Dr. Lippert: You made me chuckle this morning! Just this week I was describing my junior year in college to someone--which was as recent as 1983. In spring semester, I took genetics, where we anesthetized fruit flies with diethyl ether (liberally--our etherizer was a funnel with a cork containing a nail wrapped in rope. We soaked the rope with ether, and shoved the apparatus into the bottle). I also took microbiology, where we disinfected the countertop by pouring mercuric chloride solution on the table, and organic chemistry (with all the lovely extraction solvents). Compound all that with the fact that I was 20 years old and in college, it's amazing I have any functional liver tissue left! Edward J. McGrath Science Supervisor Red Clay Consolidated School District ________________________________ From: DCHAS-L Discussion List on behalf of Secretary, ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety Sent: Sat 5/21/2011 10:59 AM To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU Subject: [DCHAS-L] Oxidizing Agents From: Ernest LippertSubject: Oxidizing Agents Date: May 20, 2011 8:45:04 PM EDT In view if the discussions of super-oxidizing agents (hydrogen peroxide and sulphuric acid), I thought I should confess how I made permanganic acid many years ago, about 1943 when I was 12 years of age. That was back when you could buy any number of compounds from the local drugstore outside the Gilbert Chemistry Sets, especially when one's father gave a blanket OK. What a change from today! I don't recall where I learned about permanganic acid but it apparently came with some caveats about safety: Place no more than four crystals of potassium permanganate in a test tube and carefully add at arm's length two drops of concentrated sulphuric acid. There was an initial (explosion?) release of a puff of manganese oxides. A glass rod dipped into the remaining residue would ignite paper. I was also adept in making nitrogen tri-iodide, black gunpowder, and nitrocellulose. I was smart enough to not try to nitrate glycerin. In college as a research assignment, I studied mercuric basic bromate, a very shock sensitive compound. Later on I worked with magnesium in liquid ammonia. As I look back on my youth, I am surprised that I survived. Perhaps it was because very early on I learned through my father's tutelage how important it was to exercise care and forethought before you acted. Regards, Ernie Lippert
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