My choral friend Jo mentioned making “poisonous” orange juice when she was a nipper and giving it to a boy she and her friends didn’t like. Apparently, they crushed up some bits of plants, including foxgloves, which of course contain digitalin, the heart drug. Add enough of that to his OJ and they could’ve been in serious trouble. Just as well there was no belladonna (deadly nighshade) or monkshood (Devil’s Helmet or wolfsbane).
Anyway talking of serious trouble…as a kid I was always messing around with magnets and motors, batteries and bulbs, iron filings, little circuits, broken radios (well they were broken after I’d messed around with them), watches, telescopes, magnifying glasses and stuff. But, by aged 9 or 10 I’d taken my first foray into chemistry. I’d got hold of a little stoppered plastic vial and mixed up some washing-up liquid and water and added some of the 3-in-1 oil I usually drizzled on to the chain and into the little holes on the underside of my bike. I don’t remember what I was trying to do with this, my first chemistry experiment. Obviously, the mixture would have formed some kind of mucky emulsion. Hashtag #JuvenileAlchemy.
Anyway, I remember some snitch reported me to my teacher when they saw me shaking my vial behind the bike sheds (no, that is not a euphemism!). I got hauled in to see the headmaster, I think my parents were dragged in too. Of course, the vial with its gloopy contents was confiscated but not before the headmaster had a good sniff. I’m not sure what any of the adults thought I had been up to. I was just naively doing chemistry. Maybe they thought I was abusing solvents or sniffing glue or something, but at age 9 I didn’t even know that was a thing…
I almost certainly had an idea from a science library book, I used to read three or four each evening at that age. Anyway, the experience put me off chemistry for years and so I went back to messing with magnets (again, not a euphemism) and I seem to remember trying to make an electromagnet from a chunk of steel from my Dad’s toolbox and a bit of insulated wire that I jabbed into the wall socket…oh dear…did I mention I was a bit naive, almost electrocuted myself, needless to say. Still, at least I didn’t try to give anyone a heart attack with poisonous orange juice, eh?
*The photo isn’t me, by the way…