Chemistry, Period 1, 11/21

[tyler_gone]

The circles under Tyler's eyes were dark as kohl, and he held himself stiffly as he plopped Smoochy's head on his desk, then turned to face the class.

"Gunpowder," he announced, changing the class topic because he knew he couldn't do nitroglycerin if he was less than at his best. "We're making it. We aren't in the Danger Shop today, so put your lab coats, goggles and gloves on, and, ladies, pull your hair back." He waited for his instructions to be followed before talking again.

"What you're going to do is combine sulfur, saltpeter and carbon. You're going to grind them all up, then mix them, four parts saltpeter to one of carbon -- your carbon is in charcoal briquettes -- and one of sulfur." He turned to scrawl 2 KNO3 + S + 3 C → K2S + N2 + 3 CO2 on the board. "That is the reaction behind it," he said, going on to explain the equation. "Once you've got the powder fine enough, show me and, if it looks okay, we can go outside and set off model rockets with it."

"This is the real stuff. People get hurt doing this. Any questions, comments, anything looks funny, please talk to me before you blow your hand off."

Comments

Re: Experiment! [11/21]

[raspberryturk]

Reno was the very image of concentration while he worked with the gunpowder. It really wasn't the sort of explosive substance that he was used to making from scratch, and blowing himself up once already was more than enough for this semester.