Name: Derrie
Age: 11
Occupation: School
From: Leicestershire
Object: Blowing up a balloon
Story: First I put baking powder into a balloon then I poured vinegar in and tied the end. The two reacted to give a gas which expanded and blew the balloon up.
Name: Ashley
Age: 52 (50 when I first saw this!)
Occupation: Engineer
From: Leicestershire
Object: Exploding Coke Rocket
Story: Drop a polo mint into a bottle of coke. Put the lid on and it explodes then erupts like a volcano.
Name: Ben
Test Tube Stand with Test Tubes, Mid-19th Century (Inv. 34639)
Age: 15
From: Newcastle, UK
Occupation: Student
Object: Chemistry Kit
Story: When I was five my grandparents bought me a large chemistry set. Doing the proper experiments was boring, so I just mixed everything together in a flask and pushed a cork into the top. After a minute or so the cork blew off the flask and sprayed the contents all over the ceiling of my bedroom.
Gauze Top Bunsen Burner, c.1874, (Inv. 45602). Who else used Bunsen Burners similar to this when heating things at school?
Name: Priyam
Age: 12
From: London, UK
Object: Jelly babies
Story: We did screaming jelly babies at school – we added potassium chlorate, a heated substance, to the jelly babies and they turned a lilac colour and screamed and then blew up.
Mmmmm, tasty. Photo credit: jelly babies by Sam Greenhalgh (license)
