Autre temps, autre moeurs
 I remember those happy days before the coming of the nanny state, when the study of chemistry was less ruffled by restrictions than it is today. So much could be done without the necessity of ensuring that, whatever you do in the way of practical experiment, you have some sort of legal cover in case anything goes wrong and someone is hurt in the laboratory or at home, simply to guarantee that the lawyers will make someone pay, come what may. In a world, which is by its nature a hazardous place, it offers a wrong perspective, I think.
In my distant grammar school days we performed experiments, often unsupervised
by our instructors, and had little accidents involving explosions, burnings
and gassings that we accepted as par for the course. And this was not
only in the school laboratory but also at home. Towards the end of every
year, our favourite chemistry teachers organised a sale in which we students
were encouraged to send in lists of equipment and chemicals we needed
for our private experiments. They would make out orders for commercial
suppliers, and, come Christmas, we gathered in the laboratory and sorted
out our orders, filling test tubes with the materials and distributing
them in grand session.
Today, schools would be horrified to see what we purchased — sodium,
phosphorus, chlorates, sulphuric acid, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid
and various volatile solvents. Yet I cannot remember any cyanides or
toxic
alkaloids — no doubt our teachers had their precautionary limits.
Curiously enough, there was little emphasis on face screens and protective
goggles, though we rarely encountered serious trouble from physical injury.
Our interests were concentrated on mild explosions, pyrotechnics, foul
odours, startling colour reactions and strange precipitates and effervescences.
I have come across a piece in Chemistry World by a Californian student
describing
his experiences with laboratory stinks in particular. The broadest and
most often encountered class of foul smelling compounds, he remarks,
includes the thiols or mercaptans. Simple alkyl thiols from methyl to
butyl have the odour of an omelette made from skunk, garlic and rotten
eggs. They quickly evaporate and do not linger for long in the vicinity.
The sodium salt of ethanethiol imparts a kick that burns the nose of
the incautious. It will linger in the laboratory for some time and follow
you home unless you take an immediate shower and change your clothes.
Selenides smell even worse than thiols. The alkyldiamines, putrescine
and cadaverine, true to their common names, are not overwhelming, since
they lack volatility.
The alkanoic acids, often oily liquids, are interesting because they
all have goat-like odours, and hexanoic acid has the odour quality of
an entire farmyard. It has never been explained why extending the propionic
acid chain by three carbon atoms alters the odour from that of cheese
to that of goats.
One thing is certain. The experimental chemist who starts to study odours
fair and foul will never find himself at a loose end, but he or she will
never be easily accepted in the bosom of the family home.
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