Fun with Science

An obituary for Norman Edmund brought back some happy childhood memories. Mr. Edmund founded Edmund Scientific, a store in Barrington, N.J., that was a science-fair geek's dream. I still have a prism that I bought there as a kid, and I wish I still had the plastic disc with heat-sensitive liquid crystals that would change color when you touched the back of the disc. They had collections of minerals, some that glowed under black light; all kinds of mirrors and lenses, with various powers, diameters and curvatures; weather instruments like anemometers; and real military-surplus spy scopes and aviation devices. I LOVED the place.