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Remember Chemistry Sets?


Bayleaf

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One for Dave here!

He's on his holidays, but yes one for him when he gets back, by now he will be "Being all romantic" in Italy lol

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He's on his holidays, but yes one for him when he gets back, by now he will be "Being all romantic" in Italy lol

You mean he's not taken a laptop? :o

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You mean he's not taken a laptop? :o

I get the impression from his posts that he does not take his laptop :rolleyes:

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One for Dave here!

If it's owt to do with chemistry ask Dave, - that's what all the kids at school do, regardless of who their official chemistry teacher is!

You mean he's not taken a laptop? :o

Correct, Dave does not take his laptop on holiday, Computers are for work, not fun. If I thought they were were for fun I would be hooked on silly computer games like all the kids (and those kids that never grew up) or i would be posting gossip and tittle - tattle of no value at all on faceache.

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He's on his holidays, but yes one for him when he gets back, by now he will be "Being all romantic" in Italy lol

Sì era molto romantico in Italia.

Che la maniera migliore di celebrare il suo venti quinto anniversario di matrimonio di con un pasto italiano ed un bicchiere di vino al sole trascurando fuori la baia di Napoli.

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He's on his holidays, but yes one for him when he gets back, by now he will be "Being all romantic" in Italy lol

Just for you Stuart

A couple of pictures of Switzerland and the Swiss Alps

Now to me Switzerland looks much better while flying over it at 500mph and 37500 feet than going through a continuous road tunnel at 70mph and at ground (or below) level.

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To get back on topic,

I had a chemistry set when I first became interested in chemistry in the first year at secondary school but as I wanted to understand chemistry and not just mess around with a few chemicals I very quickly outgrew it.

I needed a fully equipped laboratory to satisfy my experimental demands and fortunately school offered that. At Norfolk we also had Friday afternoon "Creative Activities" (Stuart and Steve and other ex-Norfolk students of our era will know what that was) and that was a great way to get involved and do a bit of personal research into chemistry, doing riskier things than on the normal curricullum, but still being under the guidance of a good teacher. I have a lot to thank moggy Matthews for.

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If I remember correctly, I had a Kay's Chemistry set which looked like this

As can be seen this set had a limited number of chemical but had both a spirit burner and a Bunsen burner (which worked on coal gas at that time, - not natural gas)

The Merit Chemistry set had more chemicals in it but only had the spirit burner.

Further to this, Merit sold test tubes of its wider range of chemicals and also individual items of glassware, so you could top up use chemicals and replace breakages of glass, or even buy bits of equipment you didn't have in places like REDGATES.

So it was easy to expand your set and replace stuff.

Still nowhere near enough for a serious chemist though.

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Guest trierncheerly

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I had one in about 1956. The chemicals supplied were a bit dull eg ferrous sulphate, copper sulphate & logwood chips(?). However it sparked an interest in chemistry & I paid many visits to Prestons on West Street/ Glossop Road to buy the more exotic chemicals.

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I had one in about 1956. The chemicals supplied were a bit dull eg ferrous sulphate, copper sulphate & logwood chips(?). However it sparked an interest in chemistry & I paid many visits to Prestons on West Street/ Glossop Road to buy the more exotic chemicals.

Logwood chips contain an extractable, water soluble coloured pigment which is frequently used in fabric dying using natural rather than synthetic pigments.

The extracted dye is also an indicator as it has different colours in acids and alkalis - hence its inclusion in chemistry sets, - despite that the fact that the same set also contains litmus / litmus paper which serve the same purpose.

However, if all you want is a simple acid / base indicator there are many readily obtainable plant extracts, some growing wild in the back garden and some on the fruit and veg stall in the market, which would do just as well if not better. Red cabbage indicator is probably the best and easiest to make.

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Talking as we were about chemistry sets and the bother young lads could get up to, reminded me of a news item the other day.

The published facts were very sparse but allegedly a 16 year old lad was arrested under terrorism legislation for having in his possession two of the three chemicals required to make gunpowder.

Obviously we don't know what his intent was but it reminded me of how times have changed from when I was a lad.

In those days almost every lad I knew experimented with such things to make various whiz-bangs.

The chemicals were readily available from our local herbalist, no questions asked, and the only restriction was that he would only sell relatively small quantities at a time.

Of course around bonfire night time more efficient whiz-bangs could be made by combining the charges of several Standard 3-2-1 bangers.

I think the record crater was about 3 feet deep.

In those days our fathers were rather blase' about such things, having recently returned from dodging rather bigger whiz-bangs themselves.

When I think of some of the things that lads brought into school,it makes me cringe.

How times have changed !

At least a Sony PS3 can't remove your fingers in a millisecond.

HD

Edit Thanks to the person who knows a Nintendo from a Sony, I didn't ! :wub: HD

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The published facts were very sparse but allegedly a 16 year old lad was arrested under terrorism legislation for having in his possession two of the three chemicals required to make gunpowder.

What is the World coming to?

2 of the 3 ingredients to make gunpowder indeed!

Sulphur

Carbon

Saltpetre (Potassium nitrate)

All fairly normal everyday chemicals in their own right, all having other legitimate, ordinary, non-explosive related uses.

As hilldweller says, when I was young all 3 chemicals were readily available, no questions asked in reasonable amounts to anyone, - now you get charged with terrorism.

With this now happening how am I, as a chemistry teacher of many years standing supposed to encourage a younger generation into an interest and possible future career in chemistry if they think they are going to be regarded as "terrorists" rather than the respectable people who produce, for example, new life saving drugs?

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Edit Thanks to the person who knows a Nintendo from a Sony, I didn't ! :wub: HD

I did try to PM you HD, but your message box ain't working.
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I did try to PM you HD, but your message box ain't working.

I've just had a look at my message inbox and although I've deleted many of the messages, they still appear on the list but are marked as "deleted".

The bargraph still shows 100 % despite only about 19 messages being active.

Any ideas ?

HD

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I've just had a look at my message inbox and although I've deleted many of the messages, they still appear on the list but are marked as "deleted".

The bargraph still shows 100 % despite only about 19 messages being active.

Any ideas ?

HD

Did you get a pop up asking for confirmation to delete ?

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Did you get a pop up asking for confirmation to delete ?

attachicon.gifmessag.jpg

No because I'd gone into each message and pressed the delete button which simply marked them as deleted.

I've just had another look and noticed the delete function at the bottom of the page, ticked all the deleted items and then used the delete function tickbox, got the pop-up and it worked. :ph34r:

I live but never learn !

Thanks.

HD

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No because I'd gone into each message and pressed the delete button which simply marked them as deleted.

I've just had another look and noticed the delete function at the bottom of the page, ticked all the deleted items and then used the delete function tickbox, got the pop-up and it worked. :ph34r:

I live but never learn !

Thanks.

HD

Glad to hear you sorted it HD
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