[Jewelry making - Article 00253] - Re: [Orchid] Jeweler's jokes anyone?

[FrodoGem]

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    Since I was involved in a nitric acid thread recently, I thought I
    would share a story that makes me laugh every time I read it.  I
    found a copy on the internet.  Here it is: 

          While reading a textbook of chemistry, I came upon the
          statement "nitric acid acts upon copper." I was getting tired
          of reading such absurd stuff and I determined to see what this
          meant. Copper was more or less familiar to me, for copper cents
          were then in use. I had seen a bottle marked "nitric acid" on a
          table in the doctor's office where I was then "doing time!" I
          did not know its peculiarities, but I was getting on and likely
          to learn. The spirit of adventure was upon me. Having nitric
          acid and copper, I had only to learn what the words "act upon"
          meant. Then the statement, "nitric acid acts upon copper,"
          would be something more than mere words. 

          All was still. In the interest of knowledge I was even willing
          to sacrifice one of the few copper cents then in my possession.
          I put one of them on the table; opened the bottle marked
          "nitric acid;" poured some of the liquid on the copper; and
          prepared to make an observation. 

          But what was this wonderful thing which I beheld? The cent was
          already changed, and it was no small change either. A
          greenish-blue liquid foamed and fumed over the cent and over
          the table. The air in the neighborhood of the performance
          became dark red. A great colored cloud arose. This was
          disagreeable and suffocating - how should I stop this? I tried
          to get rid of the objectionable mess by picking it up and
          throwing it out of the window, which I had meanwhile opened. I
          learned another fact -nitric acid not only acts upon copper but
          it acts upon fingers. The pain led to another unpremeditated
          experiment. I drew my fingers across my trousers and another
          fact was discovered. Nitric acid also acts upon trousers.
          Taking everything into consideration, that was the most
          impressive experiment, and, relatively, probably the most
          costly experiment I have ever performed. I tell of it even now
          with interest. It was a revelation to me. It resulted in a
          desire on my part to learn more about that remarkable kind of
          action. Plainly the only way to learn about it was to see its
          results, to experiment, to work in a laboratory. 

          --Ira Remsen, author of a chemistry text published in 1901,
          and     co-discoverer of saccharin 


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