In that book ("A Whiff of Death"), a grad student is also murdered by
someone who replaces a sodium acetate solution with sodium cyanide.
When the student acidifies his solution, the HCN formed kills him.

Wouldn't the smell give it away before death ensues?

Madalch wrote:
In that book ("A Whiff of Death"), a grad student is also murdered by
someone who replaces a sodium acetate solution with sodium cyanide.
When the student acidifies his solution, the HCN formed kills him.

Wouldn't the smell give it away before death ensues?

If you've never read any of these books, how could you state so positively
that they don't exist?

...That's where the novel
begins -- with the "discovery" of plutonium-186 and the puzzle of how
something that so obviously cannot exist came to be.

In article <g14orq$5tq$1 at (no spam) news-int2.gatech.edu>, David Bostwick <david.bostwick at (no spam) chemistry.gatech.edu> wrote:

: There's also a plot I remember in which beryllium was poisoning people,
: although new technology had long ago replaced it with other materials.

"Sucker Bait" by Isaac Asimov.

Madalch wrote:
On May 23, 8:17 am, Dirk Bruere at NeoPax <dirk.bru... at (no spam) gmail.com
wrote:
In that book ("A Whiff of Death"), a grad student is also murdered by
someone who replaces a sodium acetate solution with sodium cyanide.
When the student acidifies his solution, the HCN formed kills him.
Wouldn't the smell give it away before death ensues?

That's actually what killed him. He didn't notice the vinegar smell
he expected, so he leaned in closer and took a bigger whiff.

In chem class we were told never to do that:-)
The correct procedure was to wave the hand over it and take a *tiny* sniff.

On May 23, 8:17 am, Dirk Bruere at NeoPax <dirk.bru... at (no spam) gmail.com
wrote:
In that book ("A Whiff of Death"), a grad student is also murdered by
someone who replaces a sodium acetate solution with sodium cyanide.
When the student acidifies his solution, the HCN formed kills him.
Wouldn't the smell give it away before death ensues?

That's actually what killed him. He didn't notice the vinegar smell
he expected, so he leaned in closer and took a bigger whiff.

On May 23, 8:17 am, Dirk Bruere at NeoPax <dirk.bru... at (no spam) gmail.com
wrote:
Madalch wrote:
In that book ("A Whiff of Death"), a grad student is also murdered by
someone who replaces a sodium acetate solution with sodium cyanide.
When the student acidifies his solution, the HCN formed kills him.
Wouldn't the smell give it away before death ensues?

A large proportion of people can't smell cyanide very well. It's a
genetic thing.

In any case, you can inhale a lethal dose very easily. About 100 mL of
HCN gas is all it takes. I got knocked on my ass many years ago when I
sniffed an unknown flask full of fizzing liquid. Another student had
filtered a cyanide solution and then washed his product with acid. It
all happened before I had a chance to react.

On May 23, 10:12 am, Dirk Bruere at NeoPax <dirk.bru... at (no spam) gmail.com
wrote:
Madalch wrote:
On May 23, 8:17 am, Dirk Bruere at NeoPax <dirk.bru... at (no spam) gmail.com
wrote:
In that book ("A Whiff of Death"), a grad student is also murdered by
someone who replaces a sodium acetate solution with sodium cyanide.
When the student acidifies his solution, the HCN formed kills him.
Wouldn't the smell give it away before death ensues?
That's actually what killed him. He didn't notice the vinegar smell
he expected, so he leaned in closer and took a bigger whiff.
In chem class we were told never to do that:-)
The correct procedure was to wave the hand over it and take a *tiny* sniff.

Same here. But the book was set in the fifties or sixties, when
people were more careless, I suppose...

What did it feel like?
BTW, I can smell cyanide from my Cherry Laurel if I crush the leaves.

Madalch wrote:
On May 23, 10:12 am, Dirk Bruere at NeoPax <dirk.bru... at (no spam) gmail.com
wrote:
Madalch wrote:
On May 23, 8:17 am, Dirk Bruere at NeoPax <dirk.bru... at (no spam) gmail.com
wrote:
In that book ("A Whiff of Death"), a grad student is also murdered by
someone who replaces a sodium acetate solution with sodium cyanide.
When the student acidifies his solution, the HCN formed kills him.
Wouldn't the smell give it away before death ensues?
That's actually what killed him. He didn't notice the vinegar smell
he expected, so he leaned in closer and took a bigger whiff.
In chem class we were told never to do that:-)
The correct procedure was to wave the hand over it and take a *tiny*
sniff.

Same here. But the book was set in the fifties or sixties, when
people were more careless, I suppose...

Or maybe just a Darwin Award candidate.

When I was an undergrad they used Kip generators to produce H2S for
courses in qualitative analysis. Those things could blow up if not cared
for properly and fill a lab with H2S in nothing flat. There were several
deaths at a Princeton lab when such occured. But mostly from some
courageous young faculty who went back inside to see if any students
could be rescued.

Those things could blow up if not cared for properly
and fill a lab with H2S in nothing flat. There were several
deaths at a Princeton lab when such occured. But mostly from
some courageous young faculty who went back inside to see if
any students could be rescued.

Fred Kasner wrote:
Those things could blow up if not cared for properly
and fill a lab with H2S in nothing flat. There were several
deaths at a Princeton lab when such occured. But mostly from
some courageous young faculty who went back inside to see if
any students could be rescued.

When I took organic lab, we were warned that the human
perception of H2S reaches a sort of plateau, above which
higher concentrations are not perceived as higher.
The stuff stinks really bad at low concentrations.

Dirk Bruere at NeoPax wrote:
Madalch wrote:
On May 23, 10:12 am, Dirk Bruere at NeoPax <dirk.bru... at (no spam) gmail.com
wrote:
Madalch wrote:
On May 23, 8:17 am, Dirk Bruere at NeoPax <dirk.bru... at (no spam) gmail.com
wrote:
In that book ("A Whiff of Death"), a grad student is also
murdered by
someone who replaces a sodium acetate solution with sodium cyanide.
When the student acidifies his solution, the HCN formed kills him.
Wouldn't the smell give it away before death ensues?
That's actually what killed him. He didn't notice the vinegar smell
he expected, so he leaned in closer and took a bigger whiff.
In chem class we were told never to do that:-)
The correct procedure was to wave the hand over it and take a *tiny*
sniff.

Same here. But the book was set in the fifties or sixties, when
people were more careless, I suppose...

Or maybe just a Darwin Award candidate.


When I was an undergrad they used Kip generators to produce H2S for
courses in qualitative analysis. Those things could blow up if not cared
for properly and fill a lab with H2S in nothing flat. There were several
deaths at a Princeton lab when such occured. But mostly from some
courageous young faculty who went back inside to see if any students
could be rescued.
FK

Mark Thorson wrote:
Fred Kasner wrote:
Those things could blow up if not cared for properly
and fill a lab with H2S in nothing flat. There were several
deaths at a Princeton lab when such occured. But mostly from
some courageous young faculty who went back inside to see if
any students could be rescued.

When I took organic lab, we were warned that the human
perception of H2S reaches a sort of plateau, above which
higher concentrations are not perceived as higher.
The stuff stinks really bad at low concentrations.

Is H2S as toxic as HCN?