{"id":14610,"date":"2022-08-03T15:24:34","date_gmt":"2022-08-03T15:24:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/?p=14610"},"modified":"2022-08-04T17:24:09","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T17:24:09","slug":"white-phosphorus-misadventures11-a-silly-miss-burns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatliesbeneathrattlechainlagoon.org.uk\/?p=14610","title":{"rendered":"White phosphorus misadventures#11 A silly Miss Burns"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Well, this one concerns red phosphorus<\/span> actually.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude1b<\/p>\n

I have looked at white phosphorus and accidents in schools in this post<\/a>, when it used to be allowed in school laboratories.<\/p>\n

There was another case<\/a>\u00a0of misadventure where an idiot school boy got burnt whilst clowning around with some P4 and then tried to sue the school master whom he falsely claimed to be negligent.<\/p>\n

This post deals with a very similar incident but involves a Scottish girl, remarkably named “Burns”\u00a0 \ud83d\ude06<\/p>\n

The time of year is also bizarre in that it was published on 4th November 1954<\/strong> in the Edinburgh Evening News. It had taken Ms Burns two years to bring action against the Glaswegian council for injuries claimed to have been sustained in the classroom after a teacher had not given proper instruction of disposing of chemicals, notably red phosphorus and potassium chlorate.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I will discuss this reaction\u00a0 further on in this post, but safe to say that anyone who knows anything about chemistry will know that this reaction would cause significant exothermic activity resulting in the fire which burnt her clothes and hospitalised her.<\/p>\n

A different story however is given in defence, arguing that this silly miss was in fact well aware of what the reaction would be in pondering “how the school could be blown up”, or words to that effect when adding chemicals into a bag.<\/p>\n

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The following days paper tells how her case had failed to persuade the court jury into granting her the \u00a31000 damages she was seeking. The jury found that she had not followed the teachers instructions, having “meddled” with the chemical mixture that had burnt her- thus, she was the author of her own Burns.<\/p>\n

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It is little wonder that she suffered injury from her stupidity.<\/p>\n

6P + 5KClO3<\/sub>\u00a0 \u2192 3P2<\/sub>O5<\/sub>\u00a0+ 5KCl<\/span><\/p>\n

The reaction is that of striking a match.<\/p>\n

The gritty material on the side of a match-box is coated with red phosphorus. The match-head contains potassium chlorate and some red colouring. When the match-head rubs against the box, friction ignites the mixture of phosphorus and potassium chlorate.<\/p>\n

A couple of videos below demonstrate this reaction. Don’t try this at home or in school, yall, or even think of adding cough sweets or sugar in cetain ratios;-) ……<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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