The Chemistry Set

My father ambitiously gave Josh a microscope and me a chemistry set for Christmas one year. I loved my chemistry set. My dad helped us make a concoction of cobalt which changed colors with heating and cooling. It was the coolest thing ever. Josh and I attempted to do our own experiments with the chemistry set. We would mix rubbing alcohol with various chemicals found in the set. This mixture, in a test tube, we would then put a cork to seal the mixture. We would shake it and then heat the alcohol mixture over a flame.

As the alcohol evaporated from the heat it built up pressure inside the sealed test tube. The concept of heating a liquid in a sealed container was foreign for the likes of a 5 year old. All-of-a-sudden it happened . . . the cork blew off the top of the test tube and the alcohol mixture with it! The flame from the heat source ignited the fumes and the liquid spewing from the test tube. The burning alcohol was spread all over the walls. Combined with the cobalt and various metals and salts dissolved in the alcohol the flames were beautiful colors, purple, blue, red, violet, and orange. Despite the beauty of the flames the fear of burning the house down prompted us to quell the flames. Josh and I rushed to smother the flames, and luckily we did. My parents didn't find out about how close we had come to burning down their house until just recently. In fact, I better give a preemptive warning to my parents if they read this blog that there might be stories here that they've never heard before. We kept them secret for a reason. And boy, there were some close ones!