IrC
International Hazard
Posts: 2710
Registered: 7-3-2005
Location: Eureka
Member Is Offline
Mood: Discovering
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The real chemistry book
OK, I give up. Where do I find real information on chemistry? Wanting to try calcium aluminates (in my glow powder experiments) as strontium hydroxide
is too hard to locate cheaply, and having 60 gm of calcium metal on hand, I look around for information on reacting Ca with water. On webelements I
find this:
"Calcium reacts slowly with water. This is in contrast with magnesium, immediately above calcium in the periodic table, which is virtually
unreactive with cold water. The reaction forms calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2 and hydrogen gas (H2). The calcium metal sinks in water and after an hour or
so bubbles of hydrogen are evident, stuck to the surface of the metal."
So I chunk a ball a quarter inch in diameter into some water I just distilled with a retort (wanting highly pure H2O). No facemask, no shield around
the flask, etc., in general the only precaution I took was a stopper with a tube to vent the H2 outside. Had enough heat developed the flask would
have been a bomb spewing Ca(OH)2 right in my face. Anyway, chunk it in and stick on the stopper, and the ball sinks to the bottom, fizzing so madly it
was zinging around in there, and rapidly getting smaller. This was room temperature water, having sat overnight. The ball rose to the top and started
zinging around the surface, and this is where I started getting worried about ignition of the H2 gas rapidly evolving.
So I ask, where the hell did webelements get their information? Did they just copy someone else who had also never dropped Ca metal into 60 degree F
water?
Going further, I have several thousand dollars worth of books, mostly the type you would carry around in college and some advanced high school types,
and they all lack the knowledge I am really looking for, namely how do I make so and so and what should I expect, and what precautions should I take?
They all go into theory and orbits and so on but nothing I have been able to buy actually teaches you practical chemistry. Not one. I do not make
drugs or explosives but I have spent much time reading the sites with this kind of information and for one reason only. They seem to be the only
places on the internet which cover the real world of chemistry in terms of what to watch out for and what to expect. Why are there no books I can find
that cover inorganic chemistry on this type of level, such as "drop this into that but watch out, it make go nuclear!" (or whatever). Quite
honestly I have learned more reading Bromic Acid's adventures in wonderland than I did from the last thousand dollars worth of books.
In short, does anyone have any titles and hopefully links to studies on practical applications such as can I hacksaw my one pound blocks of Mischmetal
or magnesium without having a fire on my hands and so forth? Why do I find it impossible to easily find out what the real MSDS is for a given
chemical, not the useless crap I read on all but one link to such information in 10 years of searching online (namely the pims I mentioned in another
post around here on cadmium)?
I don't want to bore you all nor do I wish to sound like I am whining or something but why is it so hard to find anything to study that actually
teaches chemistry as if I was going to do something, not just spend my life in theory about it. After over 10 years online, thousands of dollars worth
of books, and many more years looking around in libraries and so forth, I still have never found the REAL book on chemistry. Frustrating is putting it
mildly. Does anyone know where it is, did it vanish with Waldo?
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Polverone
Now celebrating 21 years of madness
Posts: 3186
Registered: 19-5-2002
Location: The Sunny Pacific Northwest
Member Is Offline
Mood: Waiting for spring
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Visit the Sciencemadness library and look at the books there. Older titles focus far more on descriptive chemistry and less on theory. And yes, many
times one source will just parrot another, trusting that the original is correct. I have seen certain dubious chemical properties repeated this way
throughout multiple reference books, though I can't remember specifics at the moment.
Look for the Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards, Sax's Dangerous Properties of Industrial Materials, Hazards in the Chemical Laboratory, etc.
if you want more comprehensive information on "gotchas." MSDS tend to be too cautious (for example, many MSDS will generically warn of
spontaneous reactions between all nitrates and reducing agents, while in reality there's a huge difference between (say) potassium nitrate and
mercuric nitrate in terms of reactivity). Older works are much more sparing in their warnings, reserving them for the nastier acute hazards one will
deal with. When the pre-1950 book warns of the dangers of ethyl perchlorate or cacodyl, you're instantly sure it's serious business. Of
course the pre-1950 book may contain few or no warnings about compounds with carcinogenic, mutagenic, or chronically poisonous effects, so it's
good to read books from multiple eras.
If you want to know how compounds look, smell, taste (!), and react with other compounds, you definitely want to look at older books.
Substance-specific review articles are also good, even when newer. Among modern books, look for works with "practical" in the title when you
want to know things important to labwork.
PGP Key and corresponding e-mail address
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IrC
International Hazard
Posts: 2710
Registered: 7-3-2005
Location: Eureka
Member Is Offline
Mood: Discovering
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Thanks. The best ones I have so far are from your library, I wish all the titles you mentioned here were in there as well, but it gives me some names
to go looking for. Going there I just noticed some new ones. Is it possible for you to have a log showing the dates books are put in there? This way I
can know what is new that I have not seen without going through my collection to see if I have it yet. Also, the books without links, are they ones
that will be there as time permits? If I ever find some good titles you do not have I will scan them but I do not know how to turn a bunch of scans
into a PDF. then again, I hate the way pdf's scroll, djvu's are much better but possibly pdf's print better so having both formats
would be a better idea. Possibly these questions are outside the scope of this subject area but they seem to fit in here. One thing I do know is that
bromic's book on chemistry should include the type of information I am looking for, I hope someday it does. I wish I was good enough at the
subject to add to it.
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jimwig
Hazard to Others
Posts: 215
Registered: 17-5-2003
Location: the sunny south
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
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IrC try your libraries interlibrary loan system.
First find where the book is - use WorldCom- a database.
Then request that they send you the book by asking the local library to broker the dea. Hahaha
FBI outa libraries!!!!!
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ordenblitz
Hazard to Others
Posts: 259
Registered: 18-7-2004
Location: Northwest
Member Is Offline
Mood: Bohr'd
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One of my favorite chem books is Vogel's "Practical Organic Chemistry" 3rd ed. 1959
It's new enough to give some warnings and have fairly modern reactions and synthesis depicted yet it's old enough to still give all the
details. It even shows pictures of the glassware setups that are required. All the quantities and times are listed, rather a no brainer in that
regard.
A little basic lab knowledge and following the directions is all that's needed. It starts with chapters on theory and practical skills and goes
on to experimental technique, and ends with oodles of synthesis for many many things.
I got my copy from an online used book seller, very cheap.
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