Hi John, All, Just as exciting for those present - but not as large an audience. 1968-69 in the Chem. Lab, the teacher decided to show that hydrogen was given off when sodium reacts with water.
So water trough was filled, beehive inserted under the water, and gas jar filled to the top and closed off with a cover-slip. Gas jar inverted into trough and cover slip removed. Sodium neatly cut and the big bit put back into jar under naphtha. Small bit of sodium was taken in tongs and nested under the beehive. Unhappily it did not stay there (probably stuck to the tongs. So Teach tipped the gas jar over to scrape off the sodium on the edge of the gas jar. We all know what happened... in went air... and the sodium. Gradually the gas jar filled with hydrogen - then an almighty bang! The lab benches were showered with water from the gas jar and trough. Some lucky students had minute pieces of sodium dancing on the puddles of water and causing the varnished surface of the bench to be stained purple. I was the lab assistant - I had to clear up the mess. Happy days. Sometime I will recount the making of urea-formaldehyde plastic and the way you should not make nitro-glycerine; and its disposal onto the headmasters car! Regards Tim SELEX Galileo Ltd Registered Office: Sigma House, Christopher Martin Road, Basildon, Essex SS14 3EL A company registered in England & Wales. Company no. 02426132 ******************************************************************** This email and any attachments are confidential to the intended recipient and may also be privileged. If you are not the intended recipient please delete it from your system and notify the sender. You should not copy it or use it for any purpose nor disclose or distribute its contents to any other person. ******************************************************************** - This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <[email protected]> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc Graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. can be posted to that URL. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <[email protected]> Mike Cantwell <[email protected]> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: <[email protected]> David Heald: <[email protected]>
