My best chem-lab disaster story is technically rumour. I fully believe it though because my chemistry teacher was a combination of your fun uncle with the unfortunate socks/sandals combination, and your cliche absent-minded scientist. When I was in his class he not once, but twice, took glassware straight from the bunsen burner to run it under the cold water tap. The second time we had to evacuate the classroom which was now filled with bromine gas. He also managed to break some test-tubes in a centrifuge, though I forget whether that was technically his fault or not.
Anyway the story goes that his previous job was at a school that was right by the river. So when he wanted to demonstrate the reaction of sodium to water, he took the class to the riverside to throw the sodium in there. The problem is that the river was home to a large number of ducks, and the ducks were much more used to people throwing them bread to eat. The tale I heard left a veil over exactly what happened next. But by the time he was teaching my class, he was using a bucket of water instead.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2022-07-26 10:35 am (UTC)Anyway the story goes that his previous job was at a school that was right by the river. So when he wanted to demonstrate the reaction of sodium to water, he took the class to the riverside to throw the sodium in there. The problem is that the river was home to a large number of ducks, and the ducks were much more used to people throwing them bread to eat. The tale I heard left a veil over exactly what happened next. But by the time he was teaching my class, he was using a bucket of water instead.