Before there was Mr. Wizard or Bill Nye the Science Guy, there was the Fairyland of Chemistry – a late-19th century children’s book in which fairies (as the elements) dance around and join hands to make hydrochloric acid and other compounds. On this episode of Distillations we explain how educators used these fairy tale images to teach chemistry. And we present our first ever podcast play – a dramatic reading of part of the book.

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Image from Real Fairy Folks: Explorations in the World of Atoms, by Lucy Rider Meyer, 1887. Courtesy of CHF’s collections.