One Hot Minute (793 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.75 on 13 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by matnotharry <mattreallysmells.at.hotmail.com> (View user info) at 2007-01-20 18:22:50 EST
Today we used oil baths in labs. An oil bath is essentially a small bowl of (you guessed it) oil, which is heated with a hot plate so the liquid can transfer heat to whatever you choose to stick in it (The involves convection; don't say you learn nothing from me).
The first rule of oil baths is 'NEVER move them whilst hot'. The innocent-looking piss-coloured liquid can reach temperatures that are usually reserved for the surfaces of solar bodies and the breath of dragons. A splash of this stuff on your hand will melt your glove, scald your skin and generally leave you feeling pretty pissed off for the remainder of the day, which will be spent standing with your hand under a running tap to reduce the size of the burn that is to remind you of your accident for years to come.
Slightly worse than getting scalded and scarred for life is the whole thing catching fire, which is all-to-easily achieved by merely over toasting the oil to 160°C (or whenever it reaches the excitingly dubbed flashpoint and self ignites). This is where the men get separated from the boys, the hard core from the soft, the sort of people who read a lab safety manual and those who skip it and just scrawl initials at the bottom.
Whereas one group will cock an eyebrow, utter 'oh shit' and call for a technician; the other will panic, scream 'oh shit' and probably head for a source of water with the woeful misconception that it will contribute to putting out the now raging fire. Whether you remember that nightmare inducing video you saw at Fire Safety day (something along the lines of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRr_B5VRcCk) as a kid or the worst/last time you cooked you're probably aware that hot oil and water don't mix. This is another reason a chemist, particularly one with wet gloves and soggy sleeves, should never move another move a hot oil bath.
Now this has all been a rather long winded introduction to a short anecdote involving a moment of brief stupidity I experienced first hand today (excluding the half cooked pizza I just ate). As I'm sure you've guessed it involves hippos, I mean, oil baths.
Fellow lab rat utS (codename) and I decided, in a moment of sheer laziness and lack of common sense, that it'd be better use the clamp stand under the small but inescapably 150°C hotplate rather than one of twenty perfectly accessible clamp stands a mere 10m away. This was not the biggest moment of stupidity.
In our moment of urgency we also neglected to remove the bowl of hot oil that was sitting on said plate. Again, this was not the biggest moment of stupidity.
Neither was the actual movement of the apparatus, a two man job that involved utS pulling left and myself pulling right and a resulting jerky motion that caused the bath to slide dramatically to my hands, much to my dismay and cry of 'aaaaarghhhhhh shit shit shit go left!'
utS acknowledged my unusually high-pitched request and shifted his hand to simultaneously save me and teach himself that nitrile gloves are poor heat insulators, particularly when subjected to heated ceramic; 'argh fuck it's hot' being his testimony.
Yet again, patient reader, we are not at the stupidest point of the day. Almost getting third degree burns whilst risking being thrown out of labs, both jeopardising future careers as chemists and the use of hands paled in comparison to what happened next. It came in the form of another chemist, one who I have always considered a clever fellow until he walked over to investigate our drama and asked that fatal question:
'Was it hot?'
User Reviews
Submitted by matnotharry (user info) at 2007-01-26 20:50:00 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2007-01-22 18:04:01 (#)
Ranking: 2
funny story, but why post on Sunday night?
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My lab report is due on a Monday morning. It is standard practise to avoid it at all costs until literally the last minute, hence the story.
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2007-01-22 18:04:01 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
funny story, but why post on Sunday night?
Submitted by Amontillado (user info) at 2007-01-21 18:13:29 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Stagger_Lee (user info) at 2007-01-21 09:16:55 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I've learnt nothing from you.
Submitted by DCWoody (user info) at 2007-01-20 20:50:00 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
Submitted by Hagard (user info) at 2007-01-20 20:43:36 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
Chemistry reminds me of fight club, oh and to quote the anti-christ "thats hot"
Submitted by maiorano84 (user info) at 2007-01-20 20:40:53 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I came.
Submitted by scourge (user info) at 2007-01-20 20:19:41 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
ha
Submitted by lungfish (user info) at 2007-01-20 20:15:57 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Well...was it?
Submitted by Phallic_Cymbals (user info) at 2007-01-20 19:02:49 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Well, while people are complaining about Uber going downhill they should read this instead.
Submitted by LSD420 (user info) at 2007-01-20 18:47:53 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Bubba2341 (user info) at 2007-01-20 18:31:01 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Yeah. Hotter than two rats fucking in a wool sock.
Submitted by Maltese (user info) at 2007-01-20 18:30:54 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I masturbated with an oil bath once.
There were no survivors.