1 August 2012 Last updated at 07:27 ET By Alex Hudson BBC News

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Royal Institution's Dave Porter tries experiments from sets past and present

The first chemistry sets for children included dangerous substances like uranium dust and sodium cyanide, but all that has changed.

Talk to people of a certain age about chemistry sets and a nostalgic glaze comes over their eyes.

Stories of creating explosions in garden sheds and burning holes in tables are told and childhood is remembered as a mischievous adventure.

Portable chemistry sets were first used in the 18th Century but it took more than 100 years before they became popular with children, partly prompted by a desire to recreate the coloured puffs of smoke used by conjurors.

"It was part of a craze for what we call stage magic," says Salim Al-Gailani, historian of science at the University of Cambridge.

Dr Kat Amey asks what happened to the chemistry set, Wednesday 1 August, 2100 BST on Radio 4

The early chemistry sets for children played on the idea of impressing school friends with a magic performance.

Read more:
Whatever happened to kids' chemistry sets?