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From: badovin@utah-cs.UUCP (Peter Badovinatz)
Newsgroups: net.rec
Subject: Re: Blowing things up
Message-ID: <3247@utah-cs.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 17-Mar-85 22:48:45 EST
Article-I.D.: utah-cs.3247
Posted: Sun Mar 17 22:48:45 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 19-Mar-85 19:42:50 EST
References: <579@unmvax.UUCP> <101600001@hplabs.UUCP>, <339@ihu1m.UUCP>
Organization: Univ of Utah CS Dept
Lines: 21


I remember Nitrogen Tri-iodide well.  Haven't made it in many years.  I agree
with the idea of using a KI solution to increase yield but, be careful.

I was a chemistry lab assistant a few years back in high school.  I mixed up
a 500 ml batch of the stuff after school one day, intending to quickly separate
it into much smaller quantities while still safely in solution.  I was called
away for a phone call and forced to leave it, well soaked I thought, in
a ventilation cabinet when someone found me to tell me of a phone call.  I
expected a short delay but was detained a couple of hours.  Fortunately I
left the lab locked because my creation decided to explode, destroying a number
of windowed cabinet doors and a ventilation hood, along with various glassware.
Smelled terribly and lots of purple smoke.  Needless to say, I was trasnferred
to math assistant for the remainder of the year.

My more recent explosive hobbies have had to be more make-do (no more chemistry
assistantships) but are still quite fun.  I try to avoid destroying anything 
valuable (cabinets, labs, me).

Peter R Badovinatz                    ARPA:  BADOVINATZ@UTAH-20
Univ of Utah CS Dept                  UUCP:  utah-cs!badovin