From sci.chem Fri Dec 20 12:30:01 1996
From: cmiller@whale.st.usm.edu (Chris Miller)
Subject: Re: Lab Accidents.......
[snip]
: : : Quant lab.  Students doing titrations.  Professor warns students,
: : : "don't use compressed air to dry glassware."   One student ignores or
: : : doesn't hear warning, sticks a buret against the air tap, opens tap
: : : full on.  Buret is shot across the room...into the flesh of another
: : : student.  Screams, general consternation, and the injured student
: : : looks down as blood begins to flow out the stopcock of the buret.
: : : With remarkable presence of mind, the professor walks up and closes
: : : the stopcock to stop the flow.
: : Oww, that would hurt.
[snip]
	A friend of mine took organic at a community college
one summer to catch up on classes.  A couple of stories I 
remember him telling were humorous to hear, but certainly 
not funny if you were involved.  One story involved a lab 
in which a mercury thermometer had to be inserted into a 
stopper so that the reaction temp. could be monitored.  Yep,
you guessed it.  A guy decided that he was strong enough 
that he didn't need glycerin to lubricate it and tried to 
force it.  The thermometer broke and one half completely 
pierced his hand.  Not very pleasant.  A second brilliant
 young chemist to be (I hope not) was doing a distillation 
or some such experiment out of a round bottom flask.  He 
decided that if one stir bar worked pretty well that two 
stir bars should be even better.... well, apparently the 
two stir bars had a disagreement and one was shot through 
the side of the flask pouring volatile solvent onto the 
heating apparatus (open flame, if I remember correctly), 
resulting in a memorable experience for the guy and 
those near him on the bench (I don't think anyone was 
seriously injured though).
Be careful,
CWM
-- 
      (The above comments are not necessarily the opinion of any
           person/organization with whom I am associated)
	      		  Chris W. Miller
		     Dept. of Polymer Science
	        University of Southern Mississippi