09:53 – Thanks to Rod Schaffter for his suggestion yesterday that I fill the chemical bottles using a wash bottle and weighing the bottle as I fill it. Talk about a brilliant idea. I’m using ACS reagent grade 98% sulfuric acid, which has a specific gravity of just under 1.85 g/mL. Since all three solutions are 99:1 w/v sulfuric acid:chemical, I can take the specific gravity as 1.85 g/mL. That means to fill a bottle to 5 mL, I just transfer 9.25+ g of solution to the bottle, and to fill it to 10 mL I just transfer 18.50+ g. This should be a quick and easy method. Thanks, Rod.
In fact, I may start using Rod’s method to fill some other chemical bottles, particularly the ones that emit strong fumes, including acetic acid, ammonia, and hydrochloric acid. All of those contain either 15 mL in a 15 mL bottle or 30 mL in a 30 mL bottle, so I won’t even have to weigh those; I can just eyeball the fill level.
I have only two or three wash bottles on hand, and I think they’re all 250 mL. I’m going to add a dozen or two 500 mL unitary wash bottles to my next purchase order. That way, I can just dedicate one or two wash bottles per chemical and store the chemicals in the wash bottles. They’re LDPE, for which the Thermo Scientific chemical resistance table lists 98% sulfuric acid at 50C as “Little or no damage after 30 days of constant exposure.”
The forensic science book is officially published tomorrow, but Amazon already has it in stock and is shipping it. We’re starting to get more queries about the FK01 forensic science kit, which we plan to start shipping by the end of this month.
Barbara and her sister, Frances, are visiting and evaluating independent-living and assisted-living homes for their parents. They’re going to narrow down the candidates to three or four and then take their parents to visit their short list of facilities and ask them to pick one. Barbara’s and Frances’s goal is to get their parents moved to a suitable place as soon as possible. Once they’ve moved their parents, they’ll worry about getting their parents’ home cleaned out and ready to go on the market. I think this is a good plan. Their parents really need to be at a retirement home sooner rather than later. Barbara and Frances could then stop worrying constantly about something happening to their parents, and the facilities provided by the home would also take a great deal of the burden off them for running errands, taking their parents to doctor visits, and so on. For the last couple months or more, Barbara and Frances have been busy almost daily with things they have to do with their parents. They both need a break, badly, and getting their parents into a good retirement home will give them that break.