D Vautier
3/23
In 1957, during my junior year at the Richmond aspirantate I volunteered to be ChemLab assistant. Most of the juniors and seniors in the class were not at all that interested in formulae, compounds, experiments, beakers, test tubes, (other than perhaps in the distillation of alcohol). I, on the other hand had a very keen interest in chemistry especially fun things like ignition sources. After all it was the International Geophysical year and Russia had launched Sputniks and Chipmunks, and Dogniks, and all we had done here were Flopniks (Vanguards). The byword for utter failure was Vanguard. “Hey, are you a vanguard or something?”
So I became lab assistant that year and was in charge of ordering chemicals and preparing lab experiments. I soon found out that zinc dust and sulfer made a real popular rocket fuel so I made sure that the rocket club we had clandestinely formed was always well supplied. I also began to dabble in other ignition sources, like black powder and gunpowder, which were quite easy to make. I then moved on and tried some more adventurous things like fulminate of iodine and fulminate of mercury, which tended to be very volatile and not too practical to use.
It was not long before I got up my
courage to attempt the greatest challenge of all, whipping up my own private
batch of nitroglycerine. All that was needed was some sulfuric acid, nitric
acid, glycerin and a lot of care. What could be simpler than this? So I heated
the sulfuric acid (which acts as a catalyst). I then carefully added the
glycerin, and then stirred in nitric acid. The sulfuric acid began to settle
out as predicted, but as the nitric acid came to the top of solution I noticed
some small bubbles forming. At that moment I realized that things were not
quite working out the way they should. Something had gone terribly wrong! I
immediately ducked down behind the granite lab table as this huge eruption of
nitric acid sprayed the entire lab. I desperately spent the next hour in rubber
apron, gloves, and mask, cleaning the entire lab. The experiment blew out one
of the ceiling tiles so I moved it to the corner of the lab behind the chemical
shelves where the father wouldn’t notice. Nobody ever found out about any of
this and it has remained my secret until this day.
I suppose I did learn a valuable lesson from this whole nitroglycerine episode but I’m not so sure I did learn anything. After all I still displayed the same recklessness and abandon toward life that I always had. How I ever survived to old age remains a mystery.