OT: Thermite Reaction

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Thermite at the Unofficial then ?

Steve

On Wed, 01 Mar 2006 22:07:17 +0000, steve scribbled the following nonsense:

now that could be a thought for lighting the BBQ!!

I reckon a 'brianiac' type do then?

LOL!

Nige

Nige uttered summat worrerz funny about:

You _were_ lurking at the last one then? ;-)

I remember this being demonstrated at school in the early 70s and it blew a hole in one of the ceiling tiles in the lab, was well impressed sat only 10 feet away among all the bottles of acid, alkalis and other amusing chemicals.

Sean

...and snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com spake unto the tribes of Usenet, saying...

Yes, and cleaning all your small change in conc sulphuric when the teacher went out for a smoke mid-lesson.

He came back quick one day and one kid didn't have time to rinse his coins properly before he put them back in his pocket.

Plus lighting the bunsen gas directly at the bench taps.

I'm amazed any of us are here. :)

...and Simon Isaacs spake unto the tribes of Usenet, saying...

As a schoolboy I thought it was quite good fun to sit 10 feet away from a Thermite reaction, but the Land Rover is too precious. 25m be damned - I'd insist on half a mile.

bobbed and modded.....

If you are reffering to Aluminium / Iron Oxide then I'd say that risk assessment is ridiculous. Done it for 25 years and never had a problem. You need to ensure you use ******managable***** amounts and ensure the safety screen is next to the reaction ( either in a small silica crucible or in a fluted filter paper over a volume of water) Use youe CLEAPPS guide for ideas and advice. I suggest whoever advised your HoF about the reaction and risk gets another job as he has no idea of the safety of science or the risks in Chemistry

John H

I have memories of doing that, including lighting the tap that shot flame across the doorway and managing to burn the shirt off the deputy headmaster when he wandered through said doorway whilst it was lit. :)

On Thu, 02 Mar 2006 16:50:16 +1300, EMB scribbled the following nonsense:

i put some hexane in a sink and dropped a lit splint into it to see what would happen. Teacher turned the taps on to put it out.....

One of the funniest things to do with a bunsen was to connect it to a tap and turn the tap on, cue water fights across the lab....

On Wed, 01 Mar 2006 23:48:22 GMT, "Hirsty's" scribbled the following nonsense:

directive from the county council education services..... clueless buggers who sit in offices all day, and have never worked in a school!

On or around Wed, 01 Mar 2006 22:07:17 +0000, steve enlightened us thusly:

oooh, fun.

I remember "Ferric" Eric Slaymaker (now gone to his reward), our chemistry teacher, demonstrating all sorts of stuff, including reduction of mercuric oxide, the combining of hydrogen and water (contained in a beer bottle), which made a nice bang, and the alkali metals: Lithium (boring) Sodium (fun, buzzes around on the water) Potassium (buzzes around madly and then goes on fire with a pretty purple flame) and the next one up - Francium? which he got a small piece on a theatrically long spatula thing and hid behind a screen to tip it into the water, whereupon it went bang and split the water dish asunder.

I think it was he who did a demo about water on oil fires, by putting some petrol in a crucible, setting it on fire and then pouring water on it. flames all over the bench :-)

On or around Wed, 1 Mar 2006 22:46:57 -0000, "Richard Brookman" enlightened us thusly:

I assume you did the one about connecting the bunsen burner to the water taps...

We were attempting to calculate the empirical formula of magnesium oxide. I had a defective bunson, so foolishly decided to cool the equipment and start again. Water on the crucible turned to hot steam and set the magnesium on fire. The tiny crucible jetted a 12" purple blue and yellow flame until all the magnesium was gone. The teacher Mr Bennett only saw the last second of flaming metal, and seemed rather impressed.

He also had us making flame throwers that spat burning ethanol across the bench tops (it was supposed to be small amounts of ethene coming out).

We never got to see the thermite reaction though.

DavidM

Hell I went to a boring school ! :(

Best I ever remember is the kid who used to take a mouth full of gas from the gas tap and then burn it as he exhaled. Don't ever remember us or the teacher blowing things up chemically, only thing I remember blowing up is the one with the canister that you let slowly fill with gas until the gas / air mix gets to that crucial point and makes the canister explode.

Matt

body sheel, being bobbed and modded.....

Contact National Press and have a quiet word about this , pointing out that as a country we are short of Scientists and one of the reasons is the PC brigade that have to justify their jobs

Here is some archive shots of my friends at the Central Metallurgicval research Institute (CMRDI) in Helwan Near Cairo. They are preparing Titanium Dioxide by a Thermite reduction. This is their party piece. And I thought we are all mad in AFL.

Steve

I remember blowing into a gas tap while a bunsen was alight further down the bench. Turns the bunsen into a flame thrower!

I think one of our masters ( we didn't call 'em teachers at a school like that ) manged to blow up a complex glass arrangement. Would it have been called a Kipps Apparatus?

And "Duggie" Harrison our chemistry chap ( "don't shake it lad, AGITATE it! SFx - broad Yorkshire accent....) standing on the end of a boiling tube that was on the floor and shooting it at high speed across the room until it smashed on the opposite wall. Apparently his " Eeh, boogger it!" could be heard across the whole science block.

TonyB

Simon Isaacs wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

I did the thermite reaction at the bench. I think it was at O level, and I don't remember any mishaps. We didn't even have face masks.

However, a couple of years later at a different school, as an A level student, I assisted the teacher demonstrating the reaction. By this time the rules had obviously changed - it was done at the teacher's bench in a crucible surrounded by perspex screens, with the class sitting around on their stools to watch. After the magnesium burned down there was a long pause, during which the teacher turned away with a comment about it not working, whereupon the entire contents erupted out of the crucible, bounced off the ceiling, fell back to the bench and scattered in all directions, under the edge of the perspex screens, landing in the laps of the first couple of rows of pupils. No serious harm was done (everyone had notebooks on their laps, and they scattered pretty sharply) but it was close.

Other episodes I remember from science lessons include an entire class being sent home with chlorine poisoning and a hydrogen explosion that showered glassware across the classroom. We all thought these things were tremendous fun at the time, but in retrospect I think the fun police are probably right. There's a lot of potential for injury in a lab.

Jeremy