The WiZard is In
International Hazard
Posts: 1617
Registered: 3-4-2010
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
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Uncle Tungsten and the Cryptic Creature that crept into the crypt and crapped.
Time to visit it my nephews last weekend… so I assumed my Uncle
Tungsten persona. The nephews are old enough to now appreciate
some chemical legerdemain. Dehydrating table sugar with conc
sulphuric acid is still a crowd pleaser. My ammonium dichromate
volcano held their attention. They were wow’d by the old standby
— zink and sulphur. I have found that if you use an excess of zink
after the initial WOOOFFF the un-reacted zink will slowly burn with
a pleasing light blue/green flame - producing an appealing amount
of white smoke. Burning magnesium ribbon and powder got their
juices flowing. My carbon arc captured their attention. Bought
some (copper coated) carbon arc welding rods I attached
them to one (of the three I own) 12V 45A transformers. The rods
were supported by two pieces of transite attached to scrap wood
uprights screwed to plywood. To keep it simple I just brought the
rods together with gloved hands. If they ever come here I can use
my 250A motor driven welder and really output the lumens.
Wood’s metal - melting in hot water although not kinetic – held
their interest.
Next time it one of my favorites – a Chemical Garden.
Mercury metal. Mercury/silver nitrate/ Ye old silver tree. Spirit
of America titanium sparklers. These have to be seen to be
believed! And others.
From Amazon.com
Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood
Oliver Sacks
Sacks, a neurologist perhaps best known for his books Awakenings
(which became a Robin Williams/Robert De Niro vehicle) and The
Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, invokes his childhood in
wartime England and his early scientific fascination with light,
matter and energy as a mystic might invoke the transformative
symbolism of metals and salts. The "Uncle Tungsten" of the book's
title is Sacks's Uncle Dave, who manufactured light bulbs with
filaments of fine tungsten wire, and who first initiated Sacks into
the mysteries of metals. The author of this illuminating and
poignant memoir describes his four tortuous years at boarding
school during the war, where he was sent to escape the bombings,
and his profound inquisitiveness cultivated by living in a household
steeped in learning, religion and politics (both his parents were
doctors and his aunts were ardent Zionists). But as Sacks writes,
the family influence extended well beyond the home, to include the
groundbreaking chemists and physicists whom he describes as
"honorary ancestors, people to whom, in fantasy, I had a sort of
connection." professional life. For Sacks, the onset of puberty
coincided with his discovery of biology, his departure from his
childhood love of chemistry and, at age 14, a new understanding
that he would become a doctor. Many readers and patients are
happy with that decision.
[Edited on 28-4-2011 by The WiZard is In]
[Edited on 28-4-2011 by The WiZard is In]
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The WiZard is In
International Hazard
Posts: 1617
Registered: 3-4-2010
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
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Cryptic Creature Crap
A little Reductionist chemistry —
Sucrose 12C(H2O)11 + Conc. H2SO4 --> 12 C + H2SO4-11H2O
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Bot0nist
International Hazard
Posts: 1559
Registered: 15-2-2011
Location: Right behind you.
Member Is Offline
Mood: Streching my cotyledons.
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I brought in some KClO<sub>3</sub> and sugar mix to work (1g total) and started it with a drip of
H<sub>2</sub>SO<sub>4</sub> to my co-workers enjoyment on break today. It also left a carbony crap.
[Edited on 30-4-2011 by Bot0nist]
U.T.F.S.E. and learn the joys of autodidacticism!
Don't judge each day only by the harvest you reap, but also by the seeds you sow.
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MadHatter
International Hazard
Posts: 1332
Registered: 9-7-2004
Location: Maine
Member Is Offline
Mood: Enjoying retirement
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GOOD FOR YOU !
I have 5 nephews and 8 nieces. They've always liked my pyrotechnic delights. Now, I
have 2 great-nephews and 5 great-nieces. Providing I live long enough, I'll demonstrate the
mysteries of fire to them also.
My former boss, who passed away recently, used to have cookouts at his home for the
staff and families on some holidays. He, like myself, was a fireworks lover. We wouldn't
let the young ones handle anything that explodes, shoots, or flies but they enjoyed the
sparklers, especially the cracklers. The kids enjoyed watching the other stuff though. The
homemade stuff, like the ammonium dichromate volcano, was also entertaining. The kids
know me as the fireworks guy !
From opening of NCIS New Orleans - It goes a BOOM ! BOOM ! BOOM ! MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA !
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