On Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:24:41 GMT, "Mark" wrote:


Stuart Noble wrote in message
. com...

Citric acid was 69p for 150 gms last time I looked. A tablespoon
should be plenty

Where can you buy it Stuart?



Local chemist has it, and so do any of the big supermarket pharmacies. I
was asked in Sainsburys what I wanted it for, and I said for drug
refining. She said I didn't look the type and handed it over. Silly
business

I went into 3 pharmacies last week to buy some isopropyl alcohol, got the
same response in each.
Oh no we don't keep anything like that anymore
and we would not be allowed to sell it anyway

I've had similar problems trying to buy both citric acid and bor(ac)ic
acid.
Once upon a time (not that long ago) you could go into almost any
proper 'chemist shop' and buy almost any useful chemicals, such as
carbon tetrachloride, saltpetre, chloroform, ether, even litmus paper
- I had no problem buying any of the above as an obvious youngster.
Nowadays it seems that the dreaded guvmint thinks that anybody trying
to purchase such things must be either a druggie or a terrorist.

Little wonder that this country is now short of
scientists/technologists.

ps - the chloroform and ether I used to mix with
turnings/filings/scraps of Perspex to make Perspex adhesive.
--
Frank Erskine