Category: science kits

09:15 – Fortunately, Barbara has a sense of humor about these things. The library is now so full of boxes from our wholesale suppliers that the floor is barely visible. We’re building inventory for the autumn sales rush, on the theory that we can’t build the kits if we don’t have the components. Actually getting them built is another matter, but we’ll manage somehow.

08:21 – I rethought my idea of making up items in batches of 120 to 180, because that raises the possibility of having an unbalanced inventory. When it comes time to make up more kits, we might end up with far too many of one item and none of another item. We decided that 30 kits was a convenient batch size, so yesterday we labeled containers for 30 more chemistry kits, which is about 1,500 bottles and packets. Once those are filled, we’ll have sufficient materials to give us about 60 chemistry kits and 60 biology kits in inventory, or at least the items we need to assemble them quickly. At that point, we’ll do a batch of 30 forensics kits, and then alternate among the three kits to continue building inventory through the summer.

07:55 – FedEx showed up yesterday with the first batch of stuff I ordered to build kit inventory in preparation for our busy time starting in August. This round, we’re ramping up a bit. For example, one of the line items on the last order I made to this vendor was for 100 sets of splash goggles. This order had the same line item, but for 500 sets.

We’re also ramping up batch sizes on stuff. For example, in the past we might make up 30 or 60 bottles at a time of a particular chemical, depending on whether that chemical was included in the biology kit, the chemistry kit, or both. We’ll now double or quadruple those batch sizes, depending on the chemical, the container size, and the kits that chemical is used in.

We’re also in the process of transitioning away from dropper bottles to standard screw-cap bottles. We’ve been using the dropper bottles mainly because they’re “expected”. That is, most science kits use 15 mL or 30 mL dropper bottles, so we did the same. But dropper bottles are more expensive, require more steps (and time) to fill, and are more likely to leak in transit. A few of our kit buyers have reported accidents with them, when they squeezed so vigorously that they popped out the dropper tips. Bottles with standard screw caps are also more convenient to use, enough so that many kit buyers simply pop out the dropper tips and discard them. So it makes sense to forget about the dropper tips and just use screw caps. We have a lot of the dropper bottles in stock, so we’ll continue to use them until we run out of them, but then it’ll be screw caps all the way.

07:41 – You’ve probably seen phenolphthalein used as an acid-base indicator. In solutions ranging from acidic to moderately basic, phenolphthalein is colorless; at pH 10 and higher, phenolphthalein is fuchsia. (Okay, “fuchsia” is a girl-color, and I annoy Barbara by pronouncing it as German. Guys would call the color “pink”, or, if they’re into photography and imaging, perhaps “magenta”.)

At any rate, the forensics kit includes a 30 mL bottle of Kastle-Meyer reagent, a presumptive color test for blood. I had planned to buy the stuff premade, figuring it might cost me $30/liter or thereabouts. Instead, I found several suppliers, the least expensive of which was charging $230/liter. Geez. Obviously, taxpayer-funded law enforcement agencies aren’t too concerned about price.

It’s easy enough to make the stuff up, so that’s what I’ll do. All it requires per liter is 20 g of phenolphthalein, 200 g of sodium or potassium hydroxide, and about the same amount of zinc. You start by dissolving the hydroxide in about 900 mL of distilled or deionized water. Phenolphthalein powder is extraordinary insoluble in water, but freely soluble in a strong aqueous base solution. (And a 20% w/v solution of sodium or potassium hydroxide counts as a “strong aqueous base solution” in spades…)

Of course, as the phenolphthalein powder dissolves, the solution turns an incredibly intense fuchsia color. That’s where the zinc comes in. It reduces the phenolphthalein to pale yellow phenolphthalin. The instructions for making up KM reagent always talk about refluxing the solution until the pink color changes to pale yellow. I was hoping to avoid refluxing large volumes of a 20% hydroxide solution–the stuff is fearsome enough at room temperature, let alone boiling–so I decided to make up a small sample batch at room temperature. I made up 100 mL and let the stuff sit at room temperature for two or three weeks, with occasional swirling. Over that time, it turned from pure pink to an orangish pink.

So yesterday, I decided to speed things up a bit by refluxing the solution. The problem with that is that strong hydroxide solutions literally dissolve glass, even at room temperature. At boiling, they simply eat glass. After two or three weeks of contact, the 250 mL Erlenmeyer flask that I’d made up the solution in originally was already etched, so I decided to see what would happen at boiling. The image below shows the grisly details. What look like white chemical deposits on the sides of the flask is actual where the glass has been etched. But the good news is that after only 30 minutes or so of refluxing the solution has assumed its final light yellow color.

This little experiment did lead to a change in plans, however. I was expecting to have to reflux the solution for at least two or three hours. To do that refluxing in volume, I planned to buy a large round-bottom flask (or several) and a Graham condenser with ground-glass joints, and dedicate them to making up KM reagent. If you’ve ever priced glassware with ground-glass joints, you know how costly it is. Even the Chinese stuff ain’t cheap, and I’m not at all sure how many iterations the flask and condenser would survive. So I decided instead to order some large (2 L to 5 L) Erlenmeyer flasks, which aren’t cheap, but they’re a lot cheaper than ground-glass glassware. And I won’t need a reflux condenser at all. For the sample batch, I simply placed a one-hole stopper loosely in the neck of the 250 mL Erlenmeyer, brought the solution to a boil and then turned it down to simmer. There was a small amount of steam exiting the hole in the stopper, but not enough to noticeably reduce the volume of the solution over the whole reflux period.

08:02 – It’s Memorial Day here in the U.S., the day set aside to remember those who sacrificed themselves to protect our freedom. Although the official purpose of Memorial Day is to remember those who gave their lives in the service of our country, let’s also remember all of those brave men and women, living and dead, who through the years have put their lives on the line to protect all of us. As we have our cookouts and family get-togethers today, let’s all take a moment to think about our troops in the Middle East and elsewhere, who can’t be with their families. And let’s have a thought, not just today but every day of the year, for them and the sacrifices they are making and have made.

Barbara is heading over to have lunch with her parents today. This afternoon, we’ll build more kits and work more on getting the basement organized. We’re going to a numbered bin system for organization. For the biology, chemistry, and forensics kits, we’ll need something more than 200 numbered bins. Some of those can be pretty small. For example, it doesn’t take a very large bin to store, say, 250 stirring rods or spatulas. Conversely, some will be much larger. For example, 100 splash goggles fill a good-sized box. And there will be many bins with the same number. For example, we get 250 mL beakers in boxes of a dozen. Those happen to be bin number 140, so when I order in 15 boxes of those beakers, we’ll have 15 boxes stacked up together, all labeled 140. Once we get this all set up, it should making picking and assembling kits much faster.