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The world’s most dangerous children’s toy has just been put up for auction

The world’s most dangerous children’s toy has just been put up for auction

Here’s something you probably shouldn’t give your child as a holiday gift.

A radioactive atomic energy lab kit containing real uranium, considered the world’s most dangerous toy, is up for auction.

Created by Alfred Carlton Gilbert in the early 1950s, the toy is known as the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Laboratory. It was developed at a time when atomic bombs were a topic of conversation and was marketed as an educational toy aimed at children who aspired to become scientists.

According to what RR Auctions said TMZFewer than 5,000 Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Labs were manufactured, making it a rare find.

In 1951, production of the toy was abandoned, with Gilbert’s company blaming “government restrictions” and “difficulty obtaining materials.”

The lab kit includes a cloud chamber for viewing alpha particles, a spinthariscope for observing radioactive decay, a Geiger-Müller radiation counter, and an electroscope for measuring radiation levels in the four included substances: carnotite, autunite, torbernite and uraninite.

The kit, packaged in a custom metal case, also contains extras, including a U.S. government guide to uranium prospecting.

The uranium samples remain radioactive and will be for 4.5 billion years.

According to a 2020 analysis by IEEE Spectrum, the world’s leading engineering magazine, the radiation level is equivalent to UV exposure from the sun as long as the samples remain in the sealed containers.

The set also came with a comic book featuring Dagwood from the popular “Blondie” comic strip. It was titled “Learn How Dagwood Splits the Atom,” written in collaboration with General Leslie Groves, director of the Manhattan Project.

Bidding for the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Laboratory ends on December 11, which means there’s still time for someone to snag it as a Christmas present.