liability concerns. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.06/chemistry_pr.html
External links
- John Tyler, The Chemcraft Story: The Legacy of Harold Porter
- The chemistry set generation
- The Story of Atomic Energy with Safe Experiments
- Wow! Now Chemcraft has ATOMIC ENERGY! (Dec, 1947)
- {http://wordsofscience.com/2010/09/lionel-porter-chemcraft-chemistry-lab-1958/ Lionel-Porter Chemcraft Chemistry Lab, 1958]