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Making chloroform so I can sleep better at night [video]

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Re: Making chloroform so I can sleep better at night [video]

#31

Post by martopix »

at-fates-hands wrote: post #25
occamrazor wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember reading (can’t find the source anymore) that ether would work as knock-out drug, and that indeed it was used as a plot device in crime books as chloroform is used in movies today. The problem is that ether can be highly toxic at relatively low dosage, and then it was replaced by chloroform in fiction to avoid giving dangerous ideas to people. Is there any truth behind this theory?

Just some anecdotal evidence to support what you're saying. When I was in college and a freshman, I was told the urban legend about the "ether bunny". The story about a freshman who finds out his roommate has been drugging and having sex with him using ether. I wasn't very knowledgeable about these stories or urban legends in general so when I was home for Christmas vacation, I told my Dad about it, and he started la…

However, drink 'spiking' for the same purpose is a thing, and people have been jailed for it.

Re: Making chloroform so I can sleep better at night [video]

#32

Post by kortex »

pazimzadeh wrote: post #4

can't you just mix bleach with ethanol?

I'm a bit rusty (worked as a chemist 2011-2015 before going into compsci) but I believe that this reaction produces some chloroform (enough that you should not mix ethanol and bleach inadvertently), but mostly as a side-reaction. The main reaction will be oxidation to acetaldehyde and then acetate. But it's slow, you probably get a bunch of side-reactions, etc.

Acetone is a facile haloform reagent because the carbonyl acidifies ("loosens") the alpha hydrogen which allows the chlorine to attack the carbon.

Re: Making chloroform so I can sleep better at night [video]

#33

Post by l33t233372 »

cinntaile wrote: post #16
adamsmith143 wrote: post #11

Undergrad in our lab was working after hours and once dropped an entire jug of choloroform which promptly exploded on the floor. He shat a brick and ran out of the building. Fire Department and Hazmat cleanup crews both showed up and shut down the entire building.

Don't you usually only take what you need such that accidents like these can't happen?

Presumably you take what you need from a larger container that can be dropped.

Re: Making chloroform so I can sleep better at night [video]

#35

Post by petre »

gus_massa wrote: post #2

The author is Chemdelic. I was expecting a video by Nile Red, but I was not disappointed. (As the video explain, don't try this at home unless you have a degree in Chemistry or something. That invisible fumes looks nasty.)

Definitely do not try this at home without a Chemistry degree. Why? It's easy to accidentaly produce phosgene (WWI chemical weapon, smells like freshly cut grass) by combining chloroform fumes and oxygen under UV light or chlorine with carbon monoxide from a gas burner (yellow flame).

Re: Making chloroform so I can sleep better at night [video]

#36

Post by kyleblarson »

RajT88 wrote: post #21
xkcd-sucks wrote: post #18

Chloroform is great for extractions (if you don't care about the environment) because it sinks to the bottom of a sep funnel, but the thing about it being a knockout gas or sleep aid is complete BS. Based on an unpublished study of about 4 degenerate chemistry undergrads: - It PROBABLY takes several minutes of inhalation through a saturated rag to induce full loss of consciousness, although shorter times do produce n…

It could well be a similar phenomenon to how silencers on firearms absolutely do not make a gun sound like it sounds in the movies, but because it's become an established (and convenient) film trope, it persists in film. Similarly - films depicting kidnapping people using chloroform as an instant knockout drug.

Suppressed subsonic 300 blackout is pretty darn close to the movies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AUDVoGOCxw

Re: Making chloroform so I can sleep better at night [video]

#39

Post by isk517 »

xkcd-sucks wrote: post #18

Chloroform is great for extractions (if you don't care about the environment) because it sinks to the bottom of a sep funnel, but the thing about it being a knockout gas or sleep aid is complete BS. Based on an unpublished study of about 4 degenerate chemistry undergrads: - It PROBABLY takes several minutes of inhalation through a saturated rag to induce full loss of consciousness, although shorter times do produce n…

Excuse me sir, but are you implying that in 1993 at WrestleMania 9 when Giant Gonzalez knocked out the Undertaker using a chloroform soaked rag that it was all fake? If so then mister, I think you are full of crap. /s

Re: Making chloroform so I can sleep better at night [video]

#40

Post by karaterobot »

kyleblarson wrote: post #36
RajT88 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could well be a similar phenomenon to how silencers on firearms absolutely do not make a gun sound like it sounds in the movies, but because it's become an established (and convenient) film trope, it persists in film. Similarly - films depicting kidnapping people using chloroform as an instant knockout drug.

Suppressed subsonic 300 blackout is pretty darn close to the movies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AUDVoGOCxw

It's quiet enough that those guys are not completely crazy for not having ear protection — but of course the microphone is not picking up the full volume of the shots either, any more than it does for unsuppressed, supersonic rounds.
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