Neither I nor anyone I know has ever "seen a bottle of dichromate explode
or catch fire WHEN IT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO?" I can pass on a story from
Tri-Ess Science Supply in Burbank California (were I buy my dichromate).
It seems they had a customer who wanted the dichromate as a very fine
powder. He poured about a pound of it in a pan, and worked it into a fine
powder with a hammer. It did explode, burning him badly. Sparks perhaps??
I thought of this story when working with the "New Cyanotype" process
(which if memory serves requires "finely ground" dichromate). Perhaps
grinding dichromate is best left to Bostick and Sullivan?? I did grind
some (in a porcelain mortar and pesel, and very slowly). I had no problem.
Goes to prove that you have to truely "abuse" most alt-photo chemicals in
order to get in trouble.
tomf2468@pipeline.com
Judy wrote:
>Dana, tell your father when he calls he didn't answer my question and that
>nobody is considering setting anything on fire in a classroom, least of
>all ammonium dichromate. Also, that we Americans NEVER inhale.
>
>As for the legend on the bottle, every one of us has a bottle of
>dichromate on the shelf. In fact you can't subscribe to this list without
>one. And every one of those bottles says things that are even worse than
>his bottle, which is really just boiler plate, everyday blah blah, not
>even as good as on my bottle of Light Impressions gum arabic (quoted here
>last year) which when you get over your terror at the label you could
>maybe make gum drops out of.
>
>What I was asking, and still not getting an answer to, which I begin to
>think means "no," was has anybody ever seen a bottle of dichromate
>explode or catch fire WHEN IT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO?
>
>And if no one has, Why not? Because everyone, including your space-cadet
>students is so all-fired squeaky clean careful? or also because maybe the
>risks have been laid on with a trowel. Not that I take back any of the
>precautions I suggested, and I appreciate Dick's addition of apron, which
>is of course essential for darkroom and studio: you take it off when you
>leave, otherwise you carry chemicals around on your person all day.
>
>But.... still asking.
>
>Judy