1281371269 - 25-5-2009 at 16:16
I recently aquired some various chemicals from my Uncle's old chemistry kit. They had been in a loft for about 40 years so I thought that perhaps some
would be interesting (from a pre-restriction time 
)
As it happens none of them are all that exciting. There's some Pottasium Chromate and some Pottasium Iodate, the rest are pretty everyday easily
obtainable.
There's one thing I can't identify though. It was in a test tube saying methyl orange (I thought woop, some indicator!) but it clearly isn't. The
smell is like dettol / disinfectanty - possibly the iodine stuff used in hospitals? The smell was VERY strong - it made me feel a bit dizzy (though
that could also be mind over body - mysterious substance and so on).
It is a black solid at the bottom of the tube, black liquid at the top (in the picture).
On mixture with a small amount of Sulphuric Acid:
Evolution of grey / white fumes observed.
Mildly Exothermic
At first a black layer sits on top of the acid
Upon shaking the two mix into a blackish solution (possibly affected by the purple dye in the acid)
Any idea of what this could be? My uncle only had access to basic lab equipment (an asbestos lined lab 
) and basic chemicals, so it's probably something really dull like dettol in methyl orange....
Many thanks for any help.