On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 16:40:49 +0100 someone who may be "Dave
Larrington" <[email hidden]> wrote this:-
Quoted message said:One chemistry teacher wot I had decided to demonstrate the reaction between
sodium (or was it potassium?) and water, by chucking a large lump of the
former into a glass wossname of the latter. The resultant explosion would
have done the gas board proud, though happily no-one was injured.
You ought to try potassium and liquid bromine [1].
I can still remember the bright flash, loud bang and white smoke
covering most of the laboratory. Somewhat stunned I recall breathing
out the white smoke and our excellent chemistry teacher appearing
through the smoke, wafting it away as he approached. He was
impressed that I was still holding the gas jar in which I had
undertaken this activity and said it was the best explosion he had
seen since the one he caused at college.
I gather school chemistry has now been largely destroyed by
excessive "safety". It is only by making mistakes that one learns.
Hopefully the mistakes will not be as big as the one I made, but
that possibility will exist. Nobody was killed or injured, though on
occasions the teachers did have to react to dangerous occurrences of
various sorts.
There was an element of danger in the explosion, to myself and
others. Whether this danger was greater than the many other dangers
in the school is debatable. Had I done it deliberately it would have
been a very stupid thing to do. However in the chemistry club I
suspect we were individually sussed out by the teachers. People had
to do their own research and then present what they proposed to do
for approval. Some people were allowed to make small quantities of
explosives, sadly they did not explode when tested (probably
impure). This did not prevent things going wrong, but spectacular
events like the explosion I caused were rare.
[1] not something I did deliberately by the way, my survival
instinct is too finely honed. I was unaware that some liquid
remained in the bottom of the gas jar.
--
David Hansen, Edinburgh | PGP email preferred-key number F566DA0E
I will always explain revoked keys, unless the UK government
prevents me by using the RIP Act 2000.
