From sci.chem Tue Dec  3 15:10:30 1996
From: Frank_Hollis-1@sbphrd.com.see-sig (Triple Quadrophenic)

In article <4iuxeHAf8AnyEwM6@poison.demon.co.uk>, eric@poison.demon.co.uk 
(Eric Lovett ) dusted off the quill, prised open the inkwell and wrote...
>
>Last Year,
>During a lab, all which had to be done within a fume cupboard. A fellow
>student removed, a bottle of conc ammonia, the fumes overpowered him,
>and down he went like a sack of potatoes.
>He is now during a Building & Surveying degree.

Back when I was doing my A Levels I developed my dislike of ammonia. Before 
the practical the bottle of conc. ammonia had been sitting on the window 
sill in direct sunlight. When I went to open it I could feel that it was 
warm so I gently unscrewed the lid. Sure enough it started hissing so I left 
it to depressurise. After a few minutes I went back and it had stopped 
hissing so I span the top to unscrew it in one go. The resultant fountain, 
I'm told, went up about two feet. I was going through the door before 
anything hit the ground. It seems that somebody else had heard this hissing 
bottle and tightened the cap again to stop everything escaping.

-- 
-- BEGIN NVGP SIGNATURE Version 0.000001
Frank J Hollis, Mass Spectroscopy, SmithKline Beecham, Welwyn, UK
Frank_Hollis-1@sbphrd.com         or        fjh4@tutor.open.ac.uk
 These opinions have not been passed by seven committes, eleven
sub-committees, six STP working parties and a continuous improvement
 team. So there's no way they could be the opinions of my employer.