Thursday, February 18, 2010

A fascinating display


This video shows what happens when mercury thiocyanate decomposes while burning. It gets up to some pretty amazing antics!





Weird stuff, isn't it?

Peter

10 comments:

Noons said...

Freaky!
And totally organic appearance as well!

Tass said...

It's ALIVE......Have the folks from the SciFi channel seen this stuff?

Anonymous said...

I'm with Jackie. I was thinking of a sci-fi scene.
Geeky scientific type: "No, don't use a torch to cut it free!"
Michael Baldwin look-alike: "I know what I'm doing Doc. Now cool it." [hisssss, fooomp, steps back quickly] "Oh *&%$!!"
Geeky science type {over shoulder, running} "We're gonna run out of volume and oxygen, hurry!"
and so on . . .

LittleRed1

Stranger said...

"Before the War," WWII, one of the imported novelties was a tissue spill of mercury thiocyanate. Light the end and watch it grow! After the war I often wondered why exchange poor Japan did not export them.

A few years ago a stray comment made me realize just what those toys of my youth were. And I wondered no more.

Stranger

Shrimp said...

I've seen a fireworks product that does that. I don't recall the name right at this moment, but they come in various colors, and do the same thing. I think they're called Glow Worms or something like that.

Dave said...

Looks like conservation of mass was violated.

Old NFO said...

WOW- Yep, definitely something for SciFi!

Anonymous said...

Eh - excuse me while I'm less than impressed. A minor-league Chinese-made "firework", commonly sold in the form of little tablets and lit singly or in various combos with a match, does this, and has been around since I was a pup, roughly 60+ years - they're called "Snakes", and they're not considered even particularly dangerous (unless you try to hold a lit one in your bare hand).

Mildly interesting - but not unusual at all...

Neutrino Cannon said...

Sulfuric acid and sugar will do something similar, but I can't find any good videos of it.

Cybrludite said...

Jebus! Does David Chronenberg know about this stuff?