Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries 14 (2001) 69 76
www.elsevier.com/locate/jlp
Some historical accidental explosions
*
Paolo Cardillo
Stazione sperimentale per i Combustibili, Viale A. De Gasperi 3, 20097 San Donato Milanese, Italy
Abstract
In the pioneering period, at least until half way through the 19th century, the modern figure of the  chemist did not exist. The
researchers were mostly philosophers, doctors and pharmacists, who were interested in that part of science known as  chemistry
or described by the word  chemistry . Some became chemists for passion and others vocation, urged on by a deep desire to challenge
very often the dangers connected with their manipulations and to work in environmental conditions that today would be unthinkable.
By reading old books of chemistry and the history of chemistry we learn that some of the greatest chemists of the past, the fathers
of chemistry, have sometimes been involved in accidental explosions, some of which were serious. In this paper there is a short
collection of historical accidental explosions where the protagonists were some of our great predecessors. � 2000 Elsevier Science
Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Historical explosions
1. Introduction so sweetly that may I die if I would change places
with the Persian King.
By reading old books of chemistry and the history of
chemistry we learn that some of the greatest chemists of The chemists of the past were content with a very
the past, the fathers of chemistry, have sometimes been modest laboratory: sometimes the back-shop of a phar-
involved in accidental explosions some of which were macy, more often the kitchen of their own house. It was
serious. enough to have good light and equipment to obtain water
In the pioneering period, at least until half way and heat. For example, from the memories of F. W�hler
through the 19th century, the modern figure of the we have the description of the laboratory of J. Berzelius,
 chemist did not exist. The researchers were mostly where the great Swedish chemist carried out most of his
philosophers, doctors and pharmacists who were inter- accurate estimations of the atomic weights as well as
ested in that part of science known as  chemistry . Some other research (Tilden, 1917):
of them became chemists for passion or vocation, urged
on by a deep desire to challenge very often the dangers The laboratory consisted of two ordinary rooms,
connected with their manipulations and to work in with the very simplest arrangements: there were
environmental conditions that today would be unthink- neither furnaces nor hoods, neither water system nor
able. gas. In one of the rooms there were two ordinary long
In 1703 Johann Joachim Becher, the founder of the work-tables of pine wood, at one of them Berzelius
phlogiston theory, asserted (Jaffe, 1934): had his place, at the other I had mine. Against the
walls stood some closets with the reagents, in the
The chemists are a strange class of mortals who middle the mercury trough and the blast-lamp table,
seek their pleasures among soot and flame, poisons the latter under a flue leading into the chimney of the
and poverty, yet among all these evils I seem to live stove. This room was communicating with the kitchen
of his apartment, where Anna his famous servant
maid lead the experiments sometimes, as his only
assistant.
* Fax: [phone].
E-mail address: [e-mail] (P. Cardillo). Also in 1800, the idea of danger was already present in
0950-4230/01/$ - see front matter � 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0950-4230(00)00011-5
70 P. Cardillo / Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries 14 (2001) 69 76
the image of chemistry activity; however, chemists 3. Count Morozzo and flour dust
showed the wounds that they had obtained from their
activity with pride. A chemist was easily recognizable The account of a violent flour dust explosion, in Turin
by his wounds: generally some fingers were missing and in 1785, was published in 1795 (Morozzo, 1795). It is
sometimes even an eye! the first technical report of a dust explosion in the litera-
B. Jaffe (1934), remembering the explosions that had ture, written by Count Carlo Ludovico Morozzo di
happened to Liebig, also remembers the sacrifices of BianzŁ (1743 1804), authoritative chemist and math-
chemists  brave enough to wrestle with such obstreper- ematician (he was also President of the Real Academy
ous substances and concluded:  the annals of chemistry of Sciences of Turin).
contain many such example of heroism . The reconstruction of this incident, considering what
In this paper there is a short collection of historical we know today, can seem somewhat naive since Count
accidental explosions where the protagonists were some Morozzo considered that the ignition concerned a
of our great predecessors. flammable gas developed from the flour even if he gave
some importance to the role of the powder cloud in the
propagation of the explosion.
2. van Helmont, Cavendish, Priestley and At that time the flammability of hydrogen, methane
pneumatic chemistry and other combustible gases was already known to the
scientific community, but very few scientists would have
J. B. van Helmont s (1577 1644) most significant considered the possibility of a powder explosion.
work was done with chemically produced gases, which In the following, some pieces of this interesting paper
he distinguished from ordinary air. He recognized the are reported:
identity of various gases: gas ventosum (air), gas car-
bonum (from combustion of coal), gas musti (from On the 14th of December,1785, about six o clock
alcoholic fermentation), gas sulphureum, gas pingue in the evening, there took place in the house of Mr.
(intestinal gas), etc. He discovered the existence of aeri- Giacomelli, baker in this city (Torino), an explosion
form fluids and demonstrated that carbon dioxide which threw down the windows, and window-frames
(spiritus silvestris) was produced from the reaction of of his shop, which looked into the street; the noise
limestone with acids, combustion of coal and fermen- was as loud as that of a large cracker, and was heard
tation of wine and the beer; it was also present in the at a considerable distance. At the moment of the
stomach and in many natural mineral waters. explosion, a very bright flame, which lasted only a
In an attempt  to hold in a vase this chemically pro- few seconds, was seen in the shop; and it was
duced air, he observed, many times, the explosion of the immediately observed, that the inflammation pro-
collection container (Ihde, 1964). As a result of these ceeded from the flour-warehouse, which was situated
experiences, he coined and used the term gas over the back shop, and where a boy was employed
(Leicester & Klickstein, 1952): in stirring some flour by the light of a lamp. The boy
had his face and arms scorched by the explosion; his
I call this spirit, hitherto unknown, by the name of hair was burnt, and it was more than a fortnight before
gas, which can neither be retained in vessels nor his burns were healed. He was not the only victim of
reduced to a visible form, unless the seed is first extin- this event; another boy, who happened to be upon a
guished. scaffold, in a little room on the other side of the ware-
house, seeing the flame, which had made its passage
In 1766, H. Cavendish (1731 1810) obtained hydro- that way, and thinking the house was on fire, jumped
gen (inflammable air) by the reaction of salt spirit (HCl) down from the scaffold, and broke his leg&
and vitriolic acid (H2SO4) on various metals (zinc, iron, The flour-warehouse, which is situated above the
tin). His more famous research concerns the composition back shop, is six feet high, six feet wide, and about
of air and water and also nitric acid. During research eight feet long. It is divided into two parts, by a wall;
into the composition of water, he suffered, several times, an arched ceiling extends over both, but the pavement
explosion of the container in which he primed the mix- of one part is raised about two feet higher than that
tures hydrogen oxygen (Ihde, 1964). of the other. In the middle of the wall is an opening
J. Priestley (1733 1804) discovered SO2 (vitriolic of communication, two feet and a half wide, and three
acid air) accidentally, only as a result of a problem dur- feet high; through it the flour is conveyed from the
ing an attempt to obtain this gas by direct heating of upper chamber into the lower one. The boy, who was
sulfuric acid. He observed no change until a laboratory employed in the lower chamber, in collecting flour to
failure caused mercury to be sucked back into the retort supply the bolter below, dug about the sides of the
that contained the hot acid. The vessel was shattered and opening, in order to make the flour fall from the upper
sulfurous fumes escaped into the room (Ihde, 1964). chamber into that in which he was; and, as he was
P. Cardillo / Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries 14 (2001) 69 76 71
digging, rather deeply, a sudden fall of a great quan- ately recognized. It was thought that when an explosion
tity took place, followed by a thick cloud, which happened in a mine it had to be formed by a gaseous
immediately caught fire, from the lamp hanging to the flammable atmosphere (grisou or firedamp).
wall, and caused the violent explosion here treated of. Michael Faraday (1791 1867), often called as expert
The flame shewed itself in two directions; it pen- witness to the court, was the first to declare the role of
etrated, by a little opening, from the upper chamber coal powder in the explosions in the mines when he
of the warehouse, into a very small room above it, reported, in collaboration with Sir Charles Lyell, famous
where, the door and window-frames being well closed geologist, on the disaster of Haswell in 1844 that caused
and very strong; it produced no explosion; here the 95 deaths (Faraday & Lyell, 1845).
poor boy broke his leg. The greatest inflammation, on
the contrary, took place in the small chamber, and, They write: In considering the extent of the fire from
taking the direction of a small staircase, which leads the moment of explosion it is not to be supposed that
into the back shop, caused a violent explosion, which firedamp was its only fuel; the coal dust swept by the
threw down the frames of the window which looked rush of wind and flame from the floor, roof, and walls
in the street. The warehouse, at the time of the acci- of the works would instantly take fire and burn if there
dent, contained about three hundred sacks of flour& were oxygen enough present in the air to support its
the flour was perfectly dry; there was no appearance combustion; and we found the dust adhering to the
of fermentation in it, nor was there any sensible heat. faces of the pillars, props, and walls in the direction
The baker told me that he never had flour so dry of and on the side toward the explosion, increasing
as in that year (1785), during which the weather had gradually to a certain distance as we neared the place
been remarkably dry, there having been no rain in of ignition.
Piedmont for the space of five or six months: indeed,
he attributed the accident which had happened in his Faraday and Lyell recognized that forced ventilation
warehouse to the extraordinary dryness of the corn& was the best means to diminish such dangers.
According to the foregoing accounts, it appears to
me, that it is not difficult to explain the phenomenon
in question. The following is the idea I have con- 5. Lavoisier and gunpowder
ceived of it: as the flour sell down, a great quantity
of inflammable air, which had been confined in its Lavoisier s interest in the manufacture of gunpowder
interstices, was set free; this, rising up, was inflamed nearly cost him his life in 1788. In an experiment made
by the contact of the light; and, mixing immediately at Essonnes, he used a powder containing the new subst-
with a sufficient quantity of atmospheric air, the ance, potassium chlorate, recently discovered by Claude
explosion took place. Louis Berthollet, instead of saltpetre. This new product
seemed to be more economical and a benefit for France.
In the rest of the paper, Count Morozzo extends his Lavoisier had arranged with Le Tort, manager at
investigation to the phenomenon of spontaneous com- Essonnes, for the experiment to be made on Sunday,
bustion and suggests also norms (first in absolute) that October 27, and he arrived at Essonnes on the previous
would have to be adopted in order to safeguard the pub- evening accompanied by his wife and Berthollet. As a
lic safety. precaution, the preparation of the new explosive was car-
ried out in a small hand-mill, fitted with only one pestle,
The end of the article is very modern: Ignorance of in the open air, and the workmen engaged in mixing the
fore-mentioned circumstances, and a culpable negli- powder were protected, in case of accident, by a stout
gence of those precautions which ought to be taken, wooden screen dividing them from the mortar in which
have often caused more misfortunes and loss than the mixing was being done.
most contriving malice: it is therefore of great impor- The experiment began at six o clock in the morning
tance that these facts should be universally known, when the ingredients for 16 livres of gunpowder were
that public utility may reap from them every poss- weighed out; the mixing began at seven o clock, but,
ible advantage. although it was damped, the mixture turned lumpy and
material was thrown up on the sides of the mortar. The
observers, Lavoisier and his wife, Berthollet and another
five people, were standing on the unprotected side of the
4. Faraday and coal dust mortar opposite the workmen, who were protected by
the wooden screen. Le Tort began to push down with
In the 18th century, coal was the key source of energy, his stick the material that was being thrown up on the
above all others, in Britain and the danger in the mines sides of the mortar, but this caused no improvement and
deriving from the flammability of methane was immedi- so a new and moister mixture was made by adding the
72 P. Cardillo / Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries 14 (2001) 69 76
proper proportions of the ingredients to bring the total undoubtedly heard the account, and so they had to
weight up to 20 livres. The product was still lumpy and, give up.
despite Lavoisier s warnings, Le Tort continued to knock
down with a stick the lumps thrown up at each stroke
of the pestle, because, he said, the powder was not yet
mixed and there was no danger; and he talked to the
6. Lavoisier and organic analysis
company of the effects that an explosion might produce.
At a quarter past eight, the mixing seemed to be more
The first experiment on the composition of organic
advanced than had been expected and Lavoisier, after
substances was carried out by Lavoisier. In it, he exam-
insisting that Le Tort should now cease stirring the pow-
ined various oils, fats, waxes, alcohol, etc. He combusted
der, remarked sharply on the futility of constructing
the liquids in a burner, led the combustion products
screens as a protection from accidents and then standing
through a cooler and then through a calcium chloride
in front instead of behind them, and gave instructions
tube before absorbing in sodium hydroxide solution. The
that the workmen should make only eight or ten turns
accuracy was very good when we consider that this was
of the mill at a time and then stop while the powder was
the first analysis of its type.
being stirred, all present to remain behind the screen
Moreover, the idea of making organic compounds
while the mill was working. This arranged, the party
react with oxygen and measure the carbon dioxide and
went to breakfast, leaving two men in charge. On leav-
the amounts of water produced, has remained the basis
ing, Lavoisier gave final and emphatic instructions that
of all procedures of analysis of organic substances that
operations should proceed as he had indicated, namely,
were developed later.
to stir the mixture only when the mill was not working
In his book Trait� �l�mentaire de chimie (Lavoisier,
and all present to remain behind the screen when the
1789), Lavoisier points out some explosions
mill was working. A quarter of an hour later they set
(detonations) of which he was protagonist during the
out to return; and, on their way, Lavoisier and his wife
conduction of these experiments:
fortunately stopped for a few minutes to show a powder-
mill to Berthollet. Lavoisier and his party had scarcely
The above process answers very well for burning
resumed their steps, when a loud explosion was heard
all the concrete substances, and even for the fixed oils.
and a thick column of smoke rose from the scene of the
These last are burnt in lamps under the jar and are
experiment; when they ran forward, they found the mill
readily set on fire by means of tinder, phosphorus,
completely wrecked, the mortar broken into pieces and
and hot iron. But it is dangerous for substances sus-
the pestle hurled to a distance, Le Tort and a young girl
ceptible of evaporating in a moderate heat, such as
fatally and terribly injured and flung 30 feet away against
ether, alcohol, and the essential oils; these substances
a wall by the violence of the explosion. All the operators
dissolve in considerable quantity in oxygen gas; and,
had been saved by the screen. Had the explosion
when set on fire, a dangerous and sudden explosion
occurred a half-hour earlier or three minutes later,
takes place, which carries up the jar to a great height,
adieu Lavoisier.
and dashes it in a thousand pieces. From two such
The incident has been very well described by Grimaux
explosions some of the members of the Academy and
(1888). In a note, the reader is informed that the news
myself escaped very narrowly.
of the explosion had been reported by Cadet de Vaux,
editor of the Journal de Paris in the number of 31
October. The text had been prepared by Lavoisier him-
self (the autograph draft is still preserved).
7. Count Rumford and ether
We can understand why Lavoisier has tried to decline
any responsibility, as he had himself warned of the dang-
ers. Benjamin Thomson, Count Rumford (1753 1814),
The activity in the Essonnes factory must have con- was tremendously versatile and gained international
tinued for some years, with some other incidents, even fame as a philanthropist, administrator and authority on
after Lavoisier s death. In fact, Gay-Lussac, in his les- military problems. But, his most consuming interest and
sons (Gay-Lussac, 1828), on potassium chlorate pow- perhaps greatest skill lay in physical experimentation,
der writes: especially in the field of heat.
Not only did Thomson measure the heat of combus-
tion of various types of wood, charcoal, and coal, but he
people were trying to make a powder with potass- proceeded to study in a very elaborate way all kinds of
ium chlorate. Some was manufactured in Essonnes; possible fuel, and wrote various papers on the heat pro-
but the manufacture of this product, in spite of the duced by burning fuel in various states of dryness and
precautions taken, caused accidents of which you dampness. The most spectacular experiment was his
P. Cardillo / Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries 14 (2001) 69 76 73
attempt to measure the heat from combustion of ether 1993). On 3 June 1808 he had an accident in the labora-
(Brown, 1968): tory, whose consequences could have been more dra-
matic, when a flask exploded the fused potassium hit him
an explosion took place from vapour of ether kin- on the face damaging his eyes. He partially recovered his
dling in the air with a flame that rose to the ceiling. sight only after one month but, as the tear ducts were
Indeed it was near setting the house on fire. destroyed, his eyes were red and weepy for the rest of
his life. After this incident he used very thick glasses
that saved him in a subsequent incident 36 years later!
In November 1807, H. Davy (1778 1829) announced
8. Berthellot and potassium chlorate to the Royal Society that he had successfully isolated,
in small amounts, sodium and potassium, by means of
The discovery of potassium chlorate, as we have pre- electrolysis, from soda and potassa. For this discovery
viously seen, was made by Claude Louis Berthollet Davy had used the big battery of the Royal Institution.
(1748 1822) who built a factory for the fabrication of Thanks to the support of Napoleon, Gay-Lussac was
this salt. Around 1790, a mortal incident happened in immediately allocated huge funds so that the scientific
his factory that was described in a book on explosives experiments in France could be made with similar equip-
in 1893 (Salvati, 1893): ment: at the end of July 1808 a big battery formed from
600 seems of plates of zinc and branch of 900 cm2 sur-
When the famous prof. Berthollet built his factory face was installed at the �cole Polytechnique (the realm
making potassium chlorate powder, he continually of Gay-Lussac and Thenard).
recommended his suggested precautions; this got on Gay-Lussac and Thenard repeated the experiences of
the nerves of a young director, who one day, speaking Davy and obtained a few grams of two metals of which
to the inventor, criticized these precautions because they studied the properties and the reactions.
they disrupted the daily work and, in order to emphas- The results were published in their book Recherches
ize his point, while speaking, he struck a container physico-chimiques of 1811. During this research an inci-
of potassium chlorate with a rod; unfortunately the dent took place (an electric shock). Gay-Lussac and The-
container exploded making the other surrounding con- nard described it in their book, without specifying to
tainers explode too; the imprudent young director lost whom it had happened.
his life together with the other poor workers, and prof. In 1813 Gay-Lussac characterized iodine and studied
Berthollet miraculously escaped disaster. its properties; during this research his hand and right foot
were seriously injured by explosion of the flask contain-
ing sulfuric acid mixed with iodine.
In 1844 Gay-Lussac had another serious accident,
9. Scheele and his first chemistry experiences described in detail by the press of the time (Moniteur
Universel):
Also Karl Wilhelm Scheele (1742 1786), one of the
greatest researchers in the history of chemistry, seems Mr Gay-Lussac has been seriously injured in the
to have been involved in some incidents during his short laboratory of the Garden of Roy. At the moment that
but intense career. At the beginning, during his appren- the famous professor opened a bottle to prepare an
ticeship in a pharmacy (around 1767), he used to carry experiment, the contact of the air ignited the contents.
out his experiments at night. One night an incident hap- A violent explosion was heard, that people outside
pened that was described by J.B. Dumas (1839): compared with a shot. Mr. Gay-Lussac was thrown
to the ground and his face hit by flying glass. These
He slept just what was necessary from his research; wounds are serious, but it is hoped that they will not
one of his colleague mischievously mixed some sub- present a danger to his articulation. A young assistant
stances with gunpowder. In the middle of the night was also hit, but not so badly.
when Scheele started the first experiment there was a
big explosion, and everybody in the house got up and Fortunately, Gay-Lussac was wearing his glasses,
discovered his night work. which saved him from worse injuries.
11. Dulong, Davy, Faraday and nitrogen trichloride
10. Gay-Lussac and his accidents
Pierre-Louis Dulong (1785 1838), pupil of Thenard,
During his long career Joseph Gay-Lussac (1778 famous mainly for the law of atomic heats:  The atoms
1850) was the victim of various incidents (Bram & Anh, of all simple bodies have exactly the same capacity for
74 P. Cardillo / Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries 14 (2001) 69 76
heat (the law of Dulong and Petit [1819]), in October elementary nature of chlorine (oxymuriatic acid) various
1811 was completing his research on the possibility of explosions took place.
synthesizing a compound of nitrogen and chlorine. The Gay-Lussac and Thenard had prepared mixtures of
two gases didn t react alone; Dulong had greater success oxymuriatic acid and hydrogen and had exposed them
making a chlorine current pass through a concentrated to the light of the sun (Gay-Lussac & Thenard, 1809):
solution of ammonium chloride for two hours.
Unfortunately the product, nitrogen trichloride, was Scarcely had they been exposed when they sud-
highly explosive and Dulong was seriously injured, los- denly inflamed with a very loud detonation, and the
ing a finger and the sight of an eye. jars were reduced to splinters, and projected to a great
In a chemistry book of 1857 (Comstock, 1857) we distance. Fortunately we had provided against such
can read: occurrences and had taken precautions to secure our-
selves against accident.
The chloride of nitrogen is the most violently
explosive substance yet discovered, and should not be Instead, Davy and its brother John ( from whom I
experimented upon by the student in quantities larger receive constant and able assistance in all my chemical
than a mustard seed at a time, and even in this quan- enquiries ), several times observed explosions with the
tity, with great caution. Both its discoverer (Dulong), gas produced from the reaction between muriatic acid
and Sir H. Davy, notwithstanding their experience and (HCl) and the salt called hyperoxymuriate (KClO3)
caution as chemical experimenters, were seriously (Crosland, 1962):
injured by its violence.
It sometimes explodes during the time of its trans-
In that period there was great rivalry between Davy fer from one vessel to another, producing heat and
and Thenard, Gay-Lussac and other French scientists in light, with an expansion of volume; and it may be
many fields of chemistry, and, in repeating the experi- always made to explode by a very gentle heat, often
ments of Dulong he had the same incident. Davy was by that of the hand (Davy, 1811).
wounded by a splinter of glass striking the cornea of
his eye. Thanks to Davy this gas, chlorine dioxide (ClO2), is
In another book (Guillen, 1995) it is written that Fara- well known for its instability and explosibility (Moore,
day (who in that period was Davy s assistant) was also 1931):
the victim of an explosion with nitrogen trichloride. He
wrote to a friend: This gas in its pure form is so easily decomposable
that it is dangerous to operate upon considerable
I was able to escape four violent explosions. The quantities. In one set of experiments upon it, a jar of
most terrible of them happened when I held between strong glass, containing 40 cubic inches, exploded in
my thumb and index finger a small test-tube contain- my hands with a loud report, producing light; the ves-
ing seven grains of nitrogen trichloride. The explosion sel was broken, and fragments of it were thrown to a
happened so suddenly that on opening my hand some considerable distance.
of my nail was torn away; my fingers were burnt so
much that I still am unable to use them like before.
Faraday was victim of another explosion in 1823, 13. Berzelius and gold fulminate
when he was studying the liquefaction of chlorine, as
his friend and biographer Tyndall (1894) informs us: Jaffe (1934) informs us that, once, Jons Jakob Berzel-
ius (1779 1848) while attempting to recover gold from
I may add that while he was conducting his first some fulminates, was almost killed by a violent
experiment on the liquefaction of gases, thirteen explosion. For a month he was forced to remain in a dark
pieces of glass were on one occasion driven by an room to save his eyesight. When he finally emerged, he
explosion into Faraday s eye. went back to his laboratory.
Again Jaffe (1934) supplies us with some other news
about Berzelius: in 1816 Gahn, an industrial chemist,
persuaded Berzelius to join him in the purchase of a
12. Gay-Lussac, Thenard and Davy again: this chemical factory at Gripsholm. In the course of this
time with oxymuriatic acid undertaking Berzelius discovered the element selenium
while examining sulfuric acid. Berzelius career as an
During an experiment that Gay-Lussac (and Thenard) industrial chemist didn t last long because  an explosion
and Davy were carrying out in order to assess the soon destroyed the factory .
P. Cardillo / Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries 14 (2001) 69 76 75
14. W�hler and Liebig also played at being little assistant to Jules Pelouze at the CollŁge de France, he
chemists studied gas liquefaction and in particular that of CO2.
During these activities, which resulted in his first publi-
Friedrich W�hler (1800 1882), the future discoverer cation, he was the victim of a very serious accident in
of urea, was attracted to chemistry when he was very the laboratory (Jacques, 1987). Following an explosion,
young. Through his father he met a friend who had a rich a fragment of glass cut his cornea in two. He was taken
chemical library and a small private laboratory where he home, where his father, a doctor, put ice on his eye. The
obtained permission to work. He built a voltaic battery scar remained with him throughout his life.
out of zinc plates and some old Russian copper coins he Among other things, Berthelot studied the thermo-
had collected. He also built a furnace (his sister helped chemistry of explosives (Berthelot, 1872) and must have
him to use the bellows to feed the fire). During this juv- had more than one incident. In a note of 1894, in collab-
enile activity he burned his fingers with phosphorus, and oration with P. Vieille (the true inventor of the calori-
on another occasion was almost killed when a flask con- metric bomb) he underlined an accident that happened
taining chlorine exploded in his hands (Tilden, 1917). to a certain Chenel, during experimentation with mer-
From chemistry history books (Moore, 1931) we learn cury azide (Berthelot & Vieille, 1894):
that even Justus Liebig (1803 1873) from a very early
age had the same passion as W�hler for chemistry. When
by its explosive properties, the mercury azide must
he was a student about 16 years old at high school, he
be extremely similar to fulminate. Unfortunately, an
already enjoyed making chemical experiments. Unfortu-
explosion which has occurred under unexpected con-
nately  he played with silver fulminate that one day
ditions appeared to indicate that it was more sensitive
exploded in the classroom causing considerable damage.
and consequently more dangerous.  Mr Chenel has
He was expelled with the verdict that he was  hope-
been seriously injured  which obliged us to stop
lessly useless .
these studies.
Several years later (when he was interested in the iso-
morphism of cyanate and silver fulminate) he was the
victim of another explosion. On that occasion Liebig
almost lost his eyesight when a sample of fulminic acid
exploded under his nose and he was sent to hospital to
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