Testing INSANE chemistry recipes from a 1933 formulary book (part 3)

I've pulled a ton of awesome stuff out of  trash cans over the years but my favorite   find is definitely this chemical formulary  book from 1933. I mean there's just so many   brilliant recipes inside from things like soaps  and cosmetics to explosives and medications this   thing would have been a gold mine to a nerd living  in the 30s now if you've seen any of my previous   videos on this book you'll know there's some  just absolutely insane recipes in here too so   of course those will be the ones I'll be testing  today now I know what you're thinking why on Earth   am I making a part three of this series when  I was nearly banned for the first two videos   well after chatting with YouTube a bit it seems  they didn't like my use of cannons which I guess   makes sense so no more cannons something I should  have mentioned last time is that I'm literally   a chemist I have the degree I've worked in a lab  I've even taught it and yes the experiments you're   about to see are extremely dangerous however I  am more than qualified to do them in a safe and   controlled manner and no you should not attempt  them because you'd probably get killed I mean   there's a lot of reasons why I do this stuff I  mean yeah it's fun but I think that there's a lot   to learn from the historic aspects of chemistry  and I also want students out there to see that   science is a lot cooler than just filling out  worksheets anyway let's see how much further   I can get through this book without violating  the Geneva Convention oh yeah I'll be testing   recipes from a bunch of volumes this time not just  the first one have you ever thought that crayons   just aren't bright enough well it turns out making  a fluorescent crayon is actually pretty easy all   you need are some uranium salts okay but seriously  uranium in a crayon what were they thinking this   is one of the worst ideas I've ever heard of  I can't wait to try it out in this recipe I'll   be using uranyl nitrate as the uranium salt heh  uranyl now uranium salts are radioactive but what   really makes them scary is their chemical toxicity  uranium is a heavy metal after all on the flip   side many uranium salts are absolutely gorgeous  strongly fluorescent in some of the most beautiful   chemical compounds out there it's quite unfair how  something that looks so yummy is actually so toxic   as for the crayon I ground up the calcium  carbonate with the plaster dissolve the uranyl   nitrate in water and then mixed them together the  resultant mix isn't as fluorescent as it results   in a uranyl carbonate precipitate but without the  calcium carbonate the crayons would be too hard to   draw with I put the paste in a syringe to act as  a mold and let it harden for a few days here is   the finished uranium crayon it's really more of  a chalk which means it's prone to making toxic   dust as you use it it does glow nicely under  UV light though yeah it's actually pretty hard   to draw with and it is pretty crumbly as well  toxicity aside it does look pretty neat under   UV still though the coolness to Danger ratio  isn't quite worth it in my opinion the recipe   said that anthracene could be used instead of the  uranium so I made some crayons based on anthracene   as well these actually glowed brighter and with  a blue glow instead of green these anthracene   crayons are significantly less toxic than the  uranium ones as well which is an added benefit this one's just in time for the never-ending  coof season it's a sore throat remedy now the   ingredients in here look pretty sketchy  so I guess I'm just gonna have to make   some and see what it does I'm not  sure what the function of any of   these ingredients is honestly and in fact  the recipe is quite toxic now you'd think   that mixing a strong Lewis acid with a  potent oxidizer in an organic solvent oh I uh don't think that was supposed to happen  maybe those beautiful flames are supposed to   distract you from your sore throats either that or  I made a bad assumption when the recipe called for   a tincture I figured it meant making a tincture of  all that stuff but in hindsight it probably meant   using a ferric chloride tincture as one of the  ingredients that would make more sense because   tinctures of ferric chloride were used in medicine  a long time ago and it would also keep the iron   dosages below lethal levels now this auto ignition  reaction is actually quite interesting the sheer   act of dissolving the anhydrous ferric chloride  in ethanol does release a substantial amount of   heat and it boils nearly as soon as it's mixed  even so I don't think that's the only factor for   flames here ferric chloride is a strong Lewis acid  and it wouldn't surprise me if it's generating   chloric acid on solvation with the chlorate this  compound reacts violently with organic compounds   and all the little explosions going on in there  make me think that chloric acid is playing a role   I've mixed up a new batch of this stuff by  first diluting the ferric chloride in water   and then adding the other chemicals now if  the first reaction wasn't enough to dissuade   using it as medicine I better stick in some  aluminum foil in there to see what it does   wow not only is this stuff toxic and a  fire hazard it's also highly corrosive neat   if you're an American with asthma you probably  have to pay a lot for inhalers so instead consider   this homeopathic alternative asthma relief  cigarette I bet your lungs feel amazing after one   of these I'm kidding this is a horrible idea this  is a recipe for a magnetizable fluid now honestly   I don't see this working that well I'll take any  excuse to play with Mercury mmmm Mercury yet again   it's unfair that something so beautiful has to be  so toxic now to be honest the liquid metal itself   is actually quite inert but it does evaporate  enough to be a problem if there's a spill now   the only thing more toxic than the mercury in this  formula is the volumetric measurements of solid   powders gross the powders don't seem to dissolve  at all but that's probably intentional check out   what happens when I bring a magnet near it there  seems to be a distance and corresponding field   strength where the effect is most dramatic here  you can see the field lines actually quite well   but when the magnet gets too close it just bunches  up the iron powder there this is actually a neat   effect really because a strong magnet makes the  liquid act like a switch between dull and shiny   don't you hate how easy it is to get severe burns  when playing with fire well lucky for you here's a   nice recipe for cold fire now according to the  book this stuff can be applied to the skin and   hair without causing injury now there's a lot  to unravel with this one cold fire how's that   even possible also carbon tetrachloride isn't that  the stuff that got banned from nearly everything   because it it causes cancer it destroys the  ozone layer and it's extremely toxic to the liver   oh yes yes it is so it does seem a bit sketchy to  you know rub this stuff all of your body and light   it on fire but even so I think it's worth trying  out let's see how inflammable this stuff really is   gosh inflammable such a stupid word well that's  a cool looking flame is it actually cold though   let's try letting some paper on fire with it   okay so it's not that cold but it does take a  while for it to catch on fire so that is pretty   nifty now check this out if I dip the paper in the  burning liquid the part that comes in contact with   the liquid doesn't actually burn that's because  only half of this mix combusts in the flame and   that's the carbon disulfide the tetrachloride  actually poisons the fuel and absorbs a   substantial amount of heat as it evaporates this  protects whatever surface the mix is burning on   in fact this is why carbon tetrachloride was  used in fire extinguishers before they figured   out it was cancer juice ignoring the huge health  risks of the chemicals this stuff probably could   be put on skin and lit on fire without causing  burns as tempting as it is though even I'm not   dumb enough to try it like seriously every  single part about this is stupidly toxic   there's actually another cold fire recipe just  below it in this book and although not quite as   dramatic it's one popular among chemistry teachers  and has the added benefit of not inducing cancer   in the audience I like to add a pinch of baking  soda to the mix to make the flame bright yellow   if you're like most people and stare at screens  all day there's a good chance you've dealt with   dry and irritated eyes at some point so what's  the solution Mercury salts and opium applied   directly to your eyeballs if that doesn't make  your eyes feel better I don't know what will   I've always been looking for a method of  hardening copper and check it out most of   what I need is just pee this is another one  of those formulas where I'm not quite certain   what the function of the ingredients is I  bet the hardening here is just due to the   quenching and the chemicals probably just clean  and passivate the surface all right here we go mmmm that smells amazing okay so is the  copper actually harder now let me give   these a good scraping here okay yeah I  think the uh I think the treated one is   a little bit harder it doesn't scratch as  deep at least I'm curious how the structure   changed so I'm bending an untreated one  as a control now for the treated one huh it feels stiffer but it's  actually easier to fold interesting   no parade is complete without purple flames  and Mercury fumes and this torch has them   both look at that 10 percent calomel so  calomel is mostly just Mercury so burning   this in a parade is just going to fumigate the  entire audience however it probably does make a   gorgeous purple flame so I'm kind of tempted to  try it out anyway I couldn't justify spraying   hot Mercury fumes everywhere so I swapped out  the calomel with chlorinated rubber the fumes   are still going to be awful at least it's not  Mercury I guess well here goes nothing foreign that's the most purple thing I've ever seen  in my life amazing it looks like the Mercury   wasn't needed after all just a source  of chlorine to deepen the flame colors this book is very generous with its use of  cyanide whether you need to clean some coins   or just keep your engine running smoothly they  always find a way to throw some cyanide in the   mix how lucky for us they also include this  convenient procedure for dealing with your   inevitable cyanide poisoning the first steps  aren't anything crazy but check out step   four that is one of the best sentences I've  ever read if patient survives give a emetic   and after vomiting supportive of strong coffee  with brandy or whiskey let's party you survived   don't you hate it how easy it is to ruin furniture  by spilling acid on it well thankfully this can   be a thing of the past with this acid proofing  concoction I love how making acid-proof wood   involves pouring boiling acid on it what doesn't  kill you makes you stronger right the coats of   the first solution didn't do anything crazy but  things got interesting with the second one the   wood started changing color and dipping the  paintbrush back into the solution caused it   to change color as well after the wood dried it  became much darker and the second coating made it   turn black the chemistry here is a polymerization  reaction that produces a polyaniline compound   these compounds are both acid resistant and  potent dyes by some crazy coincidence a chemist   friend of mine stumbled upon this very recipe in  a publication from 1925 on building a low-cost   chemistry teaching lab okay so is it actually acid  proof let's dump some concentrated hydrochloric   acid on there and find out huh it really  didn't do much to either of them interesting let's try something much nastier  this time sulfuric acid tends to   chew up most organic stuff it encounters  because it's a potent dehydrating agent yeah it looks like it chewed up the untreated  stuff at least let's drop the base and investigate   the surface of the untreated stuff has been  turned into a gummy mess the treated piece has   been affected too though it's not pitted nearly  as badly but some of the treatment does rub off   I'm not sure how much of it is the linseed  oil versus the wooden polyaniline either way   it's not acid proof but it is acid resistant  and it's certainly an interesting formula   this one's from the alloy section it's an  alloy that's apparently useful in making   electrical fuses now I'm not exactly one to  fuse my electronics but check out that melting   point this stuff should be able to melt in hot  water which I think is pretty impressive for   such easy to find Metals I'll definitely be  trying this one out I started by melting the   lead and bismuth together then once that was  molten I mixed in the tin shot unfortunately   I had a small incident which required me to  melt it all back down again before casting   it into cute little coin sized pieces so it  doesn't melt in hot water one way to find out   hmm any second now okay the water is clearly  boiling at this point and the metal is still solid   what's going on it looks like the book lied to me  it turns out that no mix of these three metals can   have a melting point of 168 Fahrenheit well that's  disappointing but maybe it still works as a fuse I'll take that as a yes this one looks pretty  simple it's a remedy for sneezing I mean you   can't sneeze if you're unconscious right okay this  one's called toilet milk what what is toilet milk   I I looked it up on Google and I couldn't find  any meaningful answers I guess I'm just going   to make some of this stuff and see what it does  I figured this was supposed to be an emulsion   of some sort so I started by dissolving the cetyl  alcohol in the oil then added glycerin after that   as for the soap I threw in a little lard soap  solution and also added a bit of freshly diced   bar soap for a good measure I added the water  but the compounds really didn't want to mix   at this point so I tossed the whole thing in the  microwave for a few minutes and after shaking the   mix was nice and uniform well I still don't know  what this stuff is oh yeah I forgot the perfume okay now it makes sense this is clearly  some kind of highly moisturizing soap which   means only one thing it's obviously  for nourishing your toilet I can't   think of a better mix for cleaning and  lubricating those pipes drink up Nessie this one seems easy enough determining the  polarity of batteries this is about as simple   as it gets for our recipe so I felt it was worth  trying out all right here we go oh yeah look   at that it does indeed make a brown spot the  battery drives an electrolysis reaction that   oxidizes I had died into iodine at the positive  terminal and that's what gives it that color Nifty   there's a lot of cool electroplating techniques  in this book but here's a recipe that simply   chemically plates silver onto glass and ignoring  the potential explosion hazard there of ammonia   and silver this actually seems like a cool way  to make some DIY mirrors I made my silver nitrate   by dissolving silver bars in nitric acid and  yeah that gas is as toxic as it looks now this   first solution here generates a silver ammonia  complex called Tollen's reagent it's used to   detect aldehydes in the lab this compound has to  be used fairly quickly because it'll degrade into   the extremely unstable silver nitride I taped  off one side of these glass slides in order to   restrict plating to one surface after mixing  in the sugar solution silver began to coat the   inside of the beaker and after a few minutes  it was super shiny oh wow that turned out way   better than I expected that's actually a really  nice mirror I can't believe how well that worked   this beaker is even more impressive though look  at that incredible finish it's funny because the   recipes in this old book feel like mixing potions  and casting spells sometimes and this is a perfect   example of that I just made a dark murky liquid  that coats glass in a brilliant silver shine this   is straight up witchcraft chemistry is just  modern alchemy after all and the best part   is that the science doesn't kill the magic now  before I end this video I feel like I owe it   to the editors to clarify some stuff it may seem  like all the recipes in these old books are just   insane but I'm focusing on the craziest recipes  here in reality these books were an incredible   resource for their day and not just for chemists  either you'll have all kinds of formulas for all   different Industries all in a single place if you  look at the inventories for some old libraries   you'll find that some of them still have like  a hundred copies on hand just because they were   so popular back then yeah we've come a long way  in 90 years but the same time it's impressive to   see what they're able to accomplish back then  as well so it's been a while since I've posted   anything uh actually about a year and I'm sure  you're wondering why that is and uh so I actually   moved and I built a new lab uh and that's taken  up like you know all my time uh it's been a crazy   production but I mean just moving all my heavy  stuff and then you know all the construction so   that's uh that's been you know quite an ordeal but  I also made a new friend here I got I got Ophelia   here she's uh she's a great helper for me but  uh yeah uh now that I have my operation running   again I'm gonna be posting a lot more videos so  uh stay tuned hey good morning you're a silly girl you're a good girl

Channel: styropyro

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Id: OCFmQd15SRo

Length: 17min 15sec (1035 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 22 2022