Chemical Errors in the Communication of Media Kenneth Braddock-Rogers and Kenneth Mackenzie Braddock 617 West Miner Street. West Chester. PA 19382
For a number of years the authors, father and son (both chemists), have been collecting errors in chemistry that have appeared in such sources as advertisements, editorials, news stories, articles of general interest, novels, detective stories, short stories, and comic strips. The Philaelphia Bulletin, January 4, 1978, reported an explosion in the chemistry laboratory of a university in Philadelphia. The report stated, " . . . an explosion yesterday resulted from a chemical experiment. . . in the campus lahoratory. A university official said that two men (graduate students) were working with phosphoric acid, a chemical that explodes in contact with a i r . . . "Phosphoric acid is a shelf reagent. The chemical that exploded was diphosphine, HzP-pH2. There was a leak in the apparatus and the diphosphine exploded in contact with air. (This information is in a letter to the authors from the director of the lahoratory.) The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 20,1968, reported a news item which contained the following: "They happened to be using an aluminum ladder instead of the usual wooden one to go into a tank containing sodium hydroxide, arsenic oxide and sodium arsenate. The ladder reacted with one of the chemicals and released hydrogen which combined with other chemicals. The result was arsine also known as Lewisite." Arsine is arsenic hydride, AsH3. Lewisite is heta-chloro-vinyl dichloro arsine, ClHC=CHAsClz. The authors have collected many examples that have appeared in the newsprint, magazine articles, and novels which imply that steam can he seen and photographed. It must be remembered that steam is invisible. Nevertheless, here are three accounts of the visibility of steam. The Philadelphia Inquirer, January 10,1968, reported the burning of the Normandie Club in Philadelphia, The caption of the accompanyingpicture states "stark ruins.. .rise amide the steam and smoke." In the same newspaper, June 7, 1963, there is the picture of one of the springs . . in Yellowstone National Park. The caption states "Sttwn cluuds from one of the. . . springs." On Danes 94 and 95 oi the Nwember 1977 Issue of S m i l l ~ s o niak, ihere is a picture hearing the caption, ". . . steam rises a t the Ghost Spa of Hunter's Hot Spring in Montana." The misconception that steam can he seen has almost become an accepted fact to the laity. There was a fire in Philadelphia, December 27,1967. The television news reported that" . . . sulfuric acid caught fire." Sulfuric acid is nonflammable. In the August 8,1976 issue of the Philadelphia Inquirer is the report that a barge with a cargo of sulfuric acid had capsized. "About 80% of the cargo was sulfuric acid which can produce a poison gas when mixed with water." In the magazine, Sea Classics, March 1973, is an account of the last dive of the submarine, F-4: "This compartment contained the elements of potential disaster. Should salt water somt:how ir~rceits way into this area anrl (wme in contact with sulluric acid in the batteries rlradlv chlorine nas would immediately be generated, filling the interior of the submarine with lethal and explosive fumes." A remarkable hit of chemistry was given in an advertisement on the 7:50 news report, March 1,1968, on radio station WOH. It wnssrated thar..all sugars are exartlv alike." On the trle\,ision program "Mnrcus Well~v,"Yovrmher 26, 1068
Journal of Chemical Education
1976, it was stated that iron oxide gas was inhaled by a construction worker who suffered from emphysema. Iron oxide-ferrous, ferric, or ferro-ferric oxide-is a solid. In a very very finely divided state the oxide might appear to a novice to heg&euus when i t iisuspended in-air. It was stated un a news report in J'hiladr1phi;i early in 1979 that a tank car had nluneed into the:;rh~~vlk~ll River near 23rd and Vine Streets, ehilaielphia, and had Spilled its load: "The contents of the car was kaolin, a liquid substance." Kaolin is a mineral, a solid, and what spilled appeared to be a slurry of the mineral. Errors are also to be found in other forms of communications such as novels, short stories, and the "how to" types of articles and books for family use. In Wttness for the Prosecution by Agatha Christie are two mistakes which involve sulfuric acid. In the chapter "Accident," it is stated "sulfuric acid decomposes chlorates with the evolution of C170d." . . What is CI~OI?turthrrmure wlfuric acid reacts most vigorously with chlorates and doe; release CIO,. Further on in the samr chapter there is anorher chemirnl mixup. "After Marsh's test . . . tht. metililic residue . . . di.iiolved i n water and then precipit,ited it by adding silver nitrate. 'l'hat was a test tor chlorates, a most un;~ssuminylittle rest."Th~!Marsh tesr is a wrv sensitive test for arsenii and it has nothing to do with chlorates. "No, he never travels with hydrogen derivatives." This is a sentence in "Man about Town" by 0. Henry. A reader wrote to "The Oracle" in the magazine Yankee, June 1978, and asked "Can you tell me what is meant by this phrase?" The Oracle answered on page 42 of the June issue as follows "There are 21 hydrogen derivatives that we know of and every one requiring the use of water in some manner. . .".The authors wrote to the Oracle asking him what he meant by this answer, but there was no reolv. The Sunset ~ u o kH. ~ I L lo Gro~,,Hoses, is d ~ r r r t e dtoward fertilizers the farnilvnanlenw. In c h n ~ r e7r is this: "lnorra~~ic are cheiical compounds that release the hasic elements, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, when mixed with the soil and watered. In their p&e state these elements are not usahle--nitrogen is an explosive gas. . . ."The element, nitrogen, is anything but an explosive. It is not difficult to imagine that members of a household could become alarmed when they would read "nitrogen is an explosive gas." In one newspaper report, chlorine was on fire. In two animated advertisements, cubic crystals of chlorine and granular chlorine are shown. In a leading magazine there was an advertisement that showed red ammonium phosphate being used for forest fire control. The title of a newspaper account of a railroad derailment read as follows: "Train loaded with toxic acid derails."The load was described as "ammonia and acetone." In another newspaper the pH was "the percent hydrogen of a substance." Gold tinfoil, molten iron ore, the color and odor of carbon monoxide are mentioned in print, and the list goes on and on. There was a question asked of readers of a pamphlet "Does anyone have directions for making clay out of sawdust?" Finally, perhaps the most astonishing statement of all was made on a radio program by a minister who referred to the metric system as an example of communistic infiltration into the United States.
