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9 November 2001
Readers Respond
Water Glass and Chemical Suppliers
Your description of water glass brings back memories. We used to do a little science magic trick with it. Mix up a dillute solution of sodium silicate and in another container a solution of acetic acid. If you get the concentrations right you can pour both solutions together and they will instantly gel. So you can do something like pour them together and then turn the container upside down. nothing will come out. When dried the resulting gel is the the silica gel that is used to keep the contents of packages dry. It is also the starting point for making areogel. http://eande.lbl.gov/ECS/aerogels/satoc.htm
With regards to finding chemicals. I usually look for suppliers for a hobby that uses the particular chemical that I am interested in. For example here is a source for sodium silicate and several other chemicals.
http://www.chemistrystore.com/Chemical_index_Name.htm and here is another for sodium silicate that you might not expect. http://budgetcastingsupply.com/ I used to do color film processing, mixing up the solutions from the raw chemicals. I found a number of suppliers for photographic chemicals that cary a rather large list of chemicals. Particulary when they cater to some of the older photographic processes.
Jim Hannon
Hi,
I saw your comments about The Science Alliance in the latest SAS Bulletin. While I am sure we don't want to do business with a criminal enterprise, I don't think that being mentioned in a report on MSNBC should be considered damning.
I think that the attitude of the reporter (and since this is a TV news organization, I use the term very loosely) mirrors that of many people; chemicals should only be sold to institutions and not ordinary citizens, and that only a criminal - drug or terrorist - would want to buy chemicals. After all, chemicals are very scary things. Once they learned where the students obtained their chemicals, I am sure they painted the Science Alliance as criminal even if the company did no wrong.
As to the books where they obtained the information on how to manufacture ecstasy, this information can be gleaned from many standard references. I was able to find it in my own library and I don't have any counter culture books.
I am a Libertarian so I oppose the war on drugs as a direct assault on our freedoms. Sometimes this comes from evil laws such as property forfeiture. In other cases it is because opinion makes people and companies overly cautious. When I was a high school student, I used to buy chemicals and other supplies from Fisher. I recently needed something from Fisher and it took a lot of talking to get it even though I have a Ph.D and own a company that has a legitimate need for it. (I do tissue culture propagation of hostas and other plants both to increase the supply of rare cultivars and to develop new cultivars.)
There are no laws prohibiting Fisher from selling anything except scheduled drugs to the public. They don't do it because they are concerned about their liability and being labeled as a company that sold to druggies or terrorists.
Have you contacted the owners of the Science Alliance and gotten their side of the story?
As for a company that might be willing to work with SAS, try Cynmar Corporation (http://www.cynmar.com/). I have bought lots of supplies from them and they are very nice people. They sell only a very limited range of chemicals but they might be able to be a middleman that enables us to get chemicals from the big houses.
Thanks,
James Glasgow
Nancy,
I have in the past (1992) purchased high quality chemicals and reagents from Chem-Lab Supplies, 1060 Ortega Way,Unit C,Placentia,CA 92670. (714) 630-7902.
Not sure if they are still in business but they would be worth a try.
John Fickler
Shawn,
Try Springfield Scientific
. I've had no experience with this outfit, but they list an extensive selection of organic and inorganic chemicals. Any chance of wooing Fisher Scientific back? You might also want to contact A. Daigger and Co., a laboratory supply house in Chicago. Back in the 1930s they used to publish an amateur chemistry magazine, "The Home Laboratory Journal", edited by M. Woldenberg, Ph.D. The last I heard the company was still around and being run by the Woldenberg family. Perhaps a mention of their early involvement with amateur chemistry would induce them to help out in the present situation.
It's a crying shame that greed for drug money has to spoil a good relationship.
Norm Stanley
Shawn,
Hobbyists can get small amounts of chemicals from http://www.al-chymist.com/ they do a very good job
Dave Hamilton
