'Inventors, tinkerers and mad-scientist types, that's really our core constituency' Fireworks watching pads? Philip Cable buys a lot of stuff people don't want, to sell to people who do

If you are trying to find a gift for the person who haseverything, Philip Cable might be able to help. Because, odds are,even the person who has everything doesn't have his own radiationmeter or military-issue body bag or mining helmet or suture removalkit or roll of yellow crime scene tape.

Philip Cable has all of these things. And they are all for sale,right alongside the bonsai potato kit, the Jell-O molds for everyletter of the alphabet and the build-your-own "Visible Cow" plasticmodel kit. Cable runs American Science & Surplus, a Niles-basedretailer of, well, odd stuff. With stores in Chicago, Geneva andMilwaukee, plus a monthly catalog and a Web site …