A very strange chemical reaction

[ElliotSmith]

This is probably the weirdest chemical reaction you'll ever see.

 

[jim mcnamara]

Further reading:
Pharaoh's Serpent - Mercury Thiocyanate burning.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury(II)_thiocyanate

 

[DrStupid]

You can get a similar effect with sugar, ash and alcohol. Still not harmless but better than burning mercury compounds.

 

[ElliotSmith]

You can get a similar effect with sugar, ash and alcohol. Still not harmless but better than burning mercury compounds.

Mercury vapor is extremely toxic.

 

[Borek]

Mercury vapor is extremely toxic.

Toxic for sure, but calling it "extremely toxic" is an exaggeration. Short term exposures to the vapor are rarely dangerous, it is the chronic poisoning that is a really serious problem.

 

[ElliotSmith]

Toxic for sure, but calling it "extremely toxic" is an exaggeration. Short term exposures to the vapor are rarely dangerous, it is the chronic poisoning that is a really serious problem.

Right, sorry.

 

[DrDu]

You can still get some mercury free versions off the shelf under the name "snake in eton hat" or "Schlangenhut".

 

[Nik_2213]

Yuck, that is GROSS !
Fascinating, of course, and I'm fairly sure I've seen a much, much larger version used for a pre-CGI, B&W Sci-Fi TV thriller...

Coloured 'crystals in water-glass' are safer, but so tame by comparison...
--
Not so colourful, but pouring a generous dollop of Conc. Sulf. onto a pound of sugar was one of our school's classic 'Open Day' demos. Instant oozing lava-flow. Hard part was finding a student with the right combination of cold nerve and good sense, who'd not be tempted to try such at home...

Other fun demos were the town-gas-filled syrup tin bouncing its lid off the ceiling, and the 'Invisible Elephant' stomping a lidded biscuit tin in which a little water had just been boiled...

FWIW, with folk rushing in and out of the store-room, I found two complex zeolite 'crystal lattice' models on the floor in multiple pieces, spilled from their boxes. Oops. So, I gathered all the parts, turned the fragments about to identify symmetries, hastily re-assembled and re-boxed them...

Several weeks later, there was a foul yell from the store-room. Head of Department came out waving those models, 'Who did these ?'
'Uh, me, sir... Sorry, I found them on the floor in pieces-- Did I get them wrong ?'
'WRONG ? WRONG ?? They're PERFECT, but they ARRIVED broken ! We've spent TWO YEARS trying to re-assemble them !'
;-)