Aim and Scope Before the wide availability of powerful and affordable computers, modeling covalent molecules and ionic structures by researchers was primarily with physical models. Such kits are still widely available primarily for students (see review of some major makers in refs.) but even in the educational role, software for many reasons is becoming more dominant.

Vintage modeling systems by a variety of makers are very collectable with some makers now long gone*. Such systems when sold e.g. on eBay or by auction houses do not always come with manuals and brochures. The author has a small collection of these older kits and has endeavoured to track down paper resources to accompany them. The systems below give links to download pdf copies of resources acquired or to links where they are available online.

* The definitive resource on these systems is Molecular and Crystal Structure Models by Anne Walton, pub. 1978 by Ellis Horwood Ltd., 201 pp. See Books below.

Initially, short summary tables of the kits are given but below but in due course it is hoped to devote pages to examples of model types that can be built with the author's comments on each kit's pros and cons. The BioBits model type described is suited for some smaller macromolecules. With enough pieces some of the other makes described are also suitable and dedicated kits are available to build a short length of DNA eg. the Orbit and Minit kits. See author's review of the Minit Proview DNA kit.

Note on dating. The exact date when a kit was first issued and its production run can be hard to determine unless the often hard to source maker's dated catalogues can be inspected. All the kits below were described in Anne Walton's definitive book published in 1978 and which is a primary reference for many of the design elements.

Images of the sets are clickable for larger versions.

 

Biobits

Maker / designer	Own example supplied by Philip Harris Biological Ltd. / Invented by Dr. Ivor Smith, Courtauld Institute of Biochemistry, UK (Walton, p.127 ff).
Type	Custom design to create macromolecular backbones of nucleic acids / proteins and can present tertiary structures.
Materials	Thick copper wire with coloured PVC collars with attachable colour coded purine and pyrimidine bases using 'poppet style heads'.
Presentation	Plastic box with compartments.
Scale	30 mm = 0.2 nm
Documents:	Models for Macromolecules, Nucleic Acids and Proteins by Ivor Smith, Margaret J. Smith and C. F. Doré. Forms Chapter 16 of Chromatographic and Electrophoretic Techniques, pub. W. Heinemann 1976, pp. 409 - 453. An extensive heavily illustrated chapter describing the potential of this model type. Supplied as a separate booklet with the kits. Link is to archive.org free to borrow book with an account. Biobits Nucleic Acid (BN) General Notes to Accompany all Kits. A five page typed A4 supplement was also included in my own purchased outfit.

 

Catalin Ionic

Maker / designer	Needs Plastics Ld, Middlesex, UK. The company still exists with a website and makes custom plastic items.
Type	Ionic
Materials	Catalin, a brand name for a phenol-formaldehyde plastic, see Wikipedia entry for 'Catalin'. Anions translucent, cations opaque. The drilled ions sit on vertical brass rods supported on horizontal brass bars mounted on a square plastic base. Cut to length plastic tubing separates ions on rods when required.
Presentation	Wooden box with compartments.
Scale	10 mm = 0.1 nm
Documents:	Catalin Visual Aids for Science (English and Russian versions*). Covers both the molecular and ionic model systems. (*Acknowledgement. Thank you to Bill an eBay UK seller ID 'chemistry63hg' now 'Neutrino Positive' who sold me my example. A fellow passionate collector of vintage models who loaned these original documents to scan from the second kit he possessed.)

 

Catalin Molecular

Maker / designer	Needs Plastics Ld, Middlesex, UK. The company still exists with a website and makes custom plastic items.
Type	Covalent, space filling
Materials	Catalin, a brand name for a phenol-formaldehyde plastic, see Wikipedia entry for 'Catalin'. Anions translucent, cations opaque.
Presentation	Wooden box with compartments.
Scale	10 mm = 0.1 nm
Documents:	Catalin Visual Aids for Science (English and Russian versions*). Covers both the molecular and ionic model systems. Catalin technical drawing of the atom designs. Large sheet split between two A4 scans (*Acknowledgement. Thank you to Bill an eBay UK seller ID 'chemistry63hg' now 'Neutrino Positive' who sold me my example. A fellow passionate collector of vintage models who loaned these original documents to scan from the second kit he possessed.)

 

Courtauld

Maker / Designer	Dr. G. S. Hartley of Courtaulds Ltd. / Supplied by Griffin & George Ltd., Wembley, Middlesex, UK. The latter a major laboratory supplier of the time.
Type	Covalent space filling
Materials	Plastic with proprietary brass links in rubber collars to fit into spring loaded mounts in the atoms.
Presentation	Wooden box with compartments.
Scale	0.8 inch (20.3 mm) = 0.1 nm
Documents:	Courtauld Atomic Models. My copy* of a later part colour edition. The Construction and Use of the New Courtauld Atomic Models. Dated 1966. 'I.S. 1096' 'S33-405/1-50'. Published by Griffin and George Ltd. The earlier original 1962 edition (right) in monochrome hosted by the Science History Institute Museum and Library, Philadelphia. Free to download as a pdf. Reduced page image from museum website, click image to visit the site. *Acknowledgement. My boxed set did not have a copy. An eBay seller 'gerharja-0' was selling a boxed outfit with two copies of the manual. He generously split a copy and sold separately to me.

 

Ealing CPK (Corey - Pauling - Koltun)

Maker / Designer	Ealing, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. / 'Sub-committee of the U.S National Institutes of Health' (Walton, p.41)
Type	Space filling
Materials	Hollow coloured plastic
Presentation	Compartmentalised box?
Scale	12.5 mm = 0.1 nm
	Kit images - (The author does not currently own an example of this set.)
Documents:	CPK Precision Molecular models and Kendrew Skeletal Models 1975-76. Extensive colour, heavily illustrated booklet on the system, 32 pages. See references on the Wikipedia 'Space-filling model' page to papers by the designers. Also see the Wikipedia 'CPK colouring' entry which describes the history of the now widely adopted colouring convention of elements.

 

Fisher-Hirschfeld-Taylor (FHT)

Maker / Designer	Fisher Scientific Co, USA. A long established from the 1880s laboratory supplier and of scientific apparatus. See the history on the company's current website.
Type	Space filling
Materials	Coloured hollow plastic atoms with 'press stud' style metal bond fastenings.
Presentation	Wooden box with compartments.
Scale	10 mm = 0.1 nm
Documents:	Two page scan pp. 840-841 from 'Fisher Scientific Co Catalogue 77', dated 1977? (Open access on www.archive.org.) Kit image above temporary from my recent eBay purchase pending receipt.

 

 

Gallenkamp

Maker / Designer	Gallenkamp, UK. A long established from the 1880s laboratory supplier and of scientific apparatus. See the history on the company's current website.
Type	Ball and spoke
Materials	Coloured plastic balls with drilled holes for multiple valencies. Steel spring bonds.
Presentation	Cabinet with drawers for largest set, plastic boxes for smaller sets (see catalogue scan below).
Scale	35 mm = 0.1 nm (to atom centres)
Documents:	Instructions. Molecular Models MV-800, 805 and 870. Issue 7. Undated ca. 1950s? 11 pages, 7 figs. Gallenkamp catalogue 16th edition, catalogue entry pp.534-535. (Open access on www.archive.org.)

 

Cochranes of Oxford. Orbit Open University

Maker / Designer	Cochranes of Oxford Ltd. Orbit remains a current model system but the OU version contents and booklet was aimed at the Open University courses around 2006.
Type	Skeletal
Materials	Plastic 'atom centres' with valence prongs, plastic straws of appropriate length, precut or cut to suit.
Presentation	Flat card box with plastic inlay of compartments.
Scale	3 cm = 0.1 nm
Documents:	Making molecular models with the Orbit model kit. The Open University: S205 The molecular world, S343 Inorganic chemistry, S344 Organic chemistry: a synthesis approach. Dated 2006, a six page illustrated booklet.

 

Sargent

Maker / Designer	E H Sargent & Co., Chicago. The company was established in 1852 with a long history in supplying laboratory and scientific equipment, after a merger in 1968 becoming the Sargent-Welch Scientific Company. The link is to the current Sargent-Welch website.
Type	Ball and spoke
Materials	Painted wooden balls with slotted wooden pegs and springs.
Presentation	Cardboard box with compartments.
Scale	C & N atoms 11⁄4 inch diameter, others 11⁄8 th inch diameter.
Documents:	Elementary exercises in use of Molecular Models. Undated 7 page illustrated booklet. The booklet notes that it was '"Derived from "Molecular Models in the Elementary Organic Laboratory" by Wallace R. Brode and Cecil E. Boord, Journal of Chemical Education, 9,1774, (1932).' (Open Access on the archive.org site.)

 

Books

Molecular and Crystal Structure Models by Anne Walton, pub. 1978 by Ellis Horwood Ltd., 201 pp.

This is the key resource on models by all the key makers, written in 1978 when physical models still dominated with wide access to computer modelling software some decades away. At the time of writing two copies are available on AbeBooks starting below £10. The passion of the writer for her subject shines through and a good read.

The publisher's note on the author is quoted as follows.
Dr. Anne Walton is Senior Lecturer in Chemistry at Westfield College, University of London. She joined the College initially in 1961 from the University of Aberdeen, where she had been Assistant in Chemistry. Dr. Walton gained her B.Sc. and Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Nottingham in 1957 and 1960 respectively.
Her pre-university career began in 1948, when she joined the Research Association, British Rubber Manufacturers as a laboratory assistant. From 1952 to 1954 she was laboratory assistant at Beckenham County Grammar School for Girls, Kent, simultaneously studying part-time at Croydon and Norwood Polytechnics for her university entrance qualifications.
The author is highly-esteemed in the field of molecular and crystal structure models, having lectured and demonstrated on models and their applications at the Universities of Loughborough, Nottingham, East Anglia and the University of London Institute of Education, and mounted full-scale exhibitions at Westfield College and at the University of Sheffield for The Chemical Society Autumn Meetings, 1976. James Gillison's cover design shows a guanine-cystosine base pair model.



The Architecture of Molecules by Linus Pauling and Roger Hayward, pub. 1964 by Freeman, 117pp.

An author who needs no introduction. A superb book aimed at the general audience celebrating the variety of chemical structures. Full page artwork by Hayward with opposite page text by Pauling. Copies currently available on AbeBooks starting below £10, also often eBay.

Sinnbild der Chemie, Microstructures of Chemistry, Les microstructures chimiques by Herbert W Franke, pub. 1967 by Basilius Presse AG, 148pp.

This is a splendid celebration of chemical structures with an extensive introduction in German followed by full page illustrations of structures using both physical and computer methods. The image captions are in English and French as well as German.

Phone app software such as Yandex Translate is very useful to translate to screen part pages to read quite comfortably. Two copies currently on AbeBooks from £23.

Other Micscape resources

I've attempted a review for five of the main molecular models systems presently available.
A comparative review of five brands of molecular model kits. With notes on the educational merits of kits in an age of software. - compares five current major brands (ChemKits, Minit, Molecular Visions (Darling Models), Molymod, Orbit) with 'Molecules in the News' in Spring 2017 supplement (heptacene, triangulene and a molecular machine (a molecular ratchet). PDFs Apr.17


Combining my interest in stamps some past articles present models of molecules from Nature both goodies and nasties. See Micscape Lite section.

Selection of online resources

Whipple Museum of the History of Science (Cambridge, UK) Types of Molecular Models. Describes the basic types with examples from their collection.

Wikipedia 'Molecular model' entry. A short history with discussion of types, Further Reading and links to online resources.

The History of Molecular Models link in the Wikipedia entry above is to an illustrated 2004 paper entitled 'Visualizing the Unseen' by W. Gerhard Pohl. This is a new reference to the author and a good read. (Link is to a Wayback Machine mirror, the conference website it was presented at no longer exists.)


History of Visualization of Biological Macromolecules by Eric Martz and Francoeur. Extensive website resource. Includes both physical and computer model approaches.

Comments to the author David Walker are welcomed.

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