No
problems with the Blix or Dl. But D2 decided to behave like April 1st had
come early Overnight the clear, amber liquid had produced a mass of
foating, half-inch, black needle-like spikes which looked positively
menacing. Like which I had
never before seen.
There was nothing
for it but to discard this witches brew and start again. The
time, within a few hours, there were no spears, but there was instead,
dark, fluffy, floating pieces, almost like brownish cotton wool. By this
tine Eric had arrived and I began to fear something was amiss. Or, at
least, something not quite as it should be. But, what? That was the
question. I hadn’t experienced anything like either of these
misadventures . Nor had Eric.
After carefully
eliminating any possible variations In the mixing or weighing of the
various ingredients it became obvious that somewhere along the line a
foreign body had crept in Yes There had to be contamination But where and
at what stage? Best, in circumstances like these to sleep on the problem.
So the fixer was discarded yet again. The bottle was scalded and a couple
of inches of CLEAN
water, left in overnight.
Next morning that
water was the colour of ‘meths’. So the answer was somewhere inside
that bottle. In actual fact I was wrong. The answer was in the plastic
cap. Or rather the cardboard, plastic covered, seal inside the cap.
The seal I prised out and it was soggy and discoloured. Obviously
carrying the offending contamination. In actual fact I was wrong again. At
least only partly right. For yet another mix produced yet more, but again
different anti-bodied. But, anyway, I felt I was on the trail. And so it
turned out. Carefully eliminating the various ready-mixed solutions used I
found the same dirty, soggy cardboard in the cap of the 10% solution of
Sod Hydroxide. Arid this proved to be the main cause of the trouble.
All of which goes
to show how the most unexpected can turn up to upset the applecart.
Needless to say, the cardboard insets inside the caps of my bottles have
now been removed. And I have further discovered that almost all the
bottles are perfectly air-tight WITHOUT those dratted pieces of cardboard.
And Eric? Well,
he had to go off with but two of the solutions. The third followed
via the post-box after the whole trouble had been sorted out.
So. The moral is.... look inside YOUR
caps.