Why Did These Strange 1950s Inventions Kill So Many People?| Hidden Killers | Absolute History

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Wages were rising faster than housing prices. Well, they sure as hell fixed that, didn't they.

I now understand why my grandparents unplugged things at night and were generally afraid of technology

For every safety standards we have today, there's a tragic story behind it

Burnt synthetic fibers are no joke. As a child when playing with some sparklers, I waved it around some stupid way, and I melted the strap of my bathing suit to my shoulder. Between how hot sparklers get, and the suit melting, it was terribly painful. I remember the panic of feeling something burning my skin but there not being a fire to put out.

"Two in hospital after attempt to make liquid oxygen " What the fuck kinds of equipment were in these chemistry sets

As an American I love the “unsurprisingly the American chemistry sets were even more spectacular” and it included uranium because of course it did

What I don't get is why the newspaper texts are censored instead of highlighted.

Growing up in the 90s and early 2000s I always wondered why adults were so concerned with appliances catching fire, I know it can still happen now but I never realized how prevalent it was back then.

Apparently the 1950's was an excellent time to commit murder. "Oh, it was faulty wiring", "I didn't know the ladder would fall on her", "He really enjoyed that chemistry set.", "He really should have opened a window while he worked with that new glue.", "She liked to fall asleep while watching the telly."

old people: back in my day we didn't need warning labels! oh but you did

I got a set back in 1962. It didn't end well. I can still remember my mom screaming and us furiously running back and forth from bathroom and kitchen carrying water in anything we found to put out the fire. Fortunately, we got it out with damage limited to my desk and wall behind it. My model train on a shelf melted. I was lucky.

I was a kid in the 60s and we had some pretty dangerous playthings. I had an E-Z bake oven that had a light bulb so hot that it baked little cakes. Creepy Crawlers were little bugs that we made by pouring 'goop' into a metal mold set into an implement that was plugged in and heated up hot enough to turn the 'goop' into rubber. Oh, and Click Clacks. Those were brightly colored golfball sized solid plexiglass type orbs. There was one on each end of a 10 inch string with a plastic ring in the middle. You held it by the ring and flapped it so the 2 balls clacked together. A lot of heads got whacked by this toy.

I remember my brothers late 1960's chemistry set. He burnt a hole straight through a 1inch thick wooden table top. Dad was not impressed.

Does it bother anyone else that every time a newspaper article is shown it's blacked out.

It doesn't surprise me that those chemistry sets were the first item mentioned. I remember my dad showing me some boxes like that many years ago when he found them at my grandparent's house. He was saying how unbelievable it was that they were sold as a kind of "toy". Also, how wild it was that he was actually supplementing these sets by ordering even more hazardous substances from catalogs...obviously pretending to be an adult. The "experimenter today, scientist tomorrow" did hold true for him...but luck would have been on his side.

My parents built a house in the 50s. The heating was in the ceiling...warm air rises. We were so cold in the winter. There was no carpeting...only hardwood and tile.

“I’m going upstairs to the first hidden killer, the child’s bedroom” Oh so the kid did it

Imagine surviving the war, only to pass away from your own house.

I was born in 1957 and I had one of those 'dangerous' chemistry sets. That got me interested in the sciences. It was invaluable at teaching me to be careful around chemicals and things that I didn't understand. I wasn't allowed to play with it alone. My dad made us take appropriate precautions. That was how it was with all of my friends when it came to doing adult things. When I mowed the lawn at 10 years old, he was nearby. When we launched model rockets, there was an adult present. Responsible parents didn't allow their children to put themselves in danger. Where were the parents when these children got hurt? The pendulum swung the other direction with overkill.