How about a bit of chemistry? My Correlations colleague Chris Hardwick, one of Wired Science’s presenters, did another excellent demo on the show. This time he did it with chemistry teacher Chris Schrempp, who showed us how to make nitrocellulose in a few simple steps, using common cellulose sources such as the cotton balls in your bathroom cabinet. He does a nice job of explaining all the steps and the chemistry going on, and, of course, in the end there are rather lovely residue-free fireballs – just like the ones magicians do!
Enjoy!
-cvj
Gracias.
-cvj
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/islamistas/detenidos/Barcelona/tenian/nitrocelulosa/elpepiesp/20080123elpepinac_5/Tes
Wonderful video. By the way, you should be able to make biodiesel in your home without annoying the gov or getting any permits or whatever. You can get all the stuff you need at the local grocery store. Well, not here in Washington State because you would have to buy pure grain alcohol from the government liquor stores. The primary ingredients are an alcohol and an oil, say ethanol and corn oil, or methanol and used fryer oil, etc.
A friend of the family down in Albuquerque (which came to mind because that is where Bob Lazar is based) had a good job at a bank some years ago. Somehow, against all advice to the contrary, he picked up the unusual hobby of making and testing pipe bombs out on the (unpopulated desert) mesas. Eventually the Albuquerque police found about this and arrested his nasty self.
The police confiscated all his stuff and put it in their evidence locker underneath the police station. Then they thought about it a little more carefully and evacuated the building until it could be moved somewhere safe. The Feds were brought in. This was years ago, long before the WTC attacks. He got off with probation largely due to the fact that it was not directed at harming anyone, but was just another really unsafe hobby. He wasn’t a political misfit or anarchist or anything. And miraculuously he kept his job even though it was on the front page of the local papers. A good chemistry set would have been a step in the right direction from all that.
pedant:- Exactly. In fact, in their very first show, Wired Science had a lovely piece on the loss of the chemistry set’s appeal due to safety and liability concerns. I recommend it. The piece is here. Some of the stuff is a bit dangerous, yes, and clearly there needs to be a balance (as this video shows), but it is clear that we’re far from the balance now. (Try to ignore Bob Lazar’s other history, and focus on the issue at hand. His UFO stuff is not relevant to the issue and the piece is not all about him anyway.)
Let me see if I can embed video in comments:
-cvj
Now that’s chemistry like it was years ago – flashes and bangs and theater. A splendid book from that time – F Sherwood Taylor’s ‘The Young Chemist’, which held me entranced when I was eight or so – gave instructions for making nitro-cellulose from saw dust and nitric acid. It was also suggested that the neophyte knocked out his or her own nitric acid, as this would yield a reagent ‘stronger and more effective in experiments than anything you can buy’. All this and more in a book ‘vetted’ by the Home Office and passed as quite safe. Times have changed; science was more popular in schools in those days as I recall. Swings and roundabouts I suppose. When it came to bangs, of course, nitrogen tri-iodide was the compound of choice: no residue or flash but a deafening crack and a most spectacular purple haze. Magic.
Alejandro, I can only suppose that Hardwick and Schrempp obtained the proper permits beforehand.
Or maybe not, given that it was clear that they were also in extreme violation of OSHA standards for human protection during the manipulation of fuming nitric acid, etc… Like, where was the fume hood dude? And what would have happened if someone dropped something?
You can get away with this sort of thing once or twice, but if a lot of people do it everry day it will result in great carnage. OSHA standards are there to protect people when crap goes wrong; it’s not just a bunch of silly regulations intended on making trouble for capitalism.
Yup, it is probably illegal in most of the civilized countries. So lets congratulate
Hardwick and Schrempp by taking the courage.
It is also enthusiastically described in Jules Verne’s Mistery Island. So yes, it is for kids. Ot it was, in the previous century.
Also known as gun cotton, this is similar to nitro glycerine. I guess I’m not entirely certain that this is a good show for kids. Manufacturing fireworks without a BATF license is very very illegal.
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