From sci.chem Mon Nov 25 14:53:16 1996

Ok, here's a couple stories, none of them are that spectacular (probably 
because I am _way_ too careful in the lab nowadays), but they are 
interesting.

Story 1:
	Back in my high school days, I was a senior in AP chemistry.  
Well, one experiment we were doing required running several titrations 
with something like .1 M H2SO4.  The first went off with out a hitch.  
Now, the .1 M H2SO4 was stored in several large containers (standard 
chemical container bottles) in the "back" (irrelevent where they were 
really) of the lab.  On the first titration round, I went back to the 
bottles and looked at all the labels and they all said .1 M H2SO4, so I 
got my acid and went continued with the experiment.  The next titration 
round, I went back to get some more H2SO4.  Apparently, I didn't read the 
labels on the bottles (since I read them earlier and there were still 
three (seemingly the same) bottles there.  So, I had about 500mL of (what 
I thought was) .1 M H2SO4 warming to something like 50 C on a burner for 
a while.  While I was warming it, I thought theat there was something 
somewhat strange about the solution, but I couldn't put my finger on it.  
While the sol'n was still heating up, the teacher said something about 
some students accidentally using the conc. H2SO4 bottle that he was using to 
mix up more .1 M acid in their experiment, so there wasn't enough acid 
for everyone to do 2 titration runs.  I wasn't really concerned, because 
nothing was really unusual im my experiment yet.  When I went to actually 
do the titration (with KMnO4 I believe) I was treated to a hissing and 
poping sound as the KMnO4 sol'n contacted the acid sol'n.  I quickly 
determined that I had accidentally used the conc. acid as well and told 
the teacher of my mistake.  I then carefully disposed of the acid in a 
safe manner per his instructions.  As might be expected when one works 
with conc. sulfuric acid and thinks its .1 M acid, I recieved a few acid 
burns.  But fortunately, these were only a very small spot on my right thumb 
and an equally small (but harder to see) spot on my right forearm.  They 
are still visible today (3 years+ later).  They serve as a reminder to me 
to always check the labels on bottles before you use their contents, and 
I always do (now).


Story 2:
	From last year.  At the time I was taking a chemistry lab class 
called 'qualitative organic analysis' (a very fun class by the way).  One 
particular day, while I was cleaning up at the end of the lab, I picked 
up a beaker full of a clear liquid (that I thought was water) and took a 
big strong sniff of the contents (to ensure that it really was water and 
that I could dispose of it in the sink).  Well, it was not water, it was 
benzene sulfonyl chloride.  Whoa, talk about nasty stuff.  I thought I 
might pass out there for a couple of seconds, but I was ok.  I still 
consider that one of the stupidest things I have ever done in my life.  
Suffice it to say that I won't be smelling things that I'm 100% sure are 
water anymore (luckily I still have my sense of smell).

Story 3:
	This is not about me, but about someone else.  Again, in my AP 
chem class.  We were making models of crystals (i.e. face-centered 
etc.) out of styrophoam balls.  Now, we had to cut the styrophoam 
balls in pieces with razor blades (always a danger, even for 18 year 
olds).  Anyway, one student cut himself pretty bad with a razor blade and 
had to go to the nurse.  Later, in a different class, he explained how he 
was pushing the razor blade into the styrophoam ball with his thumb and 
was perplexed by how dull the blade was.  Then, he discovered that he had 
the razor blade backwards and it was cutting into his thumb.  Always 
remember which end of the razor blade is the sharp one.

Story 4:
	Again, not about me, but someone else (or actually two people).
This time, I was a junior in high school in AP Physics.  Now, the AP 
physics class was merged with a regular physics class (but we had another 
book).  Near the end of the school year (after the AP test), all the 
course work was done, and all the class did projects.  One of the more 
popular projects was to make a lava lamp.  You would use an old pop 
bottle and you would put the right chemicals in there and then construct 
the base w/ the light and voila, a lava lamp.  Well, one group of two 
girls went down to a chemical supply store to get some of the materials 
they needed.  One of the chemicals the particular lava lamp design they 
were using used was something like benzyl alcohol.  Mind you, they needed 
enough benzyl alcohol to fill the whole lava lamp (it was the liquid that 
the wax (or whatever) went up and down in I believe).  So, apparently, at 
the chemical supply store they couldn't exactly remember the specific 
name of what they needed, so the store guy had to somewhat guess.  And, 
guess what, instead of about a liter of benzyl alcohol, they had about a 
liter of _benzene_.  They had it on their hands too, before the teacher 
discovered what it was when she was checking out their project.  So, the 
teacher had to get the Chem teacher to come and check it out and get all 
the special equipment or whate have you and clean it up.  It's a good 
thing they didn't ask for anything that sounded vaguely like plutonium 
from that store or they would have been in deep trouble.


And quick, before I forget,

Story 5:
	Same setup as story 4 except a different person.  Not really 
chemistry, but still interesting.  One project one of my friends was 
working on was some sort of electronics thingy (I don't know what it was 
exactly).  Anyway, this particular person was widely regarded as someone 
who wasn't all that bright (especially in physics).  He took the AP test 
though.  He would always say that the only thing he knew very well was 
"F=MA".  By the way, he got a 1 on the AP physics test (the lowest you 
can get).  So, he was building his electronic contraption and it just so 
happened that it used a capacitor.  A rather beefy capicitor as well, it 
cost some bucks (so he said) and looked like a pretty bid cylinder.  So, 
while he was working with it one day, he accidentally did something weird 
and shocked himself (very slightly).  I commented "yes Jeff, capacitors 
store electric charge." somewhat sarcastically.  Apparently, he did not 
know this, but I'm pretty sure he knows it now.