Making a deadly chemical in my parents' garage

ok cool, wouldnt mind if we get an update, to see how it is going

Paul Fisher

Soon! This move has just taken a lot more time than I expected.

Nile Red

Same! I would love some new content.

Dan Bathurst

Man I miss this channel. Been quiet for while.

rolf redford

I love the thumbnail lol

I'm not "trolling" anyone.

Chemistry trolling. Come on man. You’re better than that.

I didn’t think it was hypocritical at all. It was nostalgic and interesting. I doubt you alienated anyone who is mentally stable. I’m barely stable and I was fine :) Loved the video. Anyone who needs to throw shade could please take a minute and breathe and chill the f out. Only my opinions and polite suggestions

BreakingRed when?

Ok that chlorine thing is really terrifying

Professional chemists can mess up too. When we came to America, my late father, who was a genius polymer chemist, had set up a lab in the basement of our one-story rental house. He'd work at a chemical factory during the day, and on his own inventions afterward.

I had the sinus and lung pain for a few days after inhaling chlorine. It was awful. My mouth was also really sore and it was no fun

I do commercial cleaning. Sometimes the dayporter sprays NaClO in the toilet, doesn't leave a note, then when I clean the building at night they request that I use 9.5% - 12% HCl in the toilets to leave overnight. So sometimes as I'm stiring it around the bowl I find out the hard way that she put NaClO in it. It causes what looked like clear H2O to turn a yellow or green color. I can instantly smell Cl2 gas. It doesn't take much to make one cough or deal some noticeable damage to the lungs. I also have to work with HF from time to time, which is very dangerous, I hate working with HF. Trust me, Cl2 is no joke.

I understand what you mean and how it can appear hypocritical. My goal with that video though wasn't to tell people that they can't do chem safely outside a lab. It was more to just make people aware how dangerous chemistry can be. The issue is that I have grown a large non-chemist audience and I don't want to encourage someone inexperienced to try something dangerous. That video was mostly directed at them. I do have some confliction with hobby chemistry though and I don't think it's hypocritical. I think all of my experience doing chem at home showed me exactly how dangerous it can be. I built my career on it, but I also saw the danger and it makes it hard to encourage it. I have also spoken to many hobby chemists who have told me about the shockingly dangerous things that they have done (and were unaware of how bad it was). I am more than certain that many people do it safely, I just can't generally encourage it. If I could speak to my past self, I would have a lot to criticize. I don't think it's hypocritical to change my opinion. For this most recent video, it was definitely dangerous, but that was kind of the point. I was partly using it as a way to criticize my past self and my old setup. Also, one of my main points in the safety video was that you just have to be aware of risks and willing to accept the worst case scenario. In this case, I felt that I could do it safely, but I also accepted all the possible risks. In conclusion though, I don’t discourage hobby chem, I just find it hard to encourage. I really don’t want to alienate hobby chemists, but I definitely find myself in an awkward position. If someone feels they can do it safely and they accept the risks, then they can go ahead and do it. However, I just don’t feel comfortable personally encouraging it. It’s hard to make a proper point in a Patreon reply, but I hope what I said makes sense.

Nile Red

@Chance cool, but I've spoken to several people who agree with me so it's not just my own view.

It's not alienating to me.

Remember that safety video where you went off on one about people doing dangerous chemistry as a hobby in unsafe labs despite the fact that was essentially what you had done before before and with this video, did again? You're basically saying "nobody else is allowed to do these things I do". It's very alienating to the people that you built your success upon.

Right now, it's purely for Youtube stuff

Nile Red

How so?

Nile Red

Do you realize how hypocritical you are?

Thanks, makes a lot of sense!

Chlorine gas is extremely dangerous. If the worst of it was coughing, then it wasn't too concentrated. A "good" breath will make your sinuses and lungs hurt for days. A few more like that and you might not make it. Bromine is bad because it's a liquid and a spill can let off A LOT of vapor (it's effects are very similar though). With chlorine, you're limited by how much chemical you accidentally mixed. You can also spill bromine on yourself and cause chemical burns.

Nile Red

Why is Bromine so dangerous? I remember when I was a kid in the chemistry lab, and knew nothing about safety, I released a whole lot of chlorine gas during a class and everyone was coughing :-|. But we didn't die... what makes bromine more dangerous?

Like a salmon returning to its spawning stream to reproduce.

Stephen Gillie

When you go drop all your waste off at the toxic waste dump... make sure you post a video to one of your channels. Very curious how that whole scene goes down!

I was wondering is your lab purely for Youtube or have you started a business as well?

Mike Hanley

What a fantastic ending. This video really told a story as well as show the process of making bromine. Good work!!!

Hmm, I'm not sure. Hot bromine can be a bit meaner, but silicone is usually good with almost everything. Maybe it just kills the cheaper ones.

Nile Red

Fantastic. Your parents are super cool and it's no wonder they raised two academics! The cliffhanger about having to move is maddening. You are a dick. Hahaha. Awesome.

Chris WIRVIN

it looks like there is a lot of cool audio and electronic gear at the garage) btw, even your current lab looks a lot better than most of the university labs here at Lomonosov Moscow State University. can't wait to see what will be in the next one!

I remember watching your old videos around 2017 when I was starting my bachelors degree, this year I’m graduating and hopefully starting a masters. My school doesn’t have a lot of chemistry equipment but I did an internship in one of the biggest research centers in Mexico and omg, I totally get the feeling of going back to having just the minimum after having so much. Congrats on everything you’ve accomplished

Bromine reacts with silicone grease?? I would not have guessed that.

Paul Grodt

Hang on, hang on.... you can’t just stop right at “is moving again” cut, end video! 😳 I feel like Kyle’s Mum “What, what what!”

André Forcier

Are you removing all the equipment from the lab to take with you? Or are you just selling the whole lab and creating a new one at your new location? Also, approximately how much did your current lab cost to fully complete?

It’s kind of weird that I saw your old bromine video for the first time last night (at the suggestion of YouTube) then woke up to a new one this morning!

I was always convinced that your parents didn't have the slightest idea that you were doing chemistry there (I was also convinced that you were 15 and skipping school to play chemist, lol). You have great parents, please tell them we say hello!

Marta

I understand. To try and mitigate that, I tried to show the lack of safety and that I didn't like it.

Nile Red

I love you to pieces Nigel but I worry some people might think your attitude - talking about risk and excitement - might be read as recklessness by the broader Youtube community. You don't need to convince me, you understand, (and maybe I'm being overly cautious because the kinds of explosives/chemistry videos out there are WAY less safe than you) but I hope you can see why I wanted to let you know what kind of comments you might get. Much love and please be safe.

Rex Helltreader

Yeah, there's a lot more of me appearing here for sure

Nile Red

Increase volume of casual convo to same as narration?

Wow, what a story, thanks for telling us!

Emil Almberg

The current place has a lot of issues that I overlooked when I first moved there. A major one is that the walls are insanely thin and there is rarely quiet time. Filming audio is an absolute nightmare and I spend half my time waiting for neighbors to stop making noise. There is a huge list of reasons though.

Nile Red

Why are you moving?

Paul Fisher

CLIFF HANGER!