World War I

Today was interesting enough. I re-conducted an experiment that we have been working on (this time with a new new set of electrodes). As I sat and watched the solution stir, I noticed bumbles being generated at the anode at a rather high rate. Knowing what was in the solution, I decided that the gas could either be hydrogen gas, oxygen gas, or chlorine gas. So I was either going to explode, be able to breath really well, or die of toxic inhalation. As we began to clean up the experiment it became rather apparent rather quickly that we had indeed been generating a LARGE amount of chlorine gas, which for those of you who don't know, is very poisonous. The entire lab smelled strongly of a swimming pool. We stashed everything that we had been using under one of the fume-hoods, so hopefully it wont be as bad in the morning.

I'm still not entirely sure where I will be going this weekend, but I will probably either head down to Munich or spend the weekend in Verdun, France (the great French-German battlefield of WWI). I think it would be really cool to see the old forts in Verdun, but if I went to Munich, I could use that rail pass that they gave me without charge. Either way, it looks like it is going to be a fun weekend.

So with that said, "Do you smell that?".