Thursday, September 16, 2010

The Lab Is Open. BOOM!!!!

I was fascinated with science from my earliest memories. I cannot remember as a child not wanting to be a scientist until I decided to become an exotic animal veterinarian (Zoo vet)(at age 9) and then a Vascular Surgeon(at age 15). The gateway drug for my jones on science was either a Gilbert or Porter Chemistry set, I've had both over the years and cannot remember which one was first. They were "safe" and "Tested" as you can see on the cover. Well I did everything to prove it was not safe and that they didn't test everything you could do with the enclosed chemicals. Even blow things up.

Our house had a finished basement that we used for entertaining. My sister had her friends over there. I played toy soldier with Joel Schiffenbauer down there. We had family gatherings down there when the first floor wasn't large enough. There was a laundry room about 20 foot by 15 foot that my mother told me to do all the science in. I eventually expanded to the entire basement after my sister Barbara got married when I was twelve. I was the talk of the neighborhood and all my cousins were afraid to go into the laundry room and later the entire basement.

I suspect that if you only did the experiments that were in the book that came with the chemistry set it was probably tested and thus safe. However, that was not fun. Plus there were lots of other chemicals around the house that made good reactions. Take Clorox (hypochloric acid) and mix it with Ammonia and you get a yellow gas that is heavier then air(very toxic chlorine gas) and hypochlorous acid . which I found burns a hole through the table, the tile on the floor under the table and an inch or two into the cement foundation of the house. I was lucky I only had a cough for a couple weeks. I do have since then chronic sinusitis and have always wondered if I caused it myself. The price we pay for our science.

I saw in the set a bottle that had a dull silver metal in oil. The label said magnesium and a warning to keep away from water. The instructions in the book said to take a small piece and place on metal pan and light with a match. It was an impressive very bright white light. I saw spots in front of my eyes for hours. I had to see what happened when you added water to the magnesium. Well that weekend my mother had to buy a new table to replace the one I was using. I understand they have taken a lot of the chemicals that came in my sets out.



This Blog Snippets of my life, is going to be a daily blog for at least one year. I will tell stories about me that I hope you find interesting. If you like them please do two things: click to become a follower; and post on your Facebook page or twitter them. I hope to have 10,000 followers by years end. Some stories will be very personal. I will try to remember the correct names of those involved, however, I have a terrible memory for names and some names will be completely fictitious. The stories however are completely truthful as far as I can remember. Hope you enjoy.

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