" This is mixed with water to form a cream
in a steel still 18 feet high and 8 feet in diameter. A solution of
calcium picrate, that is, the lime salt of picric acid, is pumped in and
as the reaction begins the mixture heats up and the chlorpicrin distils
over with the steam. When the distillate is condensed the chlorpicrin,
being the heavier liquid, settles out under the layer of water and may
be drawn off to fill the shell.
Much of what a student learns in the chemical laboratory he is apt to
forget in later life if he does not follow it up. But there are two
gases that he always remembers, chlorine and hydrogen sulfide. He is
lucky if he has escaped being choked by the former or sickened by the
latter. He can imagine what the effect would be if two offensive fumes
could be combined without losing their offensive features. Now a
combination something like this is the so-called mustard gas, which is
not a gas and is not made from mustard. But it is easily gasified, and
oil of mustard is about as near as Nature dare come to making such
sinful stuff.
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