The Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab is a toy lab set designed to allow children to create and watch nuclear and chemical reactions using radioactive material. The Atomic Energy Lab was released by the
The Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Laboratory was packaged in a customized metal case
Gilbert cloud chamber, assembled
An alternative view of kit contents
Cloud chamber
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A cloud chamber, also known as a Wilson chamber, is a particle detector used for visualizing the passage of ionizing radiation.
Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Laboratory
…Laboratory, stating it was safe and accurate and that some of the country's best nuclear physicists had worked on the project. The lab contained a cloud chamber allowing the viewer to watch alpha particles traveling at 12,000 miles per second (19,000,000 m/s), a spinthariscope showing the results of radioactive…
The original cloud chamber of C. T. R. Wilson at the Cavendish Lab, Cambridge, England.
Fig. 4: How condensation trails are formed in a diffusion cloud chamber.
Fig. 5: In a diffusion cloud chamber, a 5.3 MeV alpha-particle track from a Pb-210 pin source near Point (1) undergoes Rutherford scattering near Point (2), deflecting by angle theta of about 30 degrees. It scatters once again near Point (3), and finally comes to rest in the gas. The target nucleus in the chamber gas could have been a nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, or hydrogen nucleus. It received enough kinetic energy in the elastic collision to cause a short visible recoiling track near Point (2). (The scale is in centimeters.)
Example of watercooled thermoelectric cloud chamber