Things that time forgot.

[Roslynmuse]

What? He lost parts of other fingers too?

Should have read what I'd written before posting...

[ahinton]

Sulphur!

It's now called sulfur, so previous post should have said hydrogen sulfide.

Ah - "f" or "ph"; that is the question. Reminds me of Ronald Stevenson's remark about the correct spelling of his surname which,; notwithstanding that of George of Rocket fame, was "v for victory - ph for phailure"...

[mangerton]

Sulphur!

It's now called sulfur, so previous post should have said hydrogen sulfide.

Not by me it's not, and no it shouldn't. None of your appalling Americanisms here, if you don't mind.

IUPAC or whoever can say what they like, but they won't convince me.

[mangerton]

Indeed.

I remember our O level physics master demonstrating the properties of liquid nitrogen, chucking it about with gay abandon. I remember he filled a matchbox with mercury, stood a pencil in it and froze it with nitrogen, creating a sort of mercury hammer. He caused several loud bangs which rocked the building, to the annoyance of the history master upstairs.

This reminds me, now going back to the mid 50s. A close family friend was the sub-post master and proprietor of a grocer's shop in a village in the East Neuk of Fife. I remember going with him (in his car - a rare treat) to the railway station to collect a container of Wall's ice cream. It remained frozen in transit by being kept in close proximity to a large block of dry ice. His wife issued Dire Warnings about the dangers this posed to a young and inquisitive boy. Of course, she was quite right.

[ahinton]

Not by me it's not, and no it shouldn't. None of your appalling Americanisms here, if you don't mind.

And Richard Rodney Bennett who, after all, spent the last 30+ years of his life in America, neither called nor renamed his opera The Mines of Sulfur, did he?!...

[Don Petter]

What? He lost parts of other fingers too?

Presumably, once that bit had gone, on subsequent occasions the sodium went through the gap?

[Pulcinella]

Presumably, once that bit had gone, on subsequent occasions the sodium went through the gap?

[Roslynmuse]

Presumably, once that bit had gone, on subsequent occasions the sodium went through the gap?

Either that or he reckoned he had another nineteen demonstrations to give... (Reminds me of the old exchange:
Fan to Dave Allen - are you the comedian with half a finger?
Dave Allen - no, I'm the comedian with nine and a half fingers!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Sulphur!

It's now called sulfur. . .

Just wash your mouth out.

Every time I visited my son at Honor Oak Park, I felt queasy.

[vinteuil]

Every time I visited my son at Honor Oak Park, I felt queasy.

... why - do you have an unreasonable dislike of Latin?

[Pulcinella]

Just wash your mouth out.

Every time I visited my son at Honor Oak Park, I felt queasy.

Does Honor Blackman make you similarly queasy?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Does Honor Blackman make you similarly queasy?

[cloughie]

I don't think queasy is the word.

[french frank]

Mercurochrome

[Serial_Apologist]

I don't think queasy is the word.

Quazy?