Estes made Black Powder

[techrat]

That is something our society had lost but is slowly getting back with the emergence of the “maker” movement.

I find that amateur radio hasn't lost that culture. Older hams, at least, still build radios out of junk they find laying around. You can still make a "crystal" radio with almost literally nothing except bits people throw away. You don't even need a diode, you can use a razor blade and pencil graphite to act as the detector.