Illustrated Guide To Home Chemistry Experiments

ptorrone writes "The sad fact is chemistry and chemistry sets have been on the decline for the last couple decades. All is not lost, however. We (MAKE magazine) have a new book called The Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments. Learn how to smelt copper, purify alcohol, synthesize rayon, test for drugs and poisons, and much more. In this video, Bob the chemist shows how to get around a pesky DEA regulation so you can make your own iodine. GeekDad also reviewed the book."

Comments

Just remember to use cash.

[AmIAnAi]

Just remember to use cash when paying for this one, else you might find your name on a 'watch' list.

Re:Just remember to use cash.

[smellsofbikes]

At least in the area I live, most chemistry/science supply places have gone to cash-only sales because they are required to track and report ID's on check and credit card sales but not on cash sales. Interesting unintended side-effect.

Re:Just remember to use cash.

[smellsofbikes]

While there are still brick-and-mortar stores, there is still barter. The problem arises when amazon has displaced all the local stores and cash is simply not viable. (Turns out amazon sells chem glassware: who knew?)

Re:Just remember to use cash.

[hiryuu]

But isn't it fun to see how many different aliases you can get onto the watch list?

Not for those of us who have very common names, of the type that are more frequently used to "assemble" an alias. My birth name is one of the most common in the US - not quite on the order of "John Smith," but pretty close - and this unfortunate bit has landed me on the TSA no-fly list for most of the last year, among other bits of fun.

Back on topic, I'm a chemist by profession, and I always find things like this cool as all hell. I remember the chemistry sets of yore, including some of the "antique" sets used by my father and a a few of his younger uncles, and the progression over the years of what can be done with what's available to the layman has become increasingly disappointing. What's the likelihood that any modern set would ever come with a distillation column?

Good tools and decent, interesting references must be available to help get people (especially kids!) excited about, interested in, and practicing hard sciences. I know I'm not saying anything new to lots of people around here, but dammit, I'm gonna say it anyway.

Re:Just remember to use cash.

[neomunk]

This will not happen until there is a way found to make electronic transactions safe for black market use. Drug dealing, gun dealing and the sale of various other contraband has been a large source of income for those that pull the strings of government for a very long time. This massive source of income isn't easy to just give up, even when balanced by the prospect of the economic panopticon.

Re:Just remember to use cash.

[Grishnakh]

It's been a large source of income for the government itself, too. Remember, the CIA was caught selling cocaine a while ago.

Re:Just remember to use cash.

[mstahl]

Absolutely agreed, but once in a rare while that's kind of a good thing.

Re:Just remember to use cash.

[geekoid]

Cash cards make it safe.
As do those pesky things called banks.
When dealing with LARGE transaction, no body uses cash. They have accountants and they move money to different banks around the globe. When that's problematic, they create their own banks.

Seriously, this isn't 1930 anymore.

Excellent idea

[ResidntGeek]

For my money, though, it doesn't get better than the Encyclopedia Britannica 11th edition. It was written after chemistry was mostly understood, but before the advent of commercial chemical suppliers. Thus, in the nitric acid entry, for example, you'll find instructions for making it from nitre and sulphuric acid. In a modern text it would be described theoretically, and would likely be stated in such a way that you'd start looking for a place to buy sulphuric acid and potassium nitrate without getting on a government watchlist, but with the encyclopedia you go outside and build a nitre-bed, or maybe scrape some saltpeter off your basement wall if you're lucky, and go hunt down some sulphur to make the acid. It doesn't leave out the theory, but it gives you a real sense of how doable most chemical processes are even without a lab or a chemical supplier.

Re:Excellent idea

[snowraver1]

Sulphur is the easiest element to collect. Just walk along train tracks and look for the yellow pebbles that fall through the sulphur cars. I was able to collect maybe 10 grams in about 5 mins.

Re:Excellent idea

[nbauman]

For my money, though, it doesn't get better than the Encyclopedia Britannica 11th edition. You mean this one? http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Gunpowder?

Re:Excellent idea

[triffid_98]

Or you could just walk over to your OSH garden center and buy a box of that stuff, as long as you don't need 100% purity that stuff is easy to get (used to improve soil acidity in alkaline soils).

Sulphur is the easiest element to collect. Just walk along train tracks and look for the yellow pebbles that fall through the sulphur cars. I was able to collect maybe 10 grams in about 5 mins.

Re:Excellent idea

[snowraver1]

Actually Air is not nitrogen, it just contains nitrogen. It's like saying Coke is water.

Air has Oxygen, water vapor, evil CO2, methane, helium, hydrogen, nitrogen oxides, dust & smoke, and FSM knows what else in it.

I stand by my statement that sulpher is the easiest element to collect.

Re:Excellent idea

[conureman]

I always recommend 'Fortunes in Formulas'. It's got some zany old time recipes. BTW unless you have a stable against the side of your house, that white efflorescence in your basement isn't what you want. Look under old dung-heaps, eh?

Slashvertisment or honest publicity?

[Seakip18]

Hmmm...usually I think we would see this as book review. But honestly, how many times would a direct link to the product page not produce a rage of criticism of how /. is selling out?

Then again, us, non-professionally trained chemists that happen to be geeks would love to learn more about practical and interesting science, including and but not limited chemistry. This book hits right at what I'd want on my bookshelf, next to my "Good Eat's" cookbook and 60-70's era DIY books.

So what do y'all think it is? Slashvertisment or a stab at the modern sterile environment that is public school science?

Re:Slashvertisment or honest publicity?

[navygeek]

While the summary does have qualities we identify with the average Slashvertisement, I'd have to say it isn't one - or at least one I'm willing to give the benefit of doubt on. As the summary says, quality books and chemistry sets are in serious lack these days. This isn't the editors letting in an ad for a 'been there, done that' item, like the flash drive the other day, it's something that we as geeks, nerds, and science buffs can really get into. Product hocking like this I don't mind.

Re:Slashvertisment or honest publicity?

[scubamage]

I agree its kind of a slashvertisement, but honestly I'd prefer to see everyone on /. know about this book before its completely illegal to practice any form of chemistry. I can only imagine that home chemistry kits will soon be as illegal as they were just before the revolution in pre-Bolshevek Russia. Because, you know, we have to protect the children and homeland security from the terrorists.

Re:Slashvertisment or honest publicity?

[nuttycom]

Agreed; that's why I ordered my copy today. My daughter's just a year old right now, but by the time she's old enough to appreciate a book like this I expect it'll be next to impossible to find, sadly.

Safety goggles!

[nbauman]

Be sure to wear your safety goggles. I know!
Although I must say that the eye heals suprisingly well after a minor injury. http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/358/21/2265 (Hyphema is blood in the eye.)

Busted

[Thelasko]

As some have mentioned you run a risk of being targeted as a terrorist by your local law enforcement if they discover such a lab in one's posession.

However, I think one is far more likely local law enforcement will suspect production of methamphetamine.

Re:Busted

[Thelasko]

I would also like to add that not only has the ban, illicit production, and enforcement ruined the chemistry set for millions of people. It has also destroyed the ability to get inexpensive allergy medication with a built in decongestant. For example, Loratadine (claritin) is sold at Wal-Mart for $4 for a 30 day supply. For those of us who require a decongestant, it's 2-4 times more expensive to get a measly 10 day supply of Loratadine-D (Claritin-D), and you have to sign over your soul to get it.

Geez- talk about getting history wrong

[edremy]

The science of gunpowder was well documented in there, but the history is dead wrong. Schwartz and Bacon were in no way the creators of gunpowder- the Chinese developed it centuries before, and there is ample historical documentation for the development of various strains, uses in warfare, etc. China is not mentioned *anywhere* in the article.

I've heard a lot of people talk about how great the 1911 version of EB is- based on this article, I would not trust it for anything remotely historical that involves something outside of Europe. This isn't a minor error- this is a massive ton of ignorance.

Re:Geez- talk about getting history wrong

[edremy]

Quick follow up- China is mentioned briefly as having created incendiaries, but not explosives, in the same class as greek fire. (Missed it the first time) This is also dead wrong- the Chinese did have explosive formulations. Greek fire, OTOH, was not a nitre+fuel based mixture to the best of our knowledge, although the exact formula has been lost.

Re:Only until..

[philspear]

How come every single biology article, even the recent one about discovery of 120,000 year old bacteria, gets tagged "whatcouldpossiblygowrong" but books that tell kids how to "Purify alcohol by distillation, Produce hydrogen and oxygen gas by electrolysis, Smelt metallic copper from copper ore you make yourself" doesn't?

There are billions of much more highly evolved bacteria in you right now than what scientists dug up. On the other hand, my next door neighbors can't cook bacon without the whole place filling up with smoke, if they tried to purify their own alchohol, I'm quite certain they would die of methanol poisoning, blow up the building, or both simultaneously. And then homeland security would arrive just in time to arrest me.

I guess it comes down to Hollywood has never made a movie about the potential dangers of home copper smelting.