Campus police subsequently reminded students to "keep your experiments in the lab."
*****
Speaking of Junior's First Chemistry Set, my parents gave me one for Christmas, must've been my 8th or 9th Christmas. Within 24 hours I had developed the Mother of All Stink Bombs and was promptly forbidden to play with my new set inside ever again.
That "someone" should not be hard to find, they're the one with burns....
ReplyDeleteIdjit was probably cooking nitro-sugar; potassium nitrate and sugar melted together is a very old amateur propellent. Poor performance, lousy specific impulse, but dirt cheap and easy to get ingredients. Sounds like a typically uneducated twenty year old mistake. Back in the day, this was old hat to kids half that age -and no, we didn't blow up the kitchen, either- we did stuff like this outside where it wouldn't be a disaster.
ReplyDeleteSlacker. I was cooking that stuff when I was 12. Part of a book "Chemical Magic". Owning that book probably would put me on several watch lists today.
DeleteI would not rate the specific impulse “lousy.” It is better than most inexpensive propellants.
DeleteOh, rocket scientist, eh?
ReplyDeleteThese amateur pyromaniacs were born too late -
ReplyDeletehttps://gajitz.com/1950s-radioactive-science-kit-most-dangerous-toy-ever/
I had one. Never blew up anything (with THAT kit). and the glow faded out by the time I was in high school
DeleteDouble boiler, electric hot plate OUTSIDE boys. This ain't rocket science... Oh, wait.
ReplyDeleteRecycled hdpe (milk jugs) and nitrous oxide make an absolutely wonderful propellant. Extremely stable and the byproduct is water vapor. Need a very hot ignitor though.
ReplyDeleteI got my Gilbert chemistry set when I was in 8th grade. I had years of fun creating explosives, rocket fuel and Thermite.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of the time my sister's doem had to be evacuated because of extremely spicy Asian food made in the basement communal kitchen...
ReplyDeleteHere's a fun read for those into rocket fuels : https://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/ignition.pdf
ReplyDeleteAwww... my Junior Chem-O-Kit didn't come with trimethylaluminum nor chlorine trifluoride!
Delete(Though I did make red fuming nitric acid when I was in junior high school.)
Today's kits it's a wonder you can do anything with them other than paint a fingernail. I fully expected today's kits to tell you, as compared to let you try anything that might resemble an 'experiment'. I know there's still a dresser at mom's house I modified with the thermite and solid potassium that I'd left out of the oil it came in.
ReplyDeleteHad a friend who'd heat railroad flares in water on the stove some 55 years ago and skim off the nitroglycerin they contained. Amusing escapades ensued.
ReplyDeleteI had one of these stupid Gilbert chemistry sets when I was a kid.
ReplyDeleteI learned a couple of things:
1. Sulfur really stinks when you burn it.
2. Phenylthaline is very useful for detecting blood spatter if used with UV light.
Absolutely worthless crap.
Phenylalanine will also give you the runs for a week. One of the best mixes is calcium carbide and water.
ReplyDeleteAh, youth.....
ReplyDelete