Edmund Scientific

During the 1960s, Edmund Scientific had a program where, for a fee, they would periodically mail a science kit to you. Each kit dealt with a particular subject, such as electricity, optics, astronomy, radio, etc., and contained items to use to build things and perform experiments related to the subject. For example, the optics kit had items to use to make a microscope. Items in each kit could be used for other experiments. For example, the astronomy kit had items that allowed the microscope to be converted into a telescope.

The kits fed my imagination, made me inquisitive about all types of subjects, and led me to experiment. I used the kits to make many other items for which they were not originally intended. I would try my experimental gadgets on my two sisters, who will attest that they were sometimes scary and painful. While in school, the gadgets sometimes got me sent to the principal's office. To this day, I still tinker, and I am always adapting things, such as computer applications, to do things for which they were never intended.