Thrilling Stunts with a Etching your laboratory glassware is only one of the many possibilities offered by compounds of the active element fluorine By RAYMOND B. WAILES would obtain. When they tried a mix- ture of fluor spar and strong sulphuric ‘acid, distillation produced a strange ‘substance that ate away the glass of the vessels, The great French physicist and chemist, André Ampére, rightly sug- gested that the substance was a com- bination of hydrogen and a new chemi cal clement, which received the name ‘of Muorine. Subsequent investigators used distilling apparatus made of metal, usually lead or platinum, which the dis. tilled product—bydrofluoric acid—does not so readily attack ‘You can easily duplicate their ex- periments with a homemade retort and condenser, fashioned from a piece of HOW TO ETCH lead pipe about an inch, or a little more, GLASSWARE in inside diameter. Crimp one end to Abeer gloss, costed close it securely and place in this end fon which about halt an ounce of powdered fluor the desired mortings spar or manufactured calcium fluoride, pore been rovm, Cogether with auld ounce of strong ving expored toby sulphuric acid. Bend the pipe carefully rote aidvarer 9 form an inverted U. Melt some candle swax and coat the inside of a small bot- OT tong ago, a noted chemist eral variously called fluor spar and fluo- tle with It, Fill the bottle with water told of a ‘solvent powerful Hite consists of calcium fluoride, a com- and pack: it in ice and salt, to keep the enough to ve" nearly pound of calcium and fluorine. From water cold. Then immerse the open end every known material, Tf the natural or artificially prepared fluorides of the lead pipe, to a depth of not more Water on the earth were replaced with you cam make the ting chemf- than half anincl, in the water in the 4 liguid called selenium oxychloride, he cal, hydrofluoric acid. This substance in bottle. Heat the crimped end containing Said, we should have to carry umbrellas turn ‘will yield a strange gas, silicon the chemicals with an alcohol lamp, of made of glass, platinum, or tungsten tetrafluoride, which has properties that 2 low Bunsen-burner flame, for about whenever it rained, for those are about your will find worth while the only substances that the fluid does investigating. not attack. There is a more familiar Pioneers of chemical re- chemical, however, so corrosive that it search Kept their crude could even eat its way through a glass apparatuses busy distill umbrella, Its name is hydrofluoric ing all manner of con- Acid, and st is one of the interesting coctions to see what they compounds of the highly active element —Auorine FLUORIDE IN ROACH POWDER with which you will enjoy Mout roach powders contain fluoride, as experimenting in your proved ‘by the ter! shown of the right. In home Iaboratory. Tiis"form the. chemical cam be vied ith Probably you already silphurie' acid to. etch microscope. sides have at least a speaking acquaintance with the chemical family to which ftuorine belongs—the “ha- Jogen group" including chlorine, bromine, and fodine. Pure fluorine, ike chlorine, is a greenish- yellow gas. You will usually encounter it, how- ever, in the company of other elements with which it forms salts called fuo- rides, just as chlorine commonly is found in the form of salts called ehlo- rides. The crystalline 98 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLYGlass-Eating Chemical an hour, Hydroftuorie acid will be pr duced in the form of a vapor, and will ‘igsolve in the water in the bottle, yield ing a solution of the acid. The wax coating of the bottle prevents the glass from being attacked by the solution, whieh always has to be kept in cor tainers lined with paraffin, rubber, or lead. ‘To watch the acid actually dissolving glass, first hold a piece of glass tubing In the blue flame of your Bunsen burner and draw it out into a filament. If you break off a piece of this glass thread and hold one end of it in the solution of hydrofluoric acid, you will see the glass disappear before your eyes. AKING advantage of the way hydro- fluoric acid attacks glass, you can etch lettering, markings, and fancy de= signs on clear-glass tumblers, vases, microscope slides, and various pieces of chemical glassware. First coat the glass with molten paraffin wax, obtained from a candle, and let the’ wax cool ‘Then, with a needle or a keen-pointed tool such as engravers use, cut away some of the wax to expose parts of the glass surface in the pattern you wish ‘This forms a sort of stencil; the cut- away portions will allow the acd to etch the glass, while the parts on which wax remains will be unaffected. After the article has been exposed to the vapor of hydrofluoric acid or to a liquid solution of it—which may be Produced locally on the surface of the sglass by one of several methods—all the wax may be removed and you will find the design permanently imprinted. ‘To produce a frosted (rough-grained) initial or ornamental design on a. plain beverage glass, for example, gently heat fa little fluor spar or calcium fluoride JANUARY, 1998 with some strong sul- phurie acid in a lead dish or tray. The glass, with the letter or pattern cut in its wax coating as just. deseribed, is sup- ported just above the dish—so’ that the vapor of hydrofluorie acid cir- coulates around it—within ‘a can or cardboard car- ton open at top and bot- tom. Examine the glass from time to time to de- termine the progress of the etching, which will require from ten to thirty_minutes. ‘A microscope slide may be titled, when the letters have been cut in the wax coating, by placing upon them a pinch of pow: @ered fluor spar or cal- cium fluoride, Touch this with several drops of strong sulphuric acid, fand let the slide stand about ten minutes before cleaning off thechemicals and the wax. This chem- ical mixture, which gives smooth-etched lines, may also be used to put volume and capacity markings on your test tubes and beakers. The sharpest and clearest lines are obtained by heating the wax on the glass and letting it cool before you mark i ‘Other chemicals that you can use with sulphurie acid for etching: glass by dl- Fect contact Include. sodium fluoride, potassium fluoride, ammonium fluoride, fand ammonium bifuoride, An alterna: A vial of 0) "SAND GAS" PLUGS A VIAL SO WATER WILL NOT POUR 5, exposed to silicon {atrafluoride generated by the oppo rates of the felt, ie plugged with o coating of precipitated silicic acid 0, shining ‘employed tive preparation consists of a mixture of barium sulphate, sodium fluoride, and strong hydrochloric acid, made into @ paste which should be left on the ‘glass for an hour or 80. Instead of securing the fluorides for ‘your experiments from a chemical su ‘ply house, you may, if you wish, obtain ‘thior spar or fluorite from a dealer in minerals. There are purple, green, and colorless varieties of the crystals, the color- Jess ones usually ap- pearing blue when light shines "through ther, ‘You can purchase a remarkably good single crystal for twenty oF thirty cents and use it in a beautiful and showy experiment, for it will glow in the danke ‘hen gentle heat $s ap- lied to it To observe this striking phenomenon, kenown as “thermolu- minescence,” the experi- ment is best performed in a totally darkened room. Place the crystal on an improvised sand bath consisting of a half inch of sand in a tin-can lid, and heat it gently from below..After each minute or so, turn off the feat and ob- serve the crystal (Con tinued on page 126) 9 eeCHEMICALS| 5°. LEM Corctent SAE EoEReRE Es cole cis OUT ‘This FULL: VISION KEMKIT No. 310 lustrated above) in a handsome ‘cabinet containing 102. chemicals for uso with the world's leading chemistry” books,—is just one of ins thoutande. of gone fated “Ger"your' copy NOW! KEMKIT SCIENTIFIC CORP. [S97-A Delage st Brookyn, Ne. Eehug! fot ts Plone rsh FREE Kemkit IN FULL COLORS Page after page shows America’s greatest train values, new and ad- vanced features such as theamazingly low priced si wheel drive Hudson steamrype locomotives, the new re- ‘mote control whistle unit, high s Model tack, new transformers with Circuit breakers included. All of America’s famous steeamfine and steam-type trains have been repro- duced. Select your fun-making auto- matic signals, stations, etc, Dads, t00, make railroading a hobby. [American Fier Mla, Co. spi reer) [BBS ERIS Saco, FARK | Piast acco vosberssiess | COE eet rere 4 at 1 oy 126 Stunts with a Glass-Eating Chemical (Continued from page 99) as it slowly warms up. At a certain temperature, it will begin to shine of its own accord. The effect can be seen most plainly with the gas flame ex- tinguished, or with an electric heater ‘that does not glow visibly. A purple or blue erystal works best for the experi- ment, which may be performed repeat ‘edly without damage to the crystal if you do not heat it s0 fast as to cause Internal strains that would abatter it, LVORIDE ina homelier form may be ‘more readily accessible, for roach pol- Son usually contains this chemical. If it does, you can mix the insecticide powder with strong sulphuric acid and perform experiments like etching glass- ware with it. Even without reading tthe label of the carton, you can readily detect the presence of fluoride in the Preparation, "To do this, place some of the powder ina test tube with a pinch or 80 of ‘sand. Add some strong sulphuric acid. Heat the test tube, doing’ so gently, ssince the preparation may contain in- ‘gredionts that would otherwise cause Frothing and spattering. A drop of colorless ammonium molybdate solt- spended meanwhile at the mouth e tube on a rod of glass or hard rubber, will tum yellow if the com- pound ‘contains a fuoride. An even simpler test, however, can be made merely by holding @ drop of plain water fon the rod. When a fluoride is present, the drop of water will tum milky. ‘This results from an interesting chemical reaction. First, the fluoride In the insect powder reacts with the sulphuric acid, and hydrofluoric acid is formed. ‘The hydrofluoric acid there- upon interacts with the sand, which is ‘an oxide of the element silicon. Fluo- rine from the acid and silicon from the Sand combine to form the rather re- markable gas called silicon tetrafluo- Fide. ‘The ‘same gas, incidentally, is formed when hydrofluoric acid attacks glass, which is chemleally a mixture of silicates of calcium and sodium, ‘Can you stretch your imagination for ‘a moment and visualize, if you are able, such a thing as “sand gas’? Chemical” Iy speaking, silicon tetrafluoride might answer to such a name, for when the Colorless gas comes in contact with ‘water it promptly forms silicic acid, a compound closely akin to sand. This white substance, sillcle acid, is what turns the drop of water milky in the test for a fluoride, OU can manufacture “sand gas” or silicon tetradluoride on a larger scale and explore its odd properties with a Little simple apparatus. To generate the gas, place in a chemical flask some uor spar, calcium fluoride, or sodium fluoride. Add about the same quantity of ordinary river or building sand, oF the purer white bird-cage sand’ or fravel. Powdered glass may be sub stituted for the sand if you prefer. When all is ready, pour in about a fluid ounce of strong sulphuric acid and heat the flask gently with a Bunsen burner, fan alcohol lamp, or a small electric rater. The hydrofluoric acid that i berated will Teact with the sand or glass to form ailicon tetrafluoride as. You need not fear that the acid wil ruln Your glassware or damage it in. any way. To make sure that all of itis transformed into silicon tetraftuoride, wad of glass wool or glass fiber, of the Kind sold for ornamenting Christmas trees, may be placed in the flask above the reacting mixture. ROM a one-hole stopper in the gen- erating flask, lead the silicon tetrafluo= Hide gas through bent glass tubing into fa second flask or bottle, This empty Vessel serves as a trap to catch any water, froth, or foam that might be carried along with the gas, An ordina- Fy flask of bottle with a two-hole stopper, or a flask with a side outlet and a One-hole stopper, may be used Finally, the gas is led from the outlet fof this vessel to a third one, a wide mouth bottle through which the silleon tetrafluoride circulates and then eb eapes into the air ‘As the silicon’ tetrachloride meets the outside atmosphere, it willbe seen to fume. ‘The white cloud that forms around the outlet of the wide mouth bottle is actually a miniature sand storm, consisting of particles of sillele acid.’ Floating lazily’ in the air fas they do, these particles must be al- most ‘inconeelvably small. They are Produced because the alr contains moisture or water vapor, and the silicon tetrafluoride gas turns to the sandiike white material when it comes in con- tact with water In caso you have failed to put to- gether your apparatus carefully enous’, and it fs not gas-tight throughout its length, the silicon tetrafuoride gas will tum detective and locate the leaks, Wherever the gas escapes into the air, during an experiment, you will see telltale white sandstorm; and if tubing Js mot well fitted to bored corks, the Teak will became encrusted with the white deposit. Here is a picturesque test, then, by which you can check you skill at handling the tools of chemistry OU can perform a curious and strik- ing experiment with silicon tetra- fuoride gas by gluing a small glass vial toa square of cardboard, #0 that it stand upright when set down. Attach a little wire bail or bandle to the vial, 80 it can be handled with a hook Bent from a fragment of wire, and flit with water. Then lower the vial into the wide- mouthed bottle of your gas apparatus, fand let the bottle become filed with silicon tetrafluoride gas, In a few sec- (Continwod on page 127) ee POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY