By Josh Bloom — Mar 31, 2025
Does the Dreaded Chemistry Lesson From Hell have an impact? Hell yeah. A former colleague responded to a recent lesson about purifying silver. His memoir is pure gold.
Inspired by a recent article from the deeply unpopular Dreaded Chemistry Lesson from Hell® series, Steve (yes, his real name), a long-time friend and former colleague who should probably be institutionalized, wrote the following reminiscence. It needs to be shared. [1]
A letter from Steve
Hello from chemistry hell–Steve here
⇒Could this be Steve from "Steve and Irving," the long-time hosts of the Dreaded Chemistry Lesson from Hell®? Maybe, maybe not. Keep reading.
Steve (left) and Irving have been "peacefully" — albeit reluctantly — hosting the DCLFR incognito for five years.
An inspiration from the Dreaded Chemistry Lesson from Hell®!
⇒Steve (or what's left of him) writes a memoir:
"You are describing the chemistry I did in my backyard lab when I was in my early teens (~13). I would dissolve silver quarters, which were the only kind at the time [2], in homemade nitric acid (from 80% sulfuric acid and hobby store sodium nitrate [3]).
⇒Where did he get 80% sulfuric acid?
"I boiled down a liter of battery acid in an open beaker until it was smoking sulfur dioxide, then added it to sodium nitrate and distilled out concentrated nitric acid using a glass retort heated with an alcohol lamp burner sitting on a tripod with an asbestos mat screen for even heating."
⇒Oh, that's just swell. What could possibly go wrong?
Whipping up nitric acid in your little backyard lab? Bold move. Right up there with mixing cocktails using uranium and wondering why your eyebrows are missing. But hey, what’s science without a little self-immolation? Throw in his preparation of face-eating concentrated sulfuric acid from distillation of car battery acid and there's the Dumbell Daily Double. But there were consequences.
"I did get in trouble with my parents because any little splattered droplet of sulfuric acid that landed on my clothing would eat a hole in the cloth leaving my pants and shirts full of holes that materialized upon washing."
Note: Steve’s outfits later in life weren’t whole lot different.
We're just getting started
"I then would add my homemade 95% (190 proof) ethanol to the nitric acid silver nitrate solution and watched without safety glasses a vigorous reaction that first spewed out lots of toxic red nitric oxide (I had to step outside to avoid breathing in too much of the stuff) followed by a heavy white smoke of toxic acetaldehyde."
⇒This is twisted on many levels:
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A vigorous reaction that spews out nitric oxide (toxic) followed by acetaldehyde (toxic, eye irritant, carcinogen) with a really interesting sweet choking smell. All performed without safety goggles — duh!
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Steve owned safety goggles; he simply chose not to use them – double duh!
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At least the idiot had the sense to step outside when nitrogen dioxide, a brown, choking evil gas, filled the garage.
What's Steve doing with all of this? Boom.
"Silver fulminate crystals would then materialize upon returning to room temperature. I filtered crystals off and air dried them to give me the big fun-time loud, quite sensitive, and powerful primary explosive, silver fulminate."
⇒Was it worth the trouble? See for yourself.
Steve ain't kidding. A YouTube video of silver fulminate in action. Don't miss what it does to the soda can at the end.
But there's more. Next up: Silver acetylide vs. potato
For preparation of silver acetylide (Ag₂C₂), I first had to precipitate silver chloride - by adding brine to the aforementioned homemade silver nitrate - filtering off the silver chloride then adding it to ammonia water.
⇒No problem so far. Quite safe.
⇒But not for long
"Bubbling in acetylene gave silver acetylide precipitate which after being filtered and dried gave a very nifty primary explosive."
Here's video of another charming substance–silver acetylide (a very small amount of it) blowing up a potato.
As long as you're putting your life at risk, why not look like a freak?
The thing is, I would spill silver nitrate on my arms and hands which would deposit a black silver wherever I spilled it. One time I had a large streak running down my arm. And, of course, nitric acid would leave yellow-colored blotches on my fingers, if I was sloppy, which I was from time to time. It could take a month for those stains to fade."
This is what silver nitrate does to skin. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Steve, the philosopher, emerges from the lab!
"Them silver coins bought a lot of explosive fun in my youth.
Yet, here I am at three silver quarters of a century old. With wonderful memories of dissolving silver coins in homemade concentrated nitric acid. The good old days were indeed very good to me."
⇒I'm not quite sure what literary device he just used, but it blew me up away.
A final word
"Maybe next time you conjure up Steve for a chemistry lesson from hell, he can tell the above story with a photo of that retort that I still have in a box in my attic."
⇒I would be quite interested in seeing the photos from his attic — provided he can find them among the well preserved body parts up there.
Is Steve "Steve?"
Although I did not consciously use the real Steve when I started the DCLFH® , it would be hard to dismiss the possibility. He's a brilliant chemist and writer and I've learned much from him over the years, most of which should not be passed along to today's young.
What about the use of "hell?" Hard to say, but the two of us did spend a couple of years in Philadelphia, which was first prize for unfortunate young wayward chemists.
Steve and Irving (or is it Steve and Josh?) continue the pointless and eternal debate about cheesesteaks while bemoaning their geographical demotion.
NOTES:
(1) This is hardly the only time that Steve blew things up. He got me good when he mined my entire lab with nitrogen triiodide, an insanely sensitive contact explosive. And I retaliated. See Blowing Up Your Lab Mate is a Bad Idea, But It Sure Is Fun.
(2) Prior to 1965 dimes, quarters, half-dollars, and dollar coins, were made from 90% silver and 10% copper. These coins are worth more than 20 times their face value just for the silver.
(3) Sodium nitrate can be used for a number of hobbies, including curing meat (for crazies only) pyrotechnics. Steve did not cure meat.
Category
Josh Bloom
Director of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Science
Dr. Josh Bloom, the Director of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Science, comes from the world of drug discovery, where he did research for more than 20 years. He holds a Ph.D. in chemistry.
