On 23/11/2019 11:39, NY wrote:
"Brian Gaff (Sofa 2)" wrote in message
...
However it was one of the hottest days of the year and somebody was
despatched to decant some acetone into some small bottles for use on
the shop floor. After a few minutes the person had not returned so the
supervisor went to find them, to find them passed out on the floor and
the stench of acetone suffocating. She dragged the person out, who,
fortunately was still alive and eventually they came around.

In my first job, in my "gap year" between A-levels and university, I
worked in a research chemistry laboratory. We had various Winchester
bottles of solvents. One of the other students, the nephew of Lord
somebody (*) and a pupil of Marlborough (which he pronounced in the
upper-class way: Mawlborough), was a bit of a tearaway. He had already
boasted about how he took home some ampoules of the amyl nitrate from
the cyanide-antidote kit, for a sexual high. One day, as he was driving
somewhere, he started to feel very light-headed. He claims that he
"found" a broken Winchester of ether in the boot, so no wonder he was
drowsy... It's a wonder he didn't either doze off and crash, or else get
blown up (ether burns explosively). I imagine he took the bottle home to
sniff it and it broke when he went over a pothole.


(*) The lad was forever boasting about visiting his uncle at "The House"
(of Lords).

Where is he now? In the government?

--
Max Demian