[Histonet] Re: Bouins alternative/substitute question

[nienhuis <@t> ucla.edu]

The article is available online if anyone wants to see it.
<http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2006/may/dinosaur.php?page=1>

Bob Nienhuis
nienhuis <@t> ucla.edu

Quoting Carole Fields <cgfields <@t> lexhealth.org>:

> This is totally off the subject but.... I was reading an article in the May
> 06 Smithsonian Magazine at my doctors office and noticed Gayle Callis's name
> in the article about dinosaurs.  It was a wonderful article about some
> really exciting new discoveries in Montana.   Everyone should read this
> wonderful article.  Congratulations on being involved in this exciting
> project.
> Carole Fields
> Lexington, SC
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gayle Callis [mailto:gcallis <@t> montana.edu]
> Sent: Monday, May 22, 2006 12:34 PM
> To: Kemlo Rogerson; Histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
> Subject: RE: [Histonet] Re: Bouins alternative/substitute question
>
>
> Kemlo,
>
> Interesting that you said this, and also a story from our university
> chemical safety handling of dry picric acid found in an old
> laboratory.  They had a hard time getting it to explode also.
>
> Chemical safety removed a jar of picric acid,  dry and age
> undetermined.  Knowing it was explosive, the fellow in charge took it out
> to a very remote area and shot at the jar with a rifle, and it took a lot
> of rifle bullets to get it to blow up.  He did have a good session of
> target practice for deer hunting season being in the Wild Wild West of
> Montana.
>
> The potential is there for explosion, and we still have picric acid on our
> shelves, although stored under a generous layer of distilled water.  When
> we need to make up Bouins, we just scoop it out and make sure we have a
> saturated solution of picric acid.
>
> Care must be taken to keep dry crystals off lids, these are actually sealed
> by dipping into hot paraffin, and check regularly for any leakage around
> lid.  I don't think it would be a good thing to have in a laboratory fire,
> but solvents are just as bad.  How many people still store isopentane in a
> non explosion proof freezer - now that IS an explosive situation.
>
>  We remain cautious but not in panic state.  Bouins is still very
> important as a fixative and mordant for Massons trichrome, we will continue
> to use it, dispose of it correctly and not put metal cassettes into it.  We
> often purchase it ready made from Sigma to avoid having to handle it.
>
> At 09:27 AM 5/22/2006, you wrote:
>> I think it is because picric acid explodes when dry but I've tried, and
>> tried, and tried and it has never exploded.
>>
>> Has anyone ever succeeded?
>>
>> Kemlo Rogerson
>> Pathology Manager
>> Ext  3311
>> DD   01934 647057
>> Mob 07749 754194
>>
>> Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. --W. B.
>> Yeats
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
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>
> Gayle Callis
> MT,HT,HTL(ASCP)
> Research Histopathology Supervisor
> Veterinary Molecular Biology
> Montana State University - Bozeman
> PO Box 173610
> Bozeman MT 59717-3610
> 406 994-6367
> 406 994-4303 (FAX)
>
>
>
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