Member-only story
Potassium and Sodium: Electrocution and Explosions
Chances are, you’re not like me: you cringe when someone says the word “chemistry.” Your memory of it vaguely harkens back to an undergrad class whose knowledge you flushed once you finished the final. That’s okay — my goal for this series is to change that paradigm, make it understandable to all, and provide some entertainment.
Remember when I said that ‘burning things’ was hands-down the most popular method of analysis for chemists? In the early 1800s, ‘electrifying things’ gave ‘burning things’ a run for its money, and this was brought on by the invention of the “voltaic pile.” I know — it sounds like something that comes from a dog’s butt, but it’s actually a battery. They were called “piles” because in order to make one, alternating discs of copper and zinc were piled up with some sort of saltwater-soaked tissue in between.
(Isn’t “piles” also a British euphemism for hemorrhoids as well?)
Studies on electricity had begun prior to Alessandro Volta’s invention (yes, we get the word ‘volt’ from him), which he reported in 1800, but his device had a considerable advantage over the current tech in that it didn’t have to be charged up (e.g., like a Leyden jar). This advance led to a new field of chemistry known as electrochemistry. Modern chemists associate electrochem with mostly battery science — at least…
