The WiZard is In
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...the decline of classroom chemistry...
The book is not only a cultural history of the elements, it is also a
lament to the loss of science as a hobby. Enterprising schoolboys
no longer organise “stinks-and-bangs” extravaganzas. Mr
Aldersey-Williams bemoans the decline of classroom chemistry,
and the rise of a culture in which experiments performed by
teachers must be timed to coincide with the length of the lesson.
Children no longer have the opportunity to do hands-on work,
technicians tidy away equipment that might otherwise be put to
use in class and some teachers screen films of successful
experiments instead of conducting their own. Few people
appreciate that the natural world is a chemical one. Instead
chemicals are to be feared, and kept in a locked cupboard. The
author even regrets the removal from the paintbox of rich greens
based on arsenic and flame-red vermilion formed from powdered
mercuric sulphide. Removing risk, he suggests, enfeebles life.
Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements.
By Hugh Aldersey-Williams
Book review.
The Economist 5ii11
http://www.economist.com/node/18060770?story_id=18060770
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hissingnoise
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| Quote: | | Removing risk, he suggests, enfeebles life. |
But in a paranoid, litigious society removing risk also saves money . . .
Isn't it always all about the bottom line?
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mewrox99
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I hate all this health and safety crap at school.
In year11 science (I also do year13 chem) we had to do a project on metals. The work was easy and lethargic enough so I wanted to do something a
little more interesting. I asked my science teacher if I could use aqua regia to extract Au out of CPU pins. He was enthusiastic about the idea and
said he'd let me if I could get some CPUs. I spend some cash on getting a small quantity and then spend about half an hour doing the write-up of the
procedure. I was all set to go and all he had to go was go down to the person in-charge of looking after the chems and get the nitric and HCl.
I go to all the effort (and $8) of getting the chips only to find "There is no chance of us allowing a 15 year old to use Aqua Regia" From the safety
officer person. My chem teacher last year was cool and let me do fun stuff like hydrazine synthesis
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bquirky
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I remember the 4 most intresting things i saw in highschool chemistry class (in the early 90's )
a live Vandegraph Generator
live sodium in water i think we all got to chuck a tini peice in
live, a serious of various fule/oxydiser fire/explosion experments (except the dweebs never told us what was in the powder so the whole point of it
was lost)
and i got to play with a giger counter and a alpha particle emmitter which was intresting but my teacher told me they where getting rid of the lead
box of alpha and beta sources
but my #1 most memrible thing happend to me when i was only very very young in primary school probobly in the 80's.
My mum had an aquantance who was some kind of researcher and i got to visit his lab. this is when there was a lot of work being done on super
conductors. I was lead into part of the lab that looked to me just like the movies.
The chap showed me a petri dish with a grey disk in it and said sompthing to everyone else around to the efect of 'Hey where doing this cool thing
again come and have a look'
N2 was poured into the dish and a small magnet placed ontop of the sample. my head at the time only being as high as the bench the sample was sitting
on got to see right up close the floating magnet and the good half a cm of space between them.
This amazed me becuse i knew magnets could repell. but not for long becuse they spined around and became atracted/ I didnt understand that it was a
superconductor but i knew it did sompthing odd that my magnets didnt do. and i learnt that real knowledge is out "there" not in school.
20+ years later i work at the same university (in a diffrent feild. 
I hope one day to repay my debt to some other young kids that want to see something odd.
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frobber777
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At high school science in the late 80 (in Scotland), worked with plenty of substances which are probably banned now.
working with sulphuric, hydrochloric acids and sodium hydroxide on a regular basis.
potassium permanganate.
working with reactions with sulphur. (sulphur dioxide, hydrogen sulphide)
making hydrogen.
making chorine gas in the fume cupboard and then putting thin copper foil into it to see the violent reaction.
simple distillation experiments.
burning magnesium ribbon.
Working with alpha & beta sources in physics.
dishes of mercury been passed around.
using solvents like acetone, ethanol, toluene
The teacher demonstrated using potassium metal, sodium metal & phosphorous.
Not sure how many of these are banned now, but it was the practical experiments, which made me passionate about the subject in the first place!
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Morgan
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A friend in the 70's gave me a very old book first published in 1941. It's title was "Simple Chemical Experiments". There's a section on removing fly
paper, tar, wax, paint, ink, rust, etc. It has lots of neat little experiments to do. It tells you how to build your laboratory desk, how to label
your glass bottles, how to make equipment if you can't afford to buy it. I fell in love with it when I was about 11 years old.
I liked the phrase, "get an older boy or an adult to help you if you are working with acids, potassium hydroxide, or potassium chlorate." The book
tells/shows how to make nitrous oxide, flash powders, hydrogen sulfide, a few spontaneous combustion experiments, ozone from barium peroxide and
sulfuric acid, starting a fire with ice, making a luminuous chemical from oyster shells, safe fireworks, serpent's eggs, sparklers, rainbow fire,
hydrogen from aluminum and lye, plus a lot of chemical knowledge that's just good to know. 269 pages of neat stuff.
It's really well written and in a style you won't find today. In the back of the book it has an extensive section entitled "The chemicals you will
need" and how and where to find them, how much they cost, their formulas and some of their unique characteristics. The sketches of the youth sitting
at his homemade table (with tie on) and lab equipment are special in some strange way. (I always wear a tie when experimenting). Here's a few tidbits
from the book.
"Ethyl alcohol (C2H5OH) The young experimenter will find it difficult to purchase this variety of alcohol because of government restrictions
controlling its sale. Perhaps a doctor or chemist friend who knows you are not going to drink it will help you obtain a small amount for
experimentation."
This book by Alfred Morgan greatly influenced my interest in chemistry. In fact I couldn't think of a screen name when I registered on this site, so I
borrowed his. ha
I always liked this thought he wrote. "All the experiments described in this book and all the chemicals required are safe if used and handled
intelligently. The medicine cabinet of nearly every home contains substances more dangerous than any of those recommended for your laboratory. A sharp
knife or a chisel is dangerous in the hands of a child. They may be so if improperly handled by an adult. But that is no reason why an intelligent boy
should not use a knife or a chisel. When chemicals are used in small quantities and used in the proper manner, they do no harm. If you eat a cake of
soap, it will make you very ill. If you wash your hands with soap, it will do no harm. Eating is obviously an improper use of soap."
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annaandherdad
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I found this book through my university library and have requested a copy. If it looks good and I can be assured that I won't get into copyright
trouble, I may make a pdf copy of it and post it.
Any other SF Bay chemists?
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Polverone
Now celebrating 21 years of madness
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Quote: Originally posted by annaandherdad  | | I found this book through my university library and have requested a copy. If it looks good and I can be assured that I won't get into copyright
trouble, I may make a pdf copy of it and post it. |
This book never had its copyright renewed with the Library of Congress and has fallen into the public domain in the USA. If you scan it I will host
it.
PGP Key and corresponding e-mail address
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annaandherdad
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I have received the book, and spent a pleasant time looking at it. It's chemistry in the style of the old chemistry sets---add 3 measures of this to
two measures of that. But done better. It's very interesting. The book calls freely on lead acetate, dichromates, carbon disulfide, carbon
tetrachloride, etc. I guess in those days you just poured lead solutions down the drain. I'll make a scan of it, but it will take a while (a tedious
job).
In the meantime, I've been learning a bit about Alfred P. Morgan. Sounds like all his books would be good for the library.
Any other SF Bay chemists?
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franklyn
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www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=21684
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chemrox
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When I was a kid a got a note from my mom to go downtown and buy con H2SO4, aqueous NH3 etc. It wasn't a big deal and I still have both eyes and ten
fingers. The schoolmarms have taken over and to what end? A big city paper writes something rude and they've got petitions to fire the editor.
Everybody should take a deep breath and ask themselves where they want to go. You can't keep people interested in chemistry with classroom movies.
"When you let the dumbasses vote you end up with populism followed by autocracy and getting back is a bitch." Plato (sort of)
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Fantasma4500
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i recently did NI3 in school, my chemistry teacher told me i could do as much as i could manage to keep safe
'a few kg's?'
and he just giggles abit.. hes pretty decent as he let us do some true k3wl stuff, NC in plastic bottles with fireworks fuses aswell as whistle powder
in bottles.. he has his days, although our chemistry isnt the most exciting
at weeks where we have to do over 5 days cross-high-school classes i usually get to realise that larger amounts of people = people see anything
potentially dangerous as being a fucking weapon
we had to make some glues, mostly preferred was extracting casein from milk with 5% vinegar, teacher got furious when one group asked for 32% acetic
acid
i asked if i could try acetone + styrofoam, i wasnt allowed to do such, but another guy was, no idea why, he had to do it in a fumehood because wow,
acetone, flammable, could kill with ease
i suggested to set fire on the styrofoam napalm them plob the 2 wooden pieces together, as molten plastic is alot stronger binding that just
acetone-styrofoam
that was much too dangerous..
i do however hear others report that their teachers add in some more tricky questions for the better students, although i had to spend my time looking
at my group which doesnt even rank as being k3wls, they were flawlessly amazed over the colours of molten sugar with food dye, some of those guys got
to make KNO3/Sugar k3wlery and managed to torch half a table with it, how? i still ask myself to this very day.
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MrHomeScientist
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There is someone on Kickstarter right now pitching an "Heirloom Chemistry Set" that looks like a phenomenal resurrection of the chemistry sets of
yore. The ones that actually had real equipment, engaging and interesting experiments, and (gasp!) actual chemicals. The ones that got many major
scientists interested in science in the first place. Nowadays chemistry sets are bland and "safe" to the point of being worthless, and contribute to
the lack of interest in chemistry and science in general. This set looks like an amazing way to help change that:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1742632993/heirloom-chem...
It includes "the original 56 chemicals listed in the 1936 A.C. Gilbert chemistry set manual, 'Chemistry for Boys' in addition to eight other chemicals
we think are important for every home experimenter to have," as well as tons of real glassware and equipment. It also comes with Robert Bruce
Thompson's book, "All Lab, No Lecture: Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments" - I have this, and it's a really great book full of
well-written, fun experiments. Judging by how much he talks about it in the video, he's also quite proud of the box it all comes in
It was actually created by the same guy that runs the HMS Beagle website, a great home science supplier. I just found out about this yesterday, and
even though it's reached its goal, I'll definitely be backing this one.
[Edited on 11-15-2013 by MrHomeScientist]
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Crowfjord
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That is fantastic! I got a chemistry set when I was ten years old, but there weren't any chemicals in there to make any reactions that I found
interesting at the time. It was nothing like the sets that my uncles got in the 50's. I did manage to get hold of some books that
accompanied/supplemented those kind of things, but the chemicals listed therein were of course no longer available. So my experimentation in those
days ended up being largely limited to electronics and such, until high school when I figured out how to get my hands on things like sulfur, sodium
hydroxide, etc.
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