Edmund Scientific

[Denny]

Don't be trying to pin cheap crass commercialism on me.

moi?

[Feadoggie]

It is funny reading what use to be possible. As I was growing up you couldn't buy basic chemicals. I think you have to be 18 now to buy dry ice.

1962 Sears "dream book" (holiday catalog).






And I grew up in the area where the largest employer by far had the slogan "Better Living...Through Chemistry". No limits that I can recall. Thems were the days, boy!

Feadoggie

[robert schuler]

Got my first Edmund catalog in 1966. A real mind blower if you were an amature astronomer like me... I found an old order from 1967 I was putting together that I had no way of paying for to build a 6" refracting telescope for $235 out of war surplus parts... The Edmund catalog was the stuff dreams were made of... Bob.

[Doug_Tipple]

I loved my chemistry set that had a special section, believe it or not, in the guidebook about making explosives. I had all the chemicals that I needed to make gunpowder. If I remember correctly (it was in the 50's), you mixed powered charcoal, sulfur, and potassium nitrate. There wasn't enough chemicals in the little bottles to do too much harm, but you could sure upset the people in the neighborhood with your minor explosions in the backyard..

[Nanohedron]

I think you have to be 18 now to buy dry ice.

Since I'm not a trafficker, at my age I couldn't tell you. But after those misspent years of hanging out in tiki lounges named Bali Hai or Blue Lagoon, noshing on Crab Rangoon and Pupu platters, and having to bear seeing this sort of thing...



...I think the reasons for it would be clear enough.

[Feadoggie]

I loved my chemistry set that had a special section, believe it or not, in the guidebook about making explosives. I had all the chemicals that I needed to make gunpowder. If I remember correctly (it was in the 50's), you mixed powered charcoal, sulfur, and potassium nitrate. There wasn't enough chemicals in the little bottles to do too much harm, but you could sure upset the people in the neighborhood with your minor explosions in the backyard..

Growing in Delaware, home of DuPont, Hercules Powder and Atlas Powder Companys, every kid seemed to know how to make explosives. It seemed to be the neighborhood version of home brew. And to reinforce the "things that go boom" mindset we had school trips to Hagley Mills most years to review where DuPont originally made their explosives.

But you didn't really have to make your own gun powder in the fifties, Doug. Remember those red paper rolls for your Hubley cap gun? Scrape enough powder out of those and you could make a real noise! Not that I ever did that.

But then the post WWII era saw most of the boys in our area armed and ready to fight anyway. They called us Boy Scouts but we knew what was really going on.

It was those Atomic Energy chemistry sets that still have me thinking.

Feadoggie

[mutepointe]

Not everyone knew how to make gunpowder. I didn't know how to make gunpowder. My oldest brother knew how to make some kind of gunpowder stuff and he'd leave it all over the house drying. I spent my time playing with loose mercury and I turned out fine.

[Feadoggie]

I spent my time playing with loose mercury and I turned out fine.

Yeah, I've wondered about that over the years. I don't know how much was understood in the general population about mercury when I was a kid either. Quicksilver seemed to be around as you said. I can recall coating pennies with the stuff. It's the vapors that get you. I know that mercury poisoning wasn't identified as Kawasaki's Disease until the late '60's which was too late for me. So maybe they were just figuring things out - like those radioactive chemistry sets.

Feadoggie

[mutepointe]

It's an inside joke in my family that anyone we have ever known who says, "...and I turned out fine" never quite looks like they did.

[missy]

My ex reloaded. My boys spent their fair share of time blowing things up, including "augmentation" of the payloads on Estes Rockets.

A really great way to blow something up is to put a dry ice pellet in a 2 liter plastic soda bottle with just a tiny bit of water, seal it tights and sit it out in the sun. Timing is a bit tricky (aka - non-existent) but it makes a spectacular boom and quite a bit of shrapnel.

"Back in the day" (and before I was a safety leader) we'd have fun in the lab with such things as sodium pellets in drains, lighting acetone flames, making tri-iodide crystals and yes, coating things with mercury. Of course, many of the folks I originally started working with some 33 years ago are dead now, quite a few of cancer.

[I.D.10-t]

Kind of funny how for every new job invented we find new ways they are hurting us. Hatters use to get neurological problems from the mercury, farm accidents, heck now it seems that the act of sitting for 8 hours could be horrible for your long term health. Kids don't break bones in sports as much, but now are getting repetitive stress injuries. Meanwhile we place guards and safeties on things and yet seem to be getting worse at risk assessment and forethought.

The one workplace safety thing that I don't like is the token signs and rules that seem to have no purpose other than to cover management's butt. The posters and signs that state use of appropriate safety is required without any indication of what it is. Protective gloves often seemed poorly documented and seemed to give a false sense of safety.

[missy]

Kind of funny how for every new job invented we find new ways they are hurting us. Hatters use to get neurological problems from the mercury, farm accidents, heck now it seems that the act of sitting for 8 hours could be horrible for your long term health. Kids don't break bones in sports as much, but now are getting repetitive stress injuries. Meanwhile we place guards and safeties on things and yet seem to be getting worse at risk assessment and forethought.

The one workplace safety thing that I don't like is the token signs and rules that seem to have no purpose other than to cover management's butt. The posters and signs that state use of appropriate safety is required without any indication of what it is. Protective gloves often seemed poorly documented and seemed to give a false sense of safety.

Yep. That's why all of our Safe Practices (we call them that as opposed to SOP to differentiate the QA requirements) have to be clear, and state what you MUST do to be safe. PPE, for instance, must read "Safety glasses with side shields, nitrile gloves, and buttoned lab coats required". If more is needed, that is listed. The only "blanket" statement I will permit is "PPE appropriate to chemicals in use, see risk assessment (which will state all the engineering controls and specific PPE) or talk to site CHO (aka - me)".

If a method is using acid or base, and the quantities cannot be contained easily in the fume hood with the sash down, I require a face shield with goggles, butyl or neoprene gloves, and lab apron.

All of our labs are posted "Safety Glasses with side shield required". Period. End of discussion. This includes everyone that walks into lab from contractor to vice president.

No one gets into our PRL without safety glasses with side shield, lab coat, hair net, beard cover (if needed), steel toed shoes and no jewelry - even if you aren't doing any work.

Our higher level Safe Practices (for things such as PRL equipment) has actual photographs of the equipment, where the guards are, and for what reason, and the step by step listing of how to de-energize the equipment completely. For Cat 3 and AMEC equipment (alternate means of energy control) our lead tech safety and electrical engineer must go over the schematics to prove it truly does disengage without having to perform LO/TO.

And no piece of equipment (other than very simple lab equipment such as balances and pH meters) cannot be used until a Safe Practice is posted on our safety website and it's been stickered for use.

People hate me.

[mutepointe]

Can you get them to wash their hands after going to the bathroom? That seems to be the biggest hurdle of all time.

[missy]

Can you get them to wash their hands after going to the bathroom? That seems to be the biggest hurdle of all time.

Don't know about the mens room, but in the womens, the hurdle is having them replace a roll of paper towels.

You don't want to know what our fire chief had to say about all the bottles of hand sanitizer building and services put out all over the building after he found out it was 62% ethanol.

[Nanohedron]

...SOP...QA...PPE...CHO...PRL...Cat 3...AMEC...LO/TO...

..............

People hate me.

Maybe try not abbreviating at them, then!