> When I was about 14 or 15 I was etching a board in the 
> kitchen (snip)

Ah, bold stories! When I was 15 my favourite receipt was to make teargas
from bromium and acetone. Making bromium with my primitive destillation
tools was a challenge, but I could do that without choking by working
mainly with my head outside the window. But then the bromium and acetone
(both liquids) had to be combined in precise amounts. I did this with a
pipette, sucking up each liquid up to the desired level. Bromium is not
as bad as chlorine, but in retrospect I still shudder with the idea that
it could have ended up in my mouth.

Many years before that (maybe 9y old) I wanted to etch PCBs. I had
figured out that I needed FeCl3. I could get my hands on Fe (iron wool),
HCl (that was still sold in supermarkets at that time), and HClO (common
toilet cleaner). So I created FeCl2 from iron wool and HCl, Cl2 from HCl
and HClO, and let that bubble through the FeCl2 solution. I guess some
of it indeed made FeCl3, but most of it ended up in my room. When my
parents noticed that my hair was falling off they stopped my in-house
experiments, and (knowing I could not be stopped for long) they bought
me a small caravan in the garden, in which I could continue my
experiments without poisoning anybody but myself. So I continued with
for instance the teargas.

Years after I had switched from chemistry to electronics my sister had a
girlfriend staying with her. They slept in the abandoned caravan. They
were a bit annoyed when after a few days holes appeared in the fabric of
some of their clothes.

Wouter van Ooijen

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Van Ooijen Technische Informatica: www.voti.nl
consultancy, development, PICmicro products
docent Hogeschool van Utrecht: www.voti.nl/hvu
 

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