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Re: Don't need no steenkin' sodium

To: Andrew Mace <amace@UNIX2.NYSED.GOV>
Subject: Re: Don't need no steenkin' sodium
From: Bob Lang <LANG@isis.mit.edu>
Date: Mon, 07 Feb 2000 11:46:55 -0400 (EDT)
On Mon, 7 Feb 2000, Andrew Mace wrote:

> Uh, did anyone else on this list ever open all the gas jets in their 
> high school Chem. or Physics lab room, light them and then see just how 
> hot it would get in the room and how quickly? Not that my friends and I 
> ever did....

Yep. We used to do that.

It also looked really "neat" with isopropyl alky poured on the lab 
working surfaces and ignited... the blue flame looked particularly nice 
with the yellow flame from the gas jets... he he he.

The funny thing is that the chemistry teacher (who incidentally is still 
there some 30 years later!) would just walk into the room and say 
something like: "okay Misters Lang, Thompson.... please put the flames 
out right now" and continue with the lesson. Ironically, she would use my 
name even when it wasn't me - and she knew it.

I became very consious of safety in the lab after my lab partner, who 
really really really would rather be somewhere else, blew boiling 
concentrated HCL all over my hand one day. My skin was yellow for weeks, 
but I did have the presense of mind to dilute the acid from my skin 
"forthwith" after the incident.

The conclusion of that episode was that said lab partner was asked to 
kindly never step with 10 feet of the test benches while I was doing any 
experiments. "Payment" for adhering to the policy was a nicely written 
lab report written in duplicate for her to hand in after each lab.

Sheesh.

> --Andy

rml
p.s. boy, do I need to drive a Triumph soon!
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