Orchid XP v7 wrote:

> 
> I recall Sodium as being yellow... (At least, unless you get it. The 
> resulting surface is silver, but corrodes faster than a Landrover.)
> 

Seems like it was a grayish metal with a cream-yellow colored crust over it.

> - When we ran out of matches, my dad used a mixture of glycerin and 
> potassium permangenate to light the bonfire. (Actually, a small ant 
> crawlled into the thick sticky glycerin blob moments before ignition...)

Almost as good as when I convinced my parents to order some potassium 
permanganate. I knew what would happen, and did the same on our back 
porch. My mom wasn't too pleased. My dad was a bit concerned. I didn't 
get grounded. They didn't quite know what to do with the rest of a very 
powerful oxidizer.

> - My dad made gunpowder once. It made quite a bang...
> 
> - Apparently if you mix amonia and some other compound together, the 
> resulting mixture explodes when it dries out. We smeared it over a 
> cardboard box in the garden. For some reason, it only ever exploded at 
> night... A succession of small pops and bangs.

sounds like nitrogen triiodide. Contact explosive... supposedly fun stuff..

> - There's a trick you can do with (IIRC) hydrogen chloride. It absorbs 
> water quite well. So if you will a bottle with hydrogen chloride and 
> then put a tube into a tub of water, you get a little fountain inside 
> the bottle as the pressure drops. For added amusement, add some 
> indicator to the water. (I recall the blue liquid emerging in the bottle 
> as a bright yellow fountain.)

I think I need a diagram to understand this one. the description of the 
set up is a bit unclear.. Hmm.

> - Flash powder. Finely powdered alunimium with potassium permangenate. I 
> have no idea what colour the flash it actually produces is - as this 
> point, you're usually just glad to be able to *see* again! (I actually 
> put some of this stuff into the school bonfire - but that's another 
> story. It seems I'm currently fresh out of KMnO4...)

Hmmmm..

Actually, I don't know if its the same for the UK, but in the US, 
potassium permaganate is apparently (according to Wikipedia) considered 
a drug precursor and is apparently difficult to get without going 
through all sorts of DEA procedures and forms.

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