Friday, June 15, 2018

Liquid hydrogen cyanide grenades?

But it looks so innocuous!
Credit: Reddit user why_da_herrrooo
Via Twitter, this funny/scary Reddit post from a year ago, where someone posted a picture of this object on the right, and it was found to be a Japanese hydrogen cyanide grenade from World War II.  (emphasis mine):
I let me uncle know what everyone said it probably is and he said he's surprised he's not dead. This being he said that the rubber seal had been disintegrating over the years that's why you can see flakes floating around in the picture, that the rubber seal that had been disintegrating into the bottle and he had just been re-sealing the sides with glue. He said he moved it into another location not near his house and will call some officials tomorrow on what to do with it. He's not too concerned in the meantime as he has had it on his shelf in his bedroom for the last 50 some years and nothing's happened yet.  
Thank you all for the responses he was actually planning on opening it and switching the contents to a more secure container, that's why he actually showed it to me to see what his next "project" was. You all probably saved a life so I really appreciate it!
Well, that would have been bad. Glad it worked out all right.  

5 comments:

  1. I liked the comment that he had this glass grenade (12 ounces of liquid HCN) on his shelf in his bedroom for the last 50 years and he lives with 20 cats. I think his guardian angels are overworked by now.

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  2. While scary, I’m skeptical there was any HCN left in it after all these years, even if it was stabilized.

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    1. you can see there is lots of liquid that does not look too viscous, and there is cloudiness probably from CuCN... You would expect oligomers of HCN to be solid.

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  3. "He's not too concerned in the meantime as he has had it on his shelf in his bedroom for the last 50 some years and nothing's happened yet."

    Famous last words.

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    1. I found another likely deadly artifact that looks strikingly similar:

      https://orgprepdaily.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/dx747epxcaach42.jpg

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looks like Blogger doesn't work with anonymous comments from Chrome browsers at the moment - works in Microsoft Edge, or from Chrome with a Blogger account - sorry! CJ 3/21/20