Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Not your average chemistry teacher!

hkparker - 29-5-2011 at 10:03

From the sac bee, page A4, Thursday, May 26, 2011:
Quote:

<b>Nitro found at school; teacher arrested again</b>
LIVINGSTON - A chemistry teacher accused of helping students ingest chloroform was arrested again Wednesday after investigators learned she might be storing an explosive-making material in her classroom.

Japhia Huhndorf, 34, was arrested at her home in Atwater on suspicion of possessing an explosive device. Police took her to her classroom at Livingston High School, where she cooperated with detectives to find a small amount of nitroglycerin, said Livingston Police Sgt. Ray Fong.

Huhndorf had been out on bail after she was arrested earlier this week on suspicion of child endangerment. Authorities had accused her of helping three students at the school inhale chloroform during after-school study sessions.


huh... I'm not sure what the context of her doing these things with her students was.

mewrox99 - 6-6-2011 at 23:59

I agree about the context. "Inhale" is ambiguous. Did she encourage it them to inhale directly or was she just showing them the haloform reaction and let them inhale wafts of it to show the odour and possibly the dizzy side rather than full blown intoxication. Chloroform is banned in most schools for it's carcinogenicity but really unless you're inhaling good amounts of it; it isn't too bad acutely

And on
Quote:
after investigators learned she might be storing an explosive-making material in her classroom.
. What a stupid line of course ANY chemistry teacher would have explosive making materials like HNO3, Glycerine, H2O2, Acetone, AN, KNO3 etc. Just most don't have High Explosives like she did.

I think the whole NG thing they were blowing up (no pun intended). So she demonstrated the reaction and kept a small amount in a vile. The latter is exceptionally stupid given the "controversial" nature of the reaction and it goes without saying the inherent risks of NG

Imo by the looks of it at most she should be fired. But those overzealous DA's love increasing their salaries at the cost of human lives. But we don't know the full details and shouldn't jump to conclusions

hkparker - 7-6-2011 at 10:21

I agree mewrox. Didn't say anything about the context but either way probably unsafe and not ok for the high school classroom. I'm just not happy to see another article in the local paper putting chem is a bad light.

The WiZard is In - 7-6-2011 at 10:56

Quote: Originally posted by hkparker  
I agree mewrox. Didn't say anything about the context but either way probably unsafe and not ok for the high school classroom. I'm just not happy to see another article in the local paper putting chem is a bad light.



Courier Express, Buffalo NY 3-2-8?

When a Lackawanna high school chemistry teacher was injured Friday during a
laboratory demonstration, Dr. Ronald Denk of Cheektowaga had an emphatic
response to the incident.

In December Denk, a chemist suffered face and scalp cuts from the explosion of
a mixture of potassium chlorate and powdered sugar he ignited to create smoke
to test for leaks in a chemical fume hood at Rowell Park Memorial Institute.

Martin Dohery, 34, of Hamburg, a teacher for 13 years, lost part of his right index
finger and suffered severe injuries to both hands when a mixture of potassium
chlorate, sucrose and sulfur exploded in his classroom Friday morning. Twelve
students were slightly injured in the explosion.

Denk’s reaction to the story he read about Doherty was mailed to Michael
Murphy, his former boss at Roswell and directory of Biohazard Control, along
with a recommendation that “such chemical reactions should definitely be
banned, particularly in high schools.”

“I pointed out to Michael, just briefly, such hazardous chemical reactions should
be strictly forbidden,” said Denk. “They are very dangerous. You can talk about
reactions as well as demonstrate chemical principles, but some things ought not
be demonstrated.”

Denk left Roswell Park in January to work at the University of Buffalo Nuclear
Science and Technology Center. He said he had already given his notice to
Roswell when the incident occurred in his laboratory.

Denk said he made the mixture in his laboratory because “we were required to
smoke test the duct for leaks,” [he] needed to make the test quickly and had no
smoke candles.

“I was aware of the dangers and I even informed Mike,” Denk said.

These chemicals are vigorous oxidizers. When you mix them together under the
right conditions of igniting them ….., they should burn evenly from the top, but if
they don’t burn evenly from the top… they can explode.”

Lackawanna Schools Superintendent Mark Balen said yesterday the district has
not determined why Doherty was mixing the chemicals or what went wrong.

“We’ll be having teams of people analyze the substances that were being used at
the time,” said Balen.

These teams will include other science instructors in the district, and Balen said
he hopes that “before the end of the week, we will have a statement on what our
findings are.”
“I felt very bad for this fellow (Doherty),” Denk said. I don’t understand why he did
this. “I’m not criticizing him. I hope it’s a lesson to all high school teachers. They
should know how what the dangers are.”

Denk said chemicals such as potassium chlorate can “age and become unstable”
[forsooth!] and “that’s a probably what happened to us” at Roswell, where two
technicians also were injured.

“It just occurred so rapidly, there’s no place for the gas to go,” said Dank. “It
might have been a microsecond.”

Dr. Moshe Neeman, a UB chemistry research professor who heads a Roswell
Park laboratory studying the causes of cancer, said potassium chlorate, sucrose
and sulfur combine to form “cheddite,” which was used for explosions in quarries
because it was so cheap. But he noted, it was also “so damn unstable.”
Potassium chlorate is a strong oxidizing agent used in the manufacture of
explosives and matches.

There should be no use of that chlorate anyplace because it is a very hazardous
material and has no place in student laboratories or testing ducts for leaks,” said
Needman. “It’s the second time around and that’s in a school with children
around.”

Denk added, “Maybe everybody ought to put their potassium chlorate under lock
and key so nobody does this when they’re not around.”

[The French chemist Fourcroy described potassium chlorate — as a
compound seeming to contain the elements of the thunderbolt in
its molecules, and in one in which nature seems to have
concentrated all her power of detonation, fulmination, and
inflammation.]


------------
Explosion in high school chemistry class injures teacher, 7 students
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
By The Daily Freeman

BOICEVILLE [NY]— Seven students and their teacher were injured Tuesday morning in
an Onteora High School chemistry class by an explosion that was strong enough to
damage windows, according to police and school district officials.

The eight people were treated at Kingston and Benedictine hospitals and released,
police said.

State police identified the teacher as Donald Bucher and said the students were 11th-
graders. School district officials declined to release the names of any of the injured
parties but said the parents of the affected students were notified.

The teacher and two of the students were treated for lacerations, apparently caused
by flying pieces of broken glass, and the other students were checked for minor
injuries, the district said. The nature of those injuries was not specified.

State police Capt. Patrick Regan described the laceration suffered by Bucher as
“significant” and said the students’ cuts were less serious.

State police said some people in the classroom also suffered temporary hearing loss.

The accident, which occurred about 11 a.m., drew the Olive police and fire
departments, the state police and several ambulance squads to the high school on
state Route 28 in Boiceville. Hazardous materials teams were not called, and the
school was not evacuated.

The explosion occurred during a fifth-period chemistry class while the teacher was
demonstrating the properties of the chemical potassium chlorate, the school district
said in a prepared statement. The statement said the teacher used fewer than 3
grams of the substance and that the blast, caused by an unexpected chemical
reaction, happened during a demonstration of potassium chlorate’s reaction to food
products.

Onteora Board of Education President Laurie Osmond said a faulty test tube might
have been to blame for the accident.

A science teacher in a different room described the explosion as sounding like a door
slamming loudly, though the blast was so strong that it damaged windows in the
room where it occurred, the district said.

Regan called the explosion “impressive” and said it was the result of an “experiment
that went awry.”

Teachers in the wing of the building where the explosion occurred rushed to the
classroom immediately, followed by the school’s Quick Response Team, the district
said. The response team comprises administrators, nurses, social workers and
counselors.

The high school was placed in modified lockdown — officially called a “stay put” — so
the injured students and staff member could be moved as efficiently as possible, the
district said.

The district said everything in the building was back to normal by 1:30 p.m.

Correspondent Jay Braman Jr. and staff writers Paul Kirby and Kyle Wind contributed to
this report.

http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2010/01/20/blotter/doc4...
30860.prt

====
Potassium chlorate and food? Other than the obvious “food” in its supermarket very
fine granulation……?! However, potassium chlorates exciting cousin sodium chlorate
is commonly used in Parr Bomb calorimeters to measure heat content (large and
small calories) of foods &c. /djh/


-------------
Explosive Action Of Sodium On Water.
By Frederick W. Griffin, Ph.D.
Director Of The Bristol School Of Chemistry.
Pharmaceutical Journal and Transactions
By Jacob Bell,
Edinburgh 1857

THE action of sodium on water contained in a glass vessel is such an elegant proof
of the composition of that liquid and other points, as to lead to its being occasionally
introduced in lectures. I have, however, found the experiment liable to a grave
accident, which ought altogether to banish it from public demonstrations. Some years
ago, during my private course of lectures, I passed a piece of the metal, about a
quarter of an inch square, into a tube filled with water, eighteen inches in length by
one in diameter. When the action was nearly over a powerful explosion occurred,
which forced the tube (weighing upwards of a pound) violently through my hand, and
dashed it to pieces against the ceiling. As I had often before performed the
experiment with perfect safety, I presumed that air must have somehow got mixed
with the hydrogen ; the more so as, simply holding the sodium in my fingers, I had, to
slip it under more quickly, brought the mouth of the tube very near the surface of the
water. On all subsequent occasions I placed the sodium in a little tube closed at one
end, which it almost filled, and stopping the mouth with the finger, opened it below
the larger tube, which was kept at least a couple of inches under water, so that there
was no possibility of letting in air by any sudden jerk or otherwise. All went off well
for several times, till at a public lecture in Devonshire an explosion resulted more
violent than the first, and the tube was blown into splinters, which strewed the floor
of one half of the room, and slightly wounded several persons. Since that occurrence I
have relinquished showing this experiment in public at all, though numerous trials
appear to prove that a piece less than a pea may be used with safety, though there is
sometimes a slight concussion at the end. The cause of the detonation remains to be
explained. In the last instance, at any rate, it is quite certain that no explosive
mixture with air was formed, and I have little doubt that the effect proceeds from the
water round the sodium being thrown into the spheroidal state. This view seems
confirmed by the fact that at the first moment of contact a large quantity of gas is
always liberated, but the action speedily becomes weaker, and the evolution of
hydrogen extremely slow. In all probability the metal is then merely decomposing the
atmosphere of aqueous vapour around it; and when the piece is small it disappears
tranquilly in this way; when it is larger, so that the action is prolonged, its
temperature slightly falls, contact ensues, and a bunt of gas and steam takes place
with explosive violence. In both cases the tube was three-quarters full of gas, and I
noticed a sadden downward rush of the liquid the moment before the explosion.

The detonation, with occasional fracture of the vessel, observed by Wagner and
Couerbe* to take place when sodium floating fused on water is struck with a spatula,
probably proceeds from the same cause, the highly heated globule being forced
mechanically into sudden intimate contact with the liquid.

While on the subject of sodium, I may add that when it is melted with a little
naphtha in a sealed tube containing no air, it presents to the full extent the high
lustre and mobility of mercury, from which, indeed, it cannot be distinguished by the
eye; but as soon as it solidifies, it assumes a slightly crystalline and dead white
surface more nearly resembling frosted silver.—London, Edinburgh, and Dublin
Philosophical Magazine.

* Gmelin, Bandbook (Cav. Soc.), vol. iii. p. 75. Berzelins, Traité, vol. ii. p. 83,







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Rogeryermaw - 7-6-2011 at 11:00

if you google the teacher's name, there are other stories about this incident. apparently, one of the boys came forward and stated that the teacher was not involved in the trihalomethane incident. the three of them got into the chloro when the teacher had left. yes, a couple of mistakes on her part: bad judgment in leaving any chemical where it could be accessed by punk brats and the deal about an explosive compound at school. personally, i applaud her effort to show the students something besides a periodic table and theory. those of us who are old enough should remember that the seeds of science were sewn in many of us by the cool things teachers had the freedom to do in times past.

it is a shame that the future of chemistry in the u.s. has an expiration date because practical application is nearly forbidden in all but the most prominent universities and that those teachers who would open the doors of science for the younger generations must cease fulfilling the real needs of the curious minds in the students and silence themselves lest they lose job, home, family, ect. ect.

The WiZard is In - 7-6-2011 at 11:47

Quote: Originally posted by Rogeryermaw  
if you google the teacher's name, there are other stories about this incident. apparently, one of the boys came forward and stated that the teacher was not involved in the trihalomethane incident. the three of them got into the chloro when the teacher had left. yes, a couple of mistakes on her part: bad judgment in leaving any chemical where it could be accessed by punk brats and the deal about an explosive compound at school. personally, i applaud her effort to show the students something besides a periodic table and theory. those of us who are old enough should remember that the seeds of science were sewn in many of us by the cool things teachers had the freedom to do in times past.

it is a shame that the future of chemistry in the u.s. has an expiration date because practical application is nearly forbidden in all but the most prominent universities and that those teachers who would open the doors of science for the younger generations must cease fulfilling the real needs of the curious minds in the students and silence themselves lest they lose job, home, family, ect. ect.


When Worlds of Creation and Destruction Collide
By MALCOLM W. BROWNE
New York Times 5v99

His diary entry for one day in 1898 read: "Fired cannon, pop and firecrackers all
day. in evening had five sky rockets, three Roman candles, one large pinwheel
and a Japanese match which I made."

The words were not those of a vengeful delinquent planning a schoolyard
massacre; they were written by a 15-year-old Robert Hutchings Goddard, whose
later inventions - liquid rocket fuel, multistage vehicles and rocket gyrostabilizers,
among them - opened the way to space travel.

One wonders what would have befallen space science if Goddard and a host of
youthful experimenters had been denied access to the very things legislators
and others these days are seeking to ban. The fact is, many young people have
been drawn to careers in science and engineering partly by spectacular chemical
reactions, especially explosions.

Recent school killings have prompted calls for banning almost every potential
weapon from flint knives to nuclear bombs. (Somehow the automobile is never
included.) But to ban all dangerous substances would be a tall order.

There has never been any lack of explosive materials, and explosives have
proliferated at a tremendous rate over the years. A dictionary of explosives in
1900 contained 1,091 entries, whereas the current tally of "satisfactory"
explosives (according to an expert at Los Alamos National Laboratory) is about
20,000.

There are those who would favor outlawing all 20,000 of them if it meant keeping
children safe. But it's worth remembering that at least some explosives are vital
to modern civilization; explosives are needed for mining, building roads, digging
foundations, welding pipelines and railroad tracks, actuating automobile air bags,
sending rockets to Mars and simulating conditions deep within the atmospheres
of giant planets, among countless other thmigs.

During my own childhood in the 1930's and 1940's, dangerous chemicals
including explosives and poisons were easy to come by, and yet I cannot
remember a single incident comparable to the disaster in Littleton, Colo., and
other recent killings.

Not that kids didn't experiment and play dangerous tricks.

Firearms and explosives (including fireworks) invite mischief, but in the past it
was usually of a fairly harmless kind. Farm children of a more relaxed generation
than the present one used to annoy dairymen by detonating sticks of dynamite
under empty 20-gallon milk cans, sending the cans sailing into the sky. College
students delighted in flushing lighted firecrackers down dormitory toilets, causing
fountains to erupt from toilets on lower floors. Mild but startling explosions
caused by ammonia-moistened iodine crystals scattered around lab benches
enlivened many a chemistry class.

Recreational explosions are not necessarily dangerous. Since 1912, the
Conestoga Company of Bethlehem, Pa., has been making and selling acetylene
cannons that delight children with satisfying bangs free of any risk of injury.
But fireworks containing explosive or propellant charges are not harmless; every
year children lose fingers or eyes by holding lighted firecrackers or rockets.
Moreover, fireworks can be put to criminal purposes. Most of the pipe bombs that
have figured in recent terror incidents have been filled with aluminum powder
and oxidizers extracted from ordinary firecrackers.

Naturally, people are eager to prevent massacres. The response has been an
effort to prevent the trafficking in explosives and guns, and to somehow
reprogram children with violent proclivities.

Snuffing out the fire of genius for fear of a few psychopaths.
Fireworks are banned (or limited to relatively innocuous pyrotechnic products like
sparklers) in 16 states, and each year sees new legislation to prevent
substances like ammonium nitrate fertilizer from falling into felonious hands. The
sale of old-fashioned black powder, the propellant needed for firing antique
weapons, has been sharply curtailed because it has been used in homemade
bombs.

As the trend continues, government agencies have also constrained the sale of
chemicals so tightly that it is difficult or impossible for most young students to
buy them.

Until 1957, when it moved to New Jersey to provide chemicals and apparatus
exclusively to manufacturers, the Ace Scientific Supply Company on 11h Street,
Manhattan, used to count many neighborhood high school students among its
customers. A thicket of regulations eventually blocked such sales, but the com-
pany's president, Robert L. Lowenstein, remembered his student customers
fondly.

"Many of those young customers made important contributions to science and
are now research directors," Mr. Lowenstein said. "I wish something could be
done to make chemicals and apparatus more available to students, but I can't
see anyway."

Similar regrets are often expressed by older teachers.

Dr. David Weitzman, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Bath,
England, wrote in the New Scientist nearly two decades ago that although he
had accepted the chairmanship of his university's safety panel, the reduction of
laboratory risks had had its down side.

"In the laboratories, we forbid this, don't allow that, and prevent the other ... and
we're all safer and less at risk of harm and hazard. Most commendable," he
wrote. "But have we, at the same time, removed some of the fun and excitement
of laboratory life, the thrill of experimenting with the unknown?"

Dr. Weitzman described some of the risky experiments and procedures once
common in student laboratories, including a very hazardous method for cleaning
flasks by filling them with an explosive mixture of nitric acid and alcohol.

"These encounters conveyed a sense of intimacy with one's chemical materials,"
he wrote. "One saw reagents and reactions at their most angry and violent and,
having done so, one learnt to tame them and discipline them to do one's own
bidding."

He concluded that "perhaps just a little bit of danger might bring a lot more fun
and lead to more insight and understanding."

Banning several thousand chemicals as well as timers, pipes, epoxy glue and
other items that can be combined as bombs would be one approach to denying
bombs to potential criminals. Another would be the reprogramming of
violence-prone people to eliminate aggressive impulses; it might be done with
psychotherapy, chemical castration or brain surgery.

By selective breeding or gene manipulation, traits associated with aggressive
behavior and the creation of sociopaths might be reduced throughout the world,
spawning the most well-behaved human race the world has ever seen. A similar
result has been achieved in Siberia, where fur breeders have invented a com-
pletely docile breed of silver fox -one that licks its keepers' faces while being
prepared for slaughter.

But must we really squelch all the things that can contribute to anti-social
behavior to protect ourselves from a handful of sociopaths?

Could an aggression-free race produce a Jefferson or Beethoven or Einstein? As
we race to eliminate aggressors and their weapons, should we not take care to
avoid throwing out the baby with the bath water?



djh
----
In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare,
terror, murder, bloodshed -- and they produced
Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Resaissance. In
Switzerland they had brotherly love, five hundred yeas of
democracy and peace, and what did they produce?
The cuckoo clock!

(George) Orson Wells, 1915-1985
Speech added to Graham Greene's script for
The Third Man, 1949


A Good by to Adventures Gone By

The WiZard is In - 7-6-2011 at 11:57

"What has become of the home chemistry lab....."

Yes I remember the times well, I could go to Fisher Scientific
and buy anything I wanted - lead nitrate, potassium chlorate,
titanium tetrachloride, red phosphorus, acids..... yes!!


Attachment: A Goodby to Adventures Gone By.pdf (76kB)
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djh
----
In classic doublespeak, the [US]
Department of Energy explains that
outlawing incandescent bulbs will
“empower consumers with lighting
choices.” Unless your choice is to
buy the light bulb the government
doesn’t like.

Wall Street Journal 7vi11

Reminds me of Henry Ford and the
Telephone company. You could buy
any colour Model T/telephone you
wanted — as long as it was black.

quicksilver - 8-6-2011 at 06:13

“empower consumers with lighting
choices.” Unless your choice is to
buy the light bulb the government
doesn’t like."

Whenever I hear words like "empower" I often change facial expression....

mewrox99 - 8-6-2011 at 21:55

I bet that teacher is going to get 40years in jail or some other obscene amount. Stupid America.

hkparker - 8-6-2011 at 22:11

Quote: Originally posted by mewrox99  
Stupid America.


At least I can buy beakers without getting my house searched :D!

....for now :(....

Mailinmypocket - 25-6-2011 at 05:23
Quote: Originally posted by quicksilver  
Whenever I hear words like "empower" I often change facial expression....


Same here... "empower"... It's a mental pat on the back to make people raise their fist in the air and say "yes I CAN!"

Intergalactic_Captain - 6-7-2011 at 01:16

I really need to read this forum more often - Interesting stuff in this one. Most interesting is that she actually MADE NG in class, I can't imagine anyone approved the guaranteed "too dangerous for our insurance" type experiment - I can understand saving a bit for sentimental reasons (come on, who here doesn't have something they shouldn't hidden away just because it's cool?), though in a "lower" school setting it was definitely a stupid move. As for the chloroform thing, I'd put money on the idea that it was a matter of the students wondering if it "works like it does in the movies" type of thing... Still a stupid move, ESPECIALLY considering the setting, but no more dangerous than teaching kids that all grammatical skills can be learned through proper use of "topic sentences"...

And Wiz, you missed one - Though I don't think it ever hit the news. Not sure if I've told this one before, but living in a shithole town my education both sucked and rocked at the same time - We were one of the dumping grounds for teachers who couldn't get a job anywhere else in WNY. Most of our teachers were functional morons, but the "science" teachers were awesome - Looking back on it, they could have easily gotten better jobs - They more than likely got turned down for liability reasons...

The first that stands out was Borucki (sp?) - 7th grade - This guy regularly lit himself on fire and demonstrated numerous small explosive reactions. I don't remember too many details, but the aformentioned things were at least loosely related to the lesson plan - The guy just wanted to have fun while he was doing his job, and being 7th grade, he didn't have to try very hard... Oh, he also burned the shit out of himself with steam while doing a specific heat demonstration with lead and aluminum blocks - True to spirit, he used that in an explanation of how certain materials can burn the shit out of you faster than others... Unfortunately, he retired a couple years before my little sister would have been in his class...

Mr. Meek was a bit more fun, considering he taught two classes. Physics and Chemistry, although he couldn't teach for shit - The running joke was that 99% of people would ace one class and fail the other, regardless of which one you thought you would do better in. Being that there was literally noone else in town that I could "talk tech" with at the time, we had a lot of discussions on various things that I can only imagine would lead to a police investigation at the current time. Lots of explosives talk, along with some physics questions I was looking for some sort of answer for - Although we never quite figured out a simple reasoning in the "no accelleration equals no force" thing in kinematics - Apparently, textbooks assume that students will never question the difference between the "real world" and "perfect system" - Took till sophomore year in college before that one finally "clicked" - Kind of ashamed to admit that, but the dumbing-down of EVERYTHING takes its toll in some situations...

That was a long lead-in, but hopefully worked towards the goal of showing that this guy genuinely gave a shit about what he was doing. Well, high-school chemistry, one day in 9th or 10th grade - We were learning about stoichiometry. Well, Mr. Meek decided that the best way to demonstrate this concept was with stoichiometrically overfueled and perfectly fueled mixtures of propane and air.... In 3L, heavy-walled erlenmeyers... It was neat - He first discharged a 50mL syringe full of natural gas into one erlenmeyer, covered it, and then put what looked like ~5-10mL into another... I don't think he put TOO much thought into it, as he had a yardstick with a match on the end and the class-clown on the other to light them....In the classroom with no preparation... Well, the overfueled one was lit first - nice fireball, no real danger....

...The next one? Well, let's just say the stoichiometry was perfect. Deafening explosion, 2 students and Meek in the hospital flying-fucking-glass-shard induced injuries, a SHITLOAD of collateral damage, and a fine dusting of glass over a 500"sq area. I'm not sure which one I'll remember more - Standing there, with a shit-eating grin on my face while watching everyone freak the fuck out, or going to class the next day and listening to Meek explain that he, and this is the actual quote, "wasn't allowed to blow anything up anymore." Seriously - This guy sent two teenagers to the emergency room and proceeded to finish out the year and then 4 MORE!!! Not sure why he left, was either the new administration or a bigger paycheck in another town... Either way, he's one of the teachers I wish was still around when my little sister makes it up there...

The WiZard is In - 6-7-2011 at 03:32

Quote: Originally posted by Intergalactic_Captain  

...The next one? Well, let's just say the stoichiometry was perfect. Deafening explosion, 2 students and Meek in the hospital flying-fucking-glass-shard induced injuries, a SHITLOAD of collateral damage, and a fine dusting of glass over a 500"sq area. I'm not sure which one I'll remember more - Standing there, with a shit-eating grin on my face while watching everyone freak the fuck out, or going to class the next day and listening to Meek explain that he, and this is the actual quote, "wasn't allowed to blow anything up anymore." Seriously - This guy sent two teenagers to the emergency room and proceeded to finish out the year and then 4 MORE!!! Not sure why he left, was either the new administration or a bigger paycheck in another town... Either way, he's one of the teachers I wish was still around when my little sister makes it up there...




Detonation and the Damsel

A chapter of this kind, bristling with frisky compounds, may well end with a
striking story, and this narrative is literally striking as well as-being true.

Once upon a time, now many years ago, a worthy Professor of Chemistry was
lecturing in an Australian university. His subject was mercury fulminate. It was a
very hot and humid day in November; his lecture theatre was filled to capacity
with a hundred and seventy frisky young Australians, and it had a galvanised iron
roof upon which the sun shone from a cloudless sky. Through the windows came
incespritly the vibratory shrilling of-the cicadas, or "bush canaries", mingled with
the odour of sunbeaten eucalyptus leaves.

Now in this audience the young ladies sat in the front seats, immediately facing
the lecture bench, and upon this torrid day of early summer one of them in
particular was feeling the heat and humidity. As the lecturer wended
remorselessly onwards, after the manner of professors immersed in their
subjects, the distressed damsel became increasingly aware of the
oppressiveness of her environment. At last the Professor warmed to his climax a
long-anticipated experiment on the detonation of mercury fulminate.

"You will observe on the anvil," came the familiar and, untiring voice, "a
specimen - a very small specimen-of this most powerful explosive, mercury
fulminate. I am now about to strike it with a hammer. I invite you all, ladies and
gentlemen, to pay attention to the result, and to recall in so doing what I have
told you about the activating effects of the detonation wave which I regret I
cannot demonstrate to you as well."

The hammer fell.

The Professor had been too modest in his closing words. The experiment
succeeded beyond his expectations. For when the hammer fell, the fulminate
detonated with a loud report, and simultaneously the aforesaid damsel, seated in
close proximity to the centre of disturbance, swooned away, after the manner of
agitated young ladies.

The Professor, jerked out of his wonted self-possession by this unwanted
response to the detonation wave, unwisely called for volunteers to carry the fair
victim of detonative aggression out of the crowded room.

The Australians are a gallant race. The response was all that could have been
expected, even in this Queen City of the South; for the eager class volunteered
en masse, headed by the brawny captain of the University Rugby Football XV,
the gigantic and lion-hearted Jumbo Woods. Having successfully removed the
fainting lady, the class "called it a day".

On the following morning the Professor met his class again. There was a full
attendance, including the heroine of the detonation wave. To the surprise of the
class, the anvil still reposed on the lecture bench, and the Professor opened his
lecture, by taking up the hammer.

"It occurs to me, ladies and gentlemen," he began, "that owing to an
unfortunate incident at the close of our last lecture you may not have grasped
the full significance of the detonation of mercury fulminate. I am therefore about
to repeat the experiment. But before I do so, I now afford anyone suffering from
weak nerves an opportunity of leaving the room."

The Professor paused, with the uplifted hammer in his hand, and gazed
pointedly at the innocent cause of yesterday's interrupted lecture. She, however,
was feeling quite at her ease: a "southerly buster" had come up the coast in the
afternoon, and the room was fresh and cool. So the damsel sat on demurely,
pencil poised above note-book, and did not budge.

But to his misfortune, the Professor's words, unlike his glance, were not
specific; and while he waited expectantly, with his eyes fixed upon the static
lassie, a dynamic figure arose in the back row, descended the sloping gangway
with thunderous tread, and stalked solemnly out through the open doorway in full
view of the spellbound Professor and his momentarily dumbfounded class. And,
lo, the departing figure was the figure of that mighty man of valour and hero of a
hundred stricken fields-the lion-hearted Jumbo Woods.

John Read
Explosives
Pelican Books London 1942
Chapter XI
Explosives That Excite Others [in part]

FOR THE FORCES
Leave this book at a Post Office when you have read it,
so that the men and women in the Services may enjoy it too.

djh
----
The way to capture a student's attention is
with a demonstration where there is a
possibility the teacher may die.

Jearl Walker - Cleveland St. U.

Rogeryermaw - 6-7-2011 at 08:10

one of my old science teachers used to get involved and could really grab the attention of the class. one of the few who ever did any notable experiments, i fondly remember the time he taught me how much energy can be contained in a plastic five gallon bucket.

when placed over the top of a van de graaff generator, it is apparently quite a lot. he had me hold the bucket under one arm while rubbing the inside with my free hand shortly after charging it. with the lights off, it made quite the flash in the room and my right arm was numb for a couple of hours. did i mention that it hurt like a sumbitch?

even with the attempted homicide, i still think he was the best teacher (outside of metal shop) i ever had.