The Prometheus Club - a gentlemen´s club for mad scientists

[OldProfessorBear]

Anyone here know where I can get some fluorine(in compound form, i know by itself it can just become horribly poisonous) and some phosphorous?
Also some lime? (as in the chemical not the fruit)

If by lime you mean sodium hydroxide, get ye to a soapmakers, man. For the others, your best bet is probably looking for a supplier of chemicals to schools and the like.

That's lye, not lime. Lime should be readily available at a garden center. Unless you want quicklime, which you would probably have to get from a latrine supply specialist.

[Think_Long]

Anyone here know where I can get some fluorine(in compound form, i know by itself it can just become horribly poisonous) and some phosphorous?
Also some lime? (as in the chemical not the fruit)

and what, exactly, are you planning? . . .

[Sir Nikolas of Vendigroth]

I tell you man, roast some limestone. LIME. STONE.

800'C for a hour or so should do it.

[JingleJoe]

Anyone here know where I can get some fluorine(in compound form, i know by itself it can just become horribly poisonous) and some phosphorous?
Also some lime? (as in the chemical not the fruit)

and what, exactly, are you planning? . . .

I'm going to give you one list of ingredients for this ... experiment.
And if you know what I'm planning, don't say, that goes for all who do know!!!
It's more fun to see peoples reactions and speculations as to ... The List.
(I'll note on which I've acquired)

List: ShowHide

Water: 35 liters - (acquired)

Carbon: 20 kg - (acquired)

Ammonia: 4 liters

Lime: 1.5 kg

Phosphorus: 800g

Salt: 250g - (acquired)

Saltpeter: 100g - (acquired)

Sulfur: 80g - (acquired)

Fluorine: 7.5g

Iron: 5g- (acquired)

Silicon: 3g - (acquired)

15 other elements in small quantities - (acquired)

I tell you man, roast some limestone. LIME. STONE.
800'C for a hour or so should do it.

Will do
What temperature does odd bits of wood burn at?

[Atterton]

I know what it is for now. I wish you good luck with that endeavour. 

[professortucker]

Anyone here know where I can get some fluorine(in compound form, i know by itself it can just become horribly poisonous) and some phosphorous?
Also some lime? (as in the chemical not the fruit)

and what, exactly, are you planning? . . .

I'm going to give you one list of ingredients for this ... experiment.
And if you know what I'm planning, don't say, that goes for all who do know!!!
It's more fun to see peoples reactions and speculations as to ... The List.
(I'll note on which I've acquired)

List: ShowHide

Water: 35 liters - (acquired)

Carbon: 20 kg - (acquired)

Ammonia: 4 liters

Lime: 1.5 kg

Phosphorus: 800g

Salt: 250g - (acquired)

Saltpeter: 100g - (acquired)

Sulfur: 80g - (acquired)

Fluorine: 7.5g

Iron: 5g- (acquired)

Silicon: 3g - (acquired)

15 other elements in small quantities - (acquired)

I tell you man, roast some limestone. LIME. STONE.
800'C for a hour or so should do it.

Will do
What temperature does odd bits of wood burn at?

If you end up in a suit of Armor, can I, like, take videos of you and put them on youtube?

[JingleJoe]

Yes prof, yes you can but they have to each have thier own little quirks e.g. in suit of armour playing accordion song = "all your base" or in suit of armour running through feild of flowers shouting "YES! YES! NO MORE HAYFEVER!"


(P.S. I can play "All your base" on the accordion )

(P.P.S. Thanks for the well wishing Atteron )

[Ella Kremper]

Ah, to the days when mad science just involved stealing your mother's bicarbonate of soda and pouring vinegar or lemon juice on it, preferably causing the result to appear from the top of the volcano on Tracy Island after watching Blue Peter.

[Atterton]

I watched that video earlier of the reanimated dog. It was quite interesting to see the organs continuing their functions outside of the body. I was thinking, other than oxygen what would be required to keep a brain alive in a jar for a while?

[JingleJoe]

I watched that video earlier of the reanimated dog. It was quite interesting to see the organs continuing their functions outside of the body. I was thinking, other than oxygen what would be required to keep a brain alive in a jar for a while?

I'm guessing some sort of nutrient rich fluid and electricity.
Raises the question- are humans AC or DC?

[Ella Kremper]

I watched that video earlier of the reanimated dog. It was quite interesting to see the organs continuing their functions outside of the body. I was thinking, other than oxygen what would be required to keep a brain alive in a jar for a while?

The short story, William and Mary by Roald Dahl involves the brain, one optic nerve and an eye of William being fed with an artificial blood supply in a bowl of stuff so he is 'alive'.

With regards to what else would be needed, the osmotic content would have to been kept balanced so the brain would likely have been kept in a saline solution involving a mix of ions - sodium and potassium ions due to Na+/Ka+ pumps, calcium and chloride ions. A constant blood supply would be needed so that any excretory productions from cells could be removed, otherwise it would be rather nasty. In addition, the solution would need to be kept sterile. The blood-brain barrier would need to be kept intact otherwise nasty infections could get in there.

[Sir Nikolas of Vendigroth]

Right, to hit 800'C, you need:

Wood. This'll burn down inco charcoal, which provides the heat.

Limestone. Make a bed of limestone, in chunks about an inch in diameter, then build the fire on top of them. Remember; You lose mass as the CO2 escapes. Also, the transformation isn't likely to be complete, there'll still be some calcium carbonate in there.

Air. Ye moves it 'cross the charcoal, see?

Just build a fire on top of a bed of limestone, use either the wind or a blower or something to get it good and hot, keep feeding it wood and just wait. After about a hour of the stones glowing orange, let the fire die down overnight, then pick hte stones out with gloves. 'Cos that stuff's no good for your skin, it's rather hygroscopic.



I recognised your list for what it was immediately. Ver' intaresting.

[JingleJoe]

Thankyou Sir Nik
(hehe blinkenlights )

This sounds like it's going to be fun
But does the baked limestone react with water? I don't want to leave it out in the fire over night and have it rain on it and destroy all my hard, pyromancing work on it.

[Sir Nikolas of Vendigroth]

Yes it does. When you bake limestone (calcium carbonate) you drive off some carbon dioxide. Leaving you with calcium oxide. When you get water on it, it becomes calcium hydroxide.

Might be better to scoop the stuff into a tin when you're done. It'll be crazily hot though, so use a stick and wear gloves.

[JingleJoe]

Might be better to scoop the stuff into a tin when you're done. It'll be crazily hot though, so use a stick and wear gloves.

I just got flashes of an incident from when I was a child involving fire, a metal pipe and bare hands. I'm not going to spell it out for you
I will take extreme caution *dons goggles*

[Ella Kremper]

Yes it does. When you bake limestone (calcium carbonate) you drive off some carbon dioxide. Leaving you with calcium oxide. When you get water on it, it becomes calcium hydroxide.

Might be better to scoop the stuff into a tin when you're done. It'll be crazily hot though, so use a stick and wear gloves.

It does make me wonder if you'd need to add some acid to the limestone to remove any impurities, but then you'd get the hydration problem.

I just had an image of actually bashing up the limestone, adding it to water, filtering it and then evaporating the solution.

[JingleJoe]

Yes it does. When you bake limestone (calcium carbonate) you drive off some carbon dioxide. Leaving you with calcium oxide. When you get water on it, it becomes calcium hydroxide.

Might be better to scoop the stuff into a tin when you're done. It'll be crazily hot though, so use a stick and wear gloves.

It does make me wonder if you'd need to add some acid to the limestone to remove any impurities, but then you'd get the hydration problem.

I just had an image of actually bashing up the limestone, adding it to water, filtering it and then evaporating the solution.

Meh, impurities aren't such a problem, look at my list; last item is "15 other elements in small amounts"

[Ella Kremper]

Yes it does. When you bake limestone (calcium carbonate) you drive off some carbon dioxide. Leaving you with calcium oxide. When you get water on it, it becomes calcium hydroxide.

Might be better to scoop the stuff into a tin when you're done. It'll be crazily hot though, so use a stick and wear gloves.

It does make me wonder if you'd need to add some acid to the limestone to remove any impurities, but then you'd get the hydration problem.

I just had an image of actually bashing up the limestone, adding it to water, filtering it and then evaporating the solution.

Meh, impurities aren't such a problem, look at my list; last item is "15 other elements in small amounts"

You mustn't forget the vanilla essence to taste then!

[Sir Nikolas of Vendigroth]

Yes it does. When you bake limestone (calcium carbonate) you drive off some carbon dioxide. Leaving you with calcium oxide. When you get water on it, it becomes calcium hydroxide.

Might be better to scoop the stuff into a tin when you're done. It'll be crazily hot though, so use a stick and wear gloves.

It does make me wonder if you'd need to add some acid to the limestone to remove any impurities, but then you'd get the hydration problem.

I just had an image of actually bashing up the limestone, adding it to water, filtering it and then evaporating the solution.

Acid + base = salt + watar.

Sadly, i don't know how to turn calcium...chloride, say, into calcium oxide easily.

All there'll be in the limestone is:

Carbonates of potassium and magnesium,in trace amounts
Calcium carbonate in hte form of aragonite, as opposed to the calcite that limestone's usually composed of. That'll transform nice and easy.
Clays. Nothing you can do about the clays, they're inert.

[Ella Kremper]

Yes it does. When you bake limestone (calcium carbonate) you drive off some carbon dioxide. Leaving you with calcium oxide. When you get water on it, it becomes calcium hydroxide.

Might be better to scoop the stuff into a tin when you're done. It'll be crazily hot though, so use a stick and wear gloves.

It does make me wonder if you'd need to add some acid to the limestone to remove any impurities, but then you'd get the hydration problem.

I just had an image of actually bashing up the limestone, adding it to water, filtering it and then evaporating the solution.

Acid + base = salt + watar.

Sadly, i don't know how to turn calcium...chloride, say, into calcium oxide easily.

All there'll be in the limestone is:

Carbonates of potassium and magnesium,in trace amounts
Calcium carbonate in hte form of aragonite, as opposed to the calcite that limestone's usually composed of. That'll transform nice and easy.
Clays. Nothing you can do about the clays, they're inert.

Ah, that's true, you're trying to decompose the carbonate. I'd imagine to change from calcium chloride to something else it'll be some complicated displacement reaction that wouldn't really be needed.

Carry on!

[von Corax]

Then, as a thought for transplantation, scientists switched the gene off that creates the head in mice, so they created mice with no heads but they kept the body alive for transplant organs.

That's very disturbing. I like it.

Inserting a human-like intelligence into a cat would cause a feline unheaval across the universe with human slaves.

Just as soon as they're finished napping.

Anyone here know where I can get ... some phosphorous?

Ask your local swimming-pool supplier about phosphoric acid.

[JingleJoe]

My spider lost a leg!

I'll have to fashion a copper wire replacement, with tiny microscopic gears and pulleys, yeees *rubs hands together* Mechaspider! MWAHAHAHAHA!!!

[Sir Nikolas of Vendigroth]

Then, as a thought for transplantation, scientists switched the gene off that creates the head in mice, so they created mice with no heads but they kept the body alive for transplant organs.

That's very disturbing. I like it.

Inserting a human-like intelligence into a cat would cause a feline unheaval across the universe with human slaves.

Just as soon as they're finished napping.

Anyone here know where I can get ... some phosphorous?

Ask your local swimming-pool supplier about phosphoric acid.

There's phosphoric acid in coke, and dr peppar and stuff.

It's used to provide that characteristic taste. It also eats concrete floors.

Or do you mean elemental phosphorous? 'Cos you've got to keep it under water, or else it'll take fire.

[JingleJoe]

I do mean elemental phosphorous, Damn my last items to acquire are insanely unstable ... thats mad science for you, eh?
I must acquire them in stable compound form though...
Any suggestions as to a phosporous compound? And no acids or coke please, it's got to be a little less dangerous/contain more phosphorous.

[Sir Nikolas of Vendigroth]

Bones contain compounds of phosphorous...