Saturday, May 19, 2007

How to make colored smoke


It's always fascinating to see colored smoke in festivals and parties. Well, the good news is, you can always create your own colored smoke. Just make sure that you will not expose young children to it, for they contain toxic metals such as mercury and arsenic. So, let's start the fun!

Here's the simple recipe that you need to follow in order to make a pretty colored smoke:

Recipe for White Smoke

  • Potassium nitrate - 4 parts
  • Charcoal - 5 parts
  • Sulfur - 10 parts
  • Wood dust - 3 parts

Recipe for Red Smoke

  • Potassium chlorate - 15%
  • para-nitroaniline red - 65%
  • Lactose - 20%

Recipe for Green Smoke

  • Synthetic indigo - 26%
  • Auramine (yellow) - 15%
  • Potassium chlorate - 35%
  • Lactose - 26%

Just measure the ingredients by weight, sift them together, and ignite the mixture. It's not so hard, right?

Saturday, May 5, 2007

Welcoming Address

Hi! This is the first day of my blog on CHEMISTRY topics. I have not made up my mind yet on what topics I should talk about in this blog. As I browse for weblogs on Chemistry, I came across a few good sites. I guess I'll start with an entry on these nice and informative blogs.

The list includes Molecule of the Day and Chemical Musings.

I guess that's it for today, I'll just think of something to blog tomorrow. I need to sleep already.