many years ago i was employed by the Atomic Energy Corp. of SA. i was employed as an analytical chemist and in the normal day to day routine i not only performed chemical analysis on the normal wet methods such as titrations etc but also making use of instruments for analysis. now people always think it must be glamorous to be a scientist - it must be when viewing programmes on the telly such as CSI but believe me there is nothing glamorous in being a scientist. i was also the safety rep for our laboratories and i had to do inspections on a weekly basis to ensure all and sundry were following the rules and perform their chemical tasks according to the safety rules pertaining to laboratories.
then, one fine morning i found myself all by myself in the lab - not a soul other than me present. now, as an analytical chemist i have heard of and also studied the chemistry around touch powder. all the years spent in the labs and not once did i thought of making touch powder, oh no not natalie-dominique. my colleagues did make touch powder to play pranks on other colleagues and you may well ask why would they do such a thing. there is only one reason and that is - it's terribly funny when some-one touches a doorhandle and the handle goes off with a bang with the person touching the handle has a lift off vertically accompanied by some very crude language. and i decided to make touch powder. i had an empty bottle of iodine crystals ( theres always crystals sticking to the bottom of the bottle) so i thought - let me rinse out the iodine crystals with ammonia and filter off the slurry of iodine and ammonia or rather ammonium iodide.
following all the safety rules - i am mos the safety rep for the labs - i start filtering the ammonium iodide or touch powder only it is not touch powder yet but a slurry. ooo and careful i am, don't want this stuff to explode on me, no sirree. the filtering process is not the fastest and eventually the last drop disappear through the funnel leaving behind the slurry or filtrate and a very clear liquid in a beaker. what am i going to do with the slurry now that i have it on filter paper? i can't just leave it where it is as a colleague might just come in and touch it. now i must tell you that i had quite a bit of touch powder slurry on the filter paper and i was certain as in certain that if that stuff would go off, it might be nasty. how little did i know. with a tweezer and very careful not to bump or disturb this slurry in any way, i lifted the filterpaper cone out of the funnel and off to the waste paper basket, which was empty except for a folded brown envelope on the bottom. aiming carefully so as to not miss the basket, i released the tweezer, just as a bomber in a plane would release his charge. almost as if in slow motion the filterpaper cone dropped down to the waste basket. as the cone hit the bottom of the basket, some things happened simultaneously - there was a flash and a very loud bang and a cloud of red/brown smoke with me rising vertically up in the air - not because i was hurt but i got the fright of my life. examining the waste basket afterwards, i realise how lucky i was as there was a hole about 10cm in diameter blown in the envelope and not to mention the smelly iodine cloud hanging in the lab. i do suppose it is funny and i do laugh now years later and still do. i guess it would have been funny then if it happened to another.
