Don't drop a mercury barometer in Tunbridge Wells!

[Horsetan]

Thank you for your support, I shall always wear it.

I thank you from the bottom of my bottom.

[Enterprisingwestern]

I thank you from the bottom of my bottom.

 

And I thank you from the heart of my bottom.

 

Mike.

[Welly]

When my Dad was a grammar schoolboy in the late 1950s he and a mate used to buy all kinds of substances from a specialist shop (yes, in those days it was possible to get stuff that are banned from general sale today) and make home made rockets, fireworks and explosives in the wash-house at home! They had a number of lucky escapes but they both developed a lifelong interest in science and technology - in fact my Dad's old friend went on to a very highly distinguished academic career where he is working on a real life invisibility cloak!

 

Oh, I once found a bottle in the garage, a polyethelene bottle that used to contain hydrofluoric acid!!!! 

[jamesg]

There was a teacher at my school who applied health and safety rules to the pupils but not himself.  He would play with beakers of mercury while the class stood at a safe distance and wore goggles.  This was only ten or so years ago as well.

[Tony_S]

...Oh, I once found a bottle in the garage, a polyethelene bottle that used to contain hydrofluoric acid!!!! 

One of the chemistry professors at the University I attended had been involved during WW2 with experiments involving fluorine. As this reacts with almost everything as the junior person on the team he was given the job of transporting samples across London. He said not too many people have been involved in the total loss of a London Taxi ...

[PhilJ W]

Myth busters 'proved' that the exploding toilet didn't happen but I know that it did. They should have tried acetyline gas. My father told me this. His cousins lived in a house where the outside loo was shared between several families. One of those families was of the local tough. Every Sunday morning he used to go into the loo with his Sporting Life and his packet of 5 Woodbines. If he found anyone occupying the loo he would throw them out irrespective of age or sex. This of course upset the other residents but they were frightened of his threats of violence. One of their mates suggested putting a carbide tablet down the loo just before the target entered the loo. On the next Sunday one kept watch and signaled the other inside the loo with the carbide tablets. Problem was when the time came the one inside the loo fumbled it and instead of one tablet going into the loo about a dozen went in and they just about escaped before their victim arrived. They waited about ten minutes and then there was a large explosion, the roof and door of the toilet were blown off and the occupant was found laying face down with the skin of his backside burnt.

[trisonic]

I was watching a Canadian program on the box the other day about the restoration of a Ducatti Aerolithe. The bodywork was magnesium - and they had to weld it......  They now realize why large parts of the bodywork were originally  riveted. See: http://autoweek.com/article/car-life/1935-bugatti-aerolithe-re-creation-completed-lost-magnesium-bodied-coupe-replicated

 

 

Best, Pete.

[Tiffy]

My chemistry teacher Mr. Thatcher - known and loved as Tom Scratcher, looked a lot like David Kossof, who did quite a few religious programmes on the TV at the time (1960s).

 

He would permit the chemistry club members at my Grammar school, to carry out any experiment - as long as you were prepared to write it up, including the stoichiometric equations.

 

I can well remember producing gun cotton using aqua-regia and cellulose bandages. The strips produced were actually dried on the chemistry lab radiators! and then we sent them up into the sky, attached to a balloon full of town gas - which was lighter than air, with a slow burning fuse.

 

Town gas did not have the necessary pressure to inflate a balloon, and so Tom had produced a Y-shaped invention, with a football bladder on one leg, and a tap. The tube was fitted to the gas tap, and the gas turned on. The bladder inflated, and then gas was turned off. A valve in the second leg was opened, and then manual pressure on the full bladder, forced the gas into the other leg and inflated the balloon.

Once the fuse was lit, the balloon was released and soared skyward, and after a certain period of time, the fuse would ignite the gun-cotton, which would flash off, burn the balloon and ignite the gas, giving a very satisfactory gout of yellow flame, and puff of black smoke - Happy Days

[PhilJ W]

I was watching a Canadian program on the box the other day about the restoration of a Ducatti Aerolithe. The bodywork was magnesium - and they had to weld it......  They now realize why large parts of the bodywork were originally  riveted. See: http://autoweek.com/article/car-life/1935-bugatti-aerolithe-re-creation-completed-lost-magnesium-bodied-coupe-replicated

 

 

Best, Pete.

A lot of German aircraft flown during the Battle of Britain were built of magnesium alloy. Not a very good idea for warplanes as it turned out, the Me 110 was one of these aircraft and was soon withdrawn from the front line.

[Coryton]

A lot of German aircraft flown during the Battle of Britain were built of magnesium alloy. Not a very good idea for warplanes as it turned out, the Me 110 was one of these aircraft and was soon withdrawn from the front line.

 

Lovely stuff magnesium - doesn't react well to attempts to put out a fire with water.

 

I used to machine it occasionally - you had to fetch a powder fire extinguisher and have it close to hand before you started.

 

This has just brought back another happy memory, of the person who used to machine radioactive substances in the same workshop. It was theoretically OK because it was in a little box that was kept under negative pressure. However when he came in most people suddenly realised they had somewhere else they urgently needed to be and their machining could wait until later.

[bertiedog]

I was watching a Canadian program on the box the other day about the restoration of a Ducatti Aerolithe. The bodywork was magnesium - and they had to weld it......  They now realize why large parts of the bodywork were originally  riveted. See: http://autoweek.com/article/car-life/1935-bugatti-aerolithe-re-creation-completed-lost-magnesium-bodied-coupe-replicated

 

 

Best, Pete.

The metal used was an alloy of aluminium, copper and magnesium,(plus minor additions like nickel), and difficult to burn, but if if reached burn point, impossible to stop. Pure magnesium would never have been used. The metal was developed for Zeppelin Airship structures, saving weight, but retaining good strength. Virtually the same metal composition was used in the 24 hour Mercedes that crashed so disastrously at Le Man, in the 1950's.

The "restoration" off the Bugatti Aerolithe, was one of the most costly ever done, some controversy still exists as to how a restoration can be classed as a real Bugatti, as little even came from the same cars. They qualified by the skin of their teeth and do class it now as a real Aerolithe, just!

 

Stephen

[bertiedog]

My chemistry teacher Mr. Thatcher - known and loved as Tom Scratcher, looked a lot like David Kossof, who did quite a few religious programmes on the TV at the time (1960s).

 

He would permit the chemistry club members at my Grammar school, to carry out any experiment - as long as you were prepared to write it up, including the stoichiometric equations.

 

 

Just trying to imagine David Kossoff in his best gentle educated East London cockney voice, delivering a lecture on Chemistry smiling gently as he mixed poisons and made explosives!

[PhilJ W]

A lot of German aircraft flown during the Battle of Britain were built of magnesium alloy. Not a very good idea for warplanes as it turned out, the Me 110 was one of these aircraft and was soon withdrawn from the front line.

During the 70's and 80's when a lot of BoB aircraft crashes were excavated they found that many German aircraft were reduced to a white powder due to the magnesium reacting to substances in the soil. These were often refered to as 'Daz mines' after the washing powder.

[Horsetan]

My chemistry teacher Mr. Thatcher - known and loved as Tom Scratcher, looked a lot like David Kossof, who did quite a few religious programmes on the TV at the time (1960s).....

 

David Kossoff came to my school to do a talk on his son Paul and the evils of drugs. It was the first time I'd heard of the rock band "Free".

[Fat Controller]

One of the chemistry professors at the University I attended had been involved during WW2 with experiments involving fluorine. As this reacts with almost everything as the junior person on the team he was given the job of transporting samples across London. He said not too many people have been involved in the total loss of a London Taxi ...

In the mid-1970s, there was an accident on the M5 near Avonmouth; a road tanker carrying hydroflouric acid deposited its load over the car behind, with fatal consequences. Someone had used a trailer with glass-lined tank and valves, instead of the correct stainless one.

[Coryton]

In the mid-1970s, there was an accident on the M5 near Avonmouth; a road tanker carrying hydroflouric acid deposited its load over the car behind, with fatal consequences. Someone had used a trailer with glass-lined tank and valves, instead of the correct stainless one.

 

Very nasty stuff.

 

Some years ago I came into the lab I worked in at the time to find someone (who didn't officially work in that lab) sitting at a bench using hydroflouric acid. As if that wasn't bad enough, he was wearing shorts and his legs wouldn't go under the bench because there were cupboards underneath.

 

The scary thing was that he did know what would have happened if he'd got it on himself.

 

I made it clear he could do that if he wanted but not in my lab.

 

This was a while ago and things have moved on. The safety gear required to handle hydroflouric acid these days is a little on the cumbersome side (and the thick gloves make it much more likely that you will spill it).

[jamie92208]

Very nasty stuff.

 

Some years ago I came into the lab I worked in at the time to find someone (who didn't officially work in that lab) sitting at a bench using hydroflouric acid. As if that wasn't bad enough, he was wearing shorts and his legs wouldn't go under the bench because there were cupboards underneath.

 

The scary thing was that he did know what would have happened if he'd got it on himself.

 

I made it clear he could do that if he wanted but not in my lab.

 

This was a while ago and things have moved on. The safety gear required to handle hydroflouric acid these days is a little on the cumbersome side (and the thick gloves make it much more likely that you will spill it).

 

Yes Hydroflouric acid is very nasty stuff particularly to us humans as IIRC it attacks the hydrogen bonds that hold a lot of our parts together. In the 70's it used to get produced when cars got burned out due, I think, to the decomposition of electrical wiring insulation. Apparently it used to pool after the fire service had put the fire out. We got some very severe warning about going near such wrecks.

 

Jamie

[Coryton]

Yes Hydroflouric acid is very nasty stuff particularly to us humans as IIRC it attacks the hydrogen bonds that hold a lot of our parts together. In the 70's it used to get produced when cars got burned out due, I think, to the decomposition of electrical wiring insulation. Apparently it used to pool after the fire service had put the fire out. We got some very severe warning about going near such wrecks.

 

Jamie

 

Very nasty stuff. Corrosive burns to the surface of the skin from the hydrogen, meanwhile the fluorine sinks in and can cause deep chemical burns and start eating your bones away - slowly enough that you don't realise at first how serious it is.

 

And it can then start travelling round the body messing with calcium balance, which messes up heart regulation. Not nice.

 

To go back to how this topic started, I'd rather dip my fingers in a pool of mercury any day.

 

Or a bucket of liquid nitrogen. In fact that one is rather fun (and fairly safe despite being at -196 C), so long as you don't leave them in there too long.

[Joseph_Pestell]

During the 70's and 80's when a lot of BoB aircraft crashes were excavated they found that many German aircraft were reduced to a white powder due to the magnesium reacting to substances in the soil. These were often refered to as 'Daz mines' after the washing powder.

Must have been made of the same stuff as a Hornby 31.

[57xx]

Is it me, or what?

Nope, definitely not just you.

 

I also suspect that more than a few of us are still walking around with mercury fillings in our teeth...

Me included. Last time I visited a dentist he wanted to drill out my amalgam fillings and replace them with the new white ones. Couldn't quite see how filling my mouth with amalgam dust is any safer than having had them in for 40 odd years.

 

Someone I was at school with managed to 'acquire' one of those elements that are stored in oil due to their reaction with air/ water (potassium?) 

 

Could have been, also could have been sodium. One of teachers who taught physics and chemistry was quite eccentric. To demo gravity he would whirl a bunsen burner around his head by the hose. One kid asked "What if it comes off the hose, Sir?" His response was "Duck!" (as we had to when he hurled the chalk board cleaner at your head when you were talking). Anyhoo, to the point - he liked to demo the reaction of sodium with water. This meant we all had to troop outside the science labs to where a dustbin full of water was waiting. A sizable chunk of sodium was then casually thrown into the bin and he would stroll away whilst we all crowded round to investigate. The best demo ended in the sodium flying out of the bin, narrowly missing our heads and smacking into the biology classroom window.

 

H&S is killing life experience.

[4630]

.

[Coryton]

H&S is killing life experience.

 

Things have certainly changed.

 

About 25 years ago I had a summer job in a university.

 

A group of us had to make a cosmic ray detector for a museum exhibit.

 

Great fun - two of us were taught glass-blowing and made a set of glass tubes.

 

I was responsible for the high voltage side of things.

 

I was given a 2.5 kV power supply and some components and let loose.

 

There was health and safety in those days - I was told to keep one hand in my pocket so that if I got a shock it wouldn't be across the heart.

 

Unimaginable now, though once we built it they decided it was a bit too lethal to actually put in a museum and it ended up on top of a cupboard. 

 

We did get it working though and it was great fun.

 

I'm not sure what's more scary - the thought of what could have gone wrong, or the fact that it's now 25 years ago...

[jamie92208]

Another memory of school chemistry is the little garden that was outside the lab and in it were a couple of brambles that produced the most luscious blackberries which we used to pick and eat. In the 6th form we discovered that the garden was where flasks of all sorts were emptied including cyanide compounds. No one appeared to suffer any dire consequences.

 

Jamie

[Horsetan]

....H&S is killing life experience.

 

There, that's better.

[bertiedog]

For many years the Science Museum in London had a high power mercury rectifier unit running as an exhibit on the first floor, it supplied power to other galleries, and a un-healthy amount of low level radiation! (and UV light via the extra windows so thoughtfully fitted to show the innards).

 

Downstairs they had a high voltage Cockcroft generator, it took several years before a decent Faraday cage was added to stop the EMF pulses doing similar things to the rectifier, even then it took ages to realise it was still dangerous, not to visitors but to the staff.

 

It of course came from the days when any decent British high street shoe retailer would use the shops foot Xray machine to check the fit of the latest purchases. Again individuals were reasonably safe, but what about the staff!!!

 

The GPO Phone Company, before BT, had the Trim phone, the 1960's modern designed phone of the future, complete with a tritium gas powered radioactive illuminated dial!!! The radiation was low level and safe,..... if the phone remained un-broken, and they forgot disposal of the broken or used ones entirely. Harwell Nuclear research station had to take them for disposal, and got fined for storing thousands in a skip at Harwell, as they had not thought of a way to dispose of them in an acceptable manner before production or distribution was started by the GPO.

 

Or Hollywood, where Asbestos was used on set as snow, it looked better on film than shredded paper etc., and lasted well for further re-use..... after which they simply mixed it in with plaster for set building, which were later burnt or torn down to dust..........

 

Stephen