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Subject: Re: [Orchid] Bromium??? Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 23:51:14 -0500 (CDT) From: John Burgess Reply-To: orchid@ganoksin.com To: orchid@ganoksin.com "Gold is almost completely resistant to air, water and acids, and can be dissolved only by a strong acid called aqua regia. It is attacked by free chlorine, potassium and sodium cyanides, bromium and some other chemicals..." G'day; here I go again pokin' me silly ole' nose in. I beg to differ there. There ain't no sich animal as BROMIUM. However, I'm sure that was a typographical mistake; what you really intended to write was BROMINE of course, wasn't it? Bromine is a liquid at room temperature, but leave the bottle in the sun and it will explode into violently choking Bromine gas. It is one of the heaviest of all liquids, (mercury don't count; it's a metal) is very dark brown in colour, is very corrosive and very poisonous. It is also expensive and I've never understood why it is used sometimes as a pool disinfectant instead of common bleach, (sodium hypochlorite) or better yet, 'pool chlorine' - (sodium dichloroisocyanate). Bromine may be made by heating any bromide salt with strong sulphuric acid. Heating bromides with almost any other acid will produce hydrobromic acid gas, which is analogous to hydrochloric acid, only more corrosive and poisonous. It attacks gold much better than chlorine. Burns badly if in contact with skin. Thoroughly nasty. And by the way, have you noticed that most metals end in the suffix: 'um'? S'right: Latin was the first to name them; iron is ferrum, lead is plumbum, gold is aurum, mercury is hydrargyrum, copper is cuprum, tin is stannum ... but to be awkward, salts of ammonia are written 'ammonium'. Why? Because the ammonia radical has many of the properties of a metal; you can make ammonium and mercury amalgam, a solid. Ain't science confusin'? Cheers for now, John Burgess Mapua, Nelson NZ |
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