26 episodes, 1957, KQED (San Francisco)
From WNET:
"'Tempest in a Test Tube' is a series of experiments in elementary chemistry. One hundred years ago, Michael Faraday, a famous British scientist, delivered a series of talks known as “Juvenile Lectures” to the teenagers of his day. A brilliant experimentalist, Faraday loved science and studied it all his life. He felt that the future science lay in the youth and he sought to share his interest with them. His talks were tremendously popular and were attended by even the children of the British Royal Family.
“Tempest in a Test Tube” is planned to carry on the tradition of Michael Faraday. The first 13 programs show that, in general, what Faraday illustrated a hundred years ago still holds true. Although this is a complex technical age with television, jet planes, atomic submarines and hydrogen bombs, the laws of science remain basic. The underlying aim of the series is to awaken an interest in chemistry and the allied sciences on the part of today’s teenager – particularly the junior high school student. The format of the programs is simple and direct: lively and colorful experiments (as many as seven per half hour) with an informal explanation of the principles involved. Continuity and the experiments were developed by a committee from the American Chemical Society."