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Thioacetone Synthesis & Hazards
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0:00
This video has been sponsored by brilliant.org. Ever since I started this channel, I've been making stinky chemicals, and some of my favorites have been things like putrescine and cadaverine, which are supposed to smell like a rotting body. I've also made some other fun ones like butyric acid, which smells like vomit, and I've even recreated a horrible mixture that was developed by the US government. All of these, though, are apparently nothing compared to something called thioacetone,
0:31
which is supposed to be the stinkiest chemical ever made. Everything that I've read about it makes it sound absolutely horrible, and according to Wikipedia, it's actually considered a dangerous chemical due to its extremely foul odor and its ability to render people unconscious and induce vomiting. What's also concerning is that the smell itself has been described as just fearful, and it apparently has the ability to spread over large areas. This was unfortunately experienced firsthand in 1889
1:06
when some scientists accidentally released a small amount of it. The horrible smell was then able to quickly spread out over a large area of the town, and it caused people to faint and vomit, and it led to a panic evacuation. There are even some claims that diluting the smell makes it worse and that it's possible to smell a drop of it downwind in seconds, even at a quarter mile away. Based on all of this, it really does sound like the worst-smelling chemical ever,
1:39
but I honestly just don't really believe it. Even though all of these claims are coming from credible papers and reports, it just doesn't seem possible that something could be that horrible. All of this made me really curious, though, and I just felt that I had to know what it smelled like and to experience the horror myself. Sadly, though, I couldn't find anywhere to buy it from, and it doesn't seem like anyone has made it in the last 60 years.
2:09
If I wanted to see if it was actually as bad as it's claimed to be, it was unfortunately looking like I only had one real option,
2:19
and I was going to have to make it myself. But anyway, to get started, the first thing that I had to do was figure out how to even make it. I went online, and I did a bit of research, and it seemed to be relatively straightforward. From what I found, the typical method was to start with just regular acetone, convert that into something called trithioacetone, and then split that apart to release the supposedly terrifying thioacetone. The only problem was that I couldn't find
2:51
any real details on exactly how to do this, and I guess this makes sense because I don't think anyone actually ever makes it. However, I then noticed on Wikipedia that it mentioned the people who first discovered thioacetone. These were actually the same scientists who caused that disaster in 1889, and I figured if anyone knew how to make it, it would probably be them. I just went back to Google, searched 1889 and their names, and their original paper was apparently the first result.
3:26
I was honestly shocked by how easy this was to find, except it took me way too long to realize that it was all in German. With Google Translate, though, I was hopeful that this wouldn't be a huge issue, and I just copy-pasted the part that I felt was important. The result that I got was actually surprisingly good, and I felt that it was more than enough for me to work with. Now, with a decent idea of what to do, it was time to make the trithioacetone. Based on the procedure,
3:57
it seemed relatively simple, and pretty much all I had to do was get some regular acetone and bubble some hydrogen sulfide gas through it. This alone normally wouldn't have been too bad, but I apparently had to do it for 10-12 hours, which disturbed me. This is because hydrogen sulfide is almost just as toxic as cyanide, and 10-12 hours meant that I was going to have to make a lot of it. The only somewhat good part is that making it is relatively easy, and to get started,
4:30
I just needed a bunch of powdered iron and some sulfur. What I had to do next was just mix these together, so I dumped a bunch of the sulfur into a container along with some of the powdered iron. I then quickly sealed it by screwing on the lid, and I started shaking it around.
4:50
I had to do this until it looked like one uniform color, and after a few minutes, I felt that it was looking pretty good.
4:59
I went and got a lid of a paint can, and I carefully poured out a bunch of it.
5:05
I then did my best to spread it out a bit and clean it up. Now, it was time for the fun part. To get things going, all I had to do was blast a glass rod with a blow torch and then carefully touch the mixture. Normally, this would almost immediately trigger a reaction, except for some reason, it didn't do anything. This made me a bit worried that my E-base, sulfur, and iron were bad or something, but that thankfully wasn't the case. They finally started reacting together
5:40
and combining to form something called iron sulfide, and it was also letting off a lot of heat. Over the years, I've actually done this reaction many times, and it has always been one of my favorites. The last time I did it on a large scale like this was when I made my own glow toys a few years ago, and I don't think I'll ever get tired of it. It's just mesmerizing, and I really like the sound that it makes.
6:08
After a while, though, the reaction was eventually done, but it was still extremely hot, and I had to wait for it to cool down. When I came back to it about 30 minutes later, it was looking pretty good. Now, all I had to do was separate this crusty stuff from the lid,
6:27
and it was surprisingly easy. I then started crushing it and breaking it into smaller pieces, and that was about it.
6:37
What I had now was a bunch of iron sulfide powder, which is a stored form of the scary hydrogen sulfide gas. To actually turn this into the gas, though, I'd have to put together a little gas generator, so I dumped it all into a flask.
6:58
After that, I took away the funnel, cleaned up the joints using some paper towel, and started putting together the rest of the setup. To do this, I added a stopper, an addition funnel, and an outlet for the hydrogen sulfide to leave the flask. At this point, the scary generator was more or less ready and it was time to put together the rest of the setup. I went and got another little flask and into it, I added some acetone. I had no idea how much I was supposed to be using though,
7:31
and I just randomly decided on 15 milliliters. Then on top of this, I added the only other ingredient that I needed, which was an equal amount of concentrated hydrochloric acid. Now, with the flask fully loaded, I got rid of the funnel, and I slid in some glass tubing that was connected to the hydrogen sulfide generator. I then sealed the middle one with a stopper and into the one on the right, I added another gas outlet. This one would lead to something called an inverted funnel trap,
8:03
which would hopefully destroy any hydrogen sulfide that made it through the system. The fume hood that I was doing this in should have been more than enough to keep me safe, but I just wanted to be extra careful. So I just filled this beaker with concentrated sodium hydroxide, and at this point, things were looking pretty good. I then went back to the reaction flask, added a bowl under it, and filled it with water and ice. It was going to take a few minutes to cool down, though,
8:32
so while I waited, I went back to the gas generator. The last thing that I had to do was fill the addition funnel that was above it, and I just poured in a bunch of dilute hydrochloric acid. I then sealed it with a stopper, but for safety reasons, I didn't clamp it down. This way, if pressure were to somehow build up, this stopper would just pop out instead of the whole setup exploding. But anyway, at this point, it was pretty much good to go, and I was technically ready to start.
9:05
I was honestly a little bit nervous, but when I eventually felt I was ready for a potential disaster, I carefully opened the addition funnel.
9:15
The moment that the acid touched the iron sulfide, it started reacting and releasing hydrogen sulfide gas. All of this scary gas was then getting pushed out of the flask and through the tubing and into the reaction flask. It was then bubbling through the acetone and the hydrochloric acid, and honestly, it really didn't look like anything was happening. In theory, though, it was supposed to be reacting with the acetone and turning it into the trithioacetone.
9:46
This form of it was still apparently really stinky, but it was supposed to be much more tame and easier to handle. The only part that made me a bit paranoid was that technically, thioacetone was being made in this reaction. It was just an intermediate, though, and it was supposed to almost immediately combine and turn into the trithioacetone, but still, this meant that if I bubbled the hydrogen sulfide too quickly, it was possible that some thioacetone could get pushed out of the flask.
10:20
This could then potentially escape my setup and get pulled away by my fume hood, and if it were as bad as the stories claimed, it could be a big problem. The amount of hydrogen sulfide that I was making had to be very carefully controlled. Besides that, though, things were actually looking pretty good, and I basically just had to keep it going until it was done, which was apparently 10-12 hours. The only sad part was that I couldn't leave it unattended,
10:51
and I had to watch it pretty closely the entire time. For the next hour, though, it still looked like nothing was happening, and I started thinking that I might have been wasting my time. However, it then suddenly turned cloudy when I wasn't looking, and I was really happy to see this. I then kept it going, and I definitely felt that it was getting cloudier and cloudier. It was only when it hit the four-hour mark, though, that I really started to get excited. It wasn't super obvious,
11:22
but it looked like there was a bit of oil that was forming on the surface. This was a really good sign because trithioacetone is supposed to be an oily liquid. Around the same time, though, I also noticed that the generator was running out of iron sulfide, and it was getting a little too full. To continue, I was going to have to swap out the flask for a fresh one that was full of new iron sulfide. I was also going to have to do this every few hours, and it was far from ideal to say the least.
11:56
With the fresh sulfide, though, I was able to keep it going. About an hour later, when I slowed down the stirring, I saw something even more exciting. At first, it was hard to see, but there were actually some small blobs of oil that were floating around. Then, after another couple of hours, there were a lot more. I was really trying not to get my hopes up, but at this point, things were looking pretty good. It was, of course, right at this moment that my brother came in
12:27
and told me that he smelled something. Yo, it kind of smells bad outside.
12:32
This made me panic. I quickly ran outside to investigate, and it did smell, but I couldn't figure out where it was coming from, and I figured it was just sewage or garbage or something. But anyway, I then went back to staring at the flask and adjusting the bubbling rate, which was honestly getting painful at this point. In the paper, though, it said that it was either 10-12 hours or until it stopped absorbing. When I started this reaction,
13:02
I was really hoping that it would magically stop way earlier, but I never saw any real difference.
13:10
I just ended up going for the full 12 hours. When it was eventually done, though, I felt that it was looking pretty good, and the first thing that I had to do was get rid of the gas line. I was a bit nervous about opening up the flask and unleashing some terror, but it turned out to be totally fine. I was able to just pop it out and replace it with a stopper, and I didn't smell anything. However, I wasn't sure if this was just because my fume hood was working really well
13:39
or that I hadn't actually made any trithioacetone. But either way, the next step, according to the paper, was to add a bunch of water to it. I pulled out the middle stopper, and I started pouring in about 30 milliliters of cold water. This was supposed to knock out a bunch of the oil, and it definitely looked like it was getting cloudier. I figured this would take some time, though, so I resealed the flask and I let it stir for a while. As it sat there, it seemed to be working,
14:10
and I was really happy to see some nice drops of oil forming. However, I was also getting a bit concerned because the paper made it sound like there would be way more. It claimed that there should be as much oil as acetone that I started with, but that definitely wasn't the case. It looked like there was a decent amount, but it was nowhere close to 15 milliliters. Either way, I then took away the stir plate and bowl, and I also got rid of the gas outlet and the trap.
14:38
What I was left with was a raw reaction mixture, and now, assuming that I'd actually made any trithioacetone, I had to figure out how to get it out. According to the paper, all I had to do was steam distill it, but this was something that concerned me. This is because steam distilling this reaction mixture is exactly how they caused that disaster in 1889. Even though I was skeptical of the stories, this still made me a bit hesitant to try it myself.
15:09
I didn't really have any other good options, though, so I decided to just go for it. However, at this point, it was already around 2:00 AM, so I had to leave it overnight. The next day, I actually woke up feeling pretty confident, but that was almost immediately destroyed the moment that I walked into the room. I was hit with a really strong sulfur smell, and I panicked that there had been some disaster. When I checked on the flask and the fume hood, though, everything looked totally fine.
15:42
It was nothing catastrophic, but the question now, was where was this mystery smell coming from? Well, apparently, when I touched the flask the day before, an almost invisibly small speck of liquid had gotten onto my glove. I'd then thrown that glove into the garbage, and just that speck was enough to make the whole room reek. This actually scared me, and I started worrying that all the stories might be true and that I should absolutely avoid distilling it.
16:15
However, there was also only one way to find out. So I started setting it up for a distillation, and unfortunately, this meant that I was going to have to touch the flask again. I wasn't super excited to do this, but I figured that it would probably be fine if I just left my glove in the fume hood. But either way, with the main part of the setup now in place, I then added a heating mantle and a stir plate, a thermometer, and an addition funnel filled with water.
16:46
I also added the water cooling to the condenser, and I set up a vial to collect the stuff that boiled over. At this point, it was pretty much good to go, but I still wasn't feeling super confident.
17:01
I guess I'm ready to start the distillation.
17:09
There was nothing I could do about that, though, so I just switched on the heating and I nervously waited for it to heat up. It actually ended up going way faster than I thought, and within a few minutes, it was already boiling, and I started collecting something in the vial. When I looked at the thermometer, though, it was only around 56 degrees Celsius, and this told me that it was just unreacted acetone. This made sense because I didn't expect 100% of it to react,
17:38
and I assumed I'd recover at least some of it. However, as I kept collecting it, I started getting a bit worried. It just didn't seem to stop, and it was slowly creeping towards the amount that I had started with. The reaction clearly didn't go as well as I had thought, but I still had hope. Thankfully, it eventually started slowing down and the temperature started rising. It then gradually crept up to 100 degrees Celsius, and this was the beginning of the potentially scary part.
18:11
This was when the trithioacetone was supposed to start vaporizing and I quickly swapped out the vial.
18:19
I then waited for something to start coming over and I was eventually greeted with a nice drop of cloudy liquid. This was actually mostly water, but it was cloudy because the water vapor had carried something oily along with it. In theory, this should be the trithioacetone, and this process of distilling it from boiling water is called a steam distillation. It's basically allowing me to distill it at a much lower temperature, which reduces the risk of the trithioacetone falling apart
18:51
and ruining my life. But anyway, I then covered the flask to help the water come over, and I just kept collecting it. I also opened the addition funnel and I slowly added water at roughly the same rate that I was distilling it. Now, going back to the vial, I saw that everything that I'd collected up until now was just a hazy liquid. As I collected more, though, it actually cleared up a lot and I started seeing some nice drops of oil.
19:21
What I also really liked was that unlike a lot of other oils which float on water, this one was sitting at the bottom, which told me that it was heavier. This was a very good sign because trithioacetone is supposed to be slightly denser than water. Eventually, it looked like I was basically just distilling pure water, and I figured that it was probably done. Just to be absolutely sure that I got everything, though, I took away this vial and immediately sealed it and replaced it with a fresh one.
19:55
I then kept collecting the water, but it didn't look like there was any oil in it. At this point, I considered it done, and I was honestly shocked by how well it had gone. It ended up being way more tame than I thought it would be, and at least as far as I knew, there hadn't been a major disaster. I then went and checked on all the oil that I had collected before, and it had combined into a really nice blob. It was nowhere near the 15 mills that I was hoping for,
20:26
but if this were trithioacetone, it was still way more than I needed. It was also probably pretty stinky, and I was really curious to know what it smelled like. However, I was also scared to open it outside the fume hood, so I tried just smelling it through the vial.
20:49
It actually doesn't smell bad at all. It just smells like grape, fruit, candy. I was honestly extremely surprised by this, and I was also a bit confused about how something so stink had become good. I looked up what it was supposed to smell like, and I was actually surprised by what I saw. This is because in very low concentrations, it can apparently smell tropical with a grapefruit nuance. But anyway, what I had to do next was separate this purified oil from all the water.
21:27
I went and got a pipette and I carefully tried to suck it all out.
21:33
I was doing my best to only get the oil, but I also did end up getting a little bit of the water. I then shot it into a much smaller vial and I attempted to get rid of the extra water. It ended up being a bit of a struggle and I lost some of the oil doing it, but I was able to get rid of pretty much all of it. At this point, things were looking really good and the only issue was that the oil was slightly cloudy because there was a small amount of water still in it.
22:02
To clear it up, I added some calcium chloride and I let it sit for a while. About 10 minutes later, it was looking way better, but just for good measure, I added some more calcium chloride. Then after another 30 minutes of waiting, I carefully pulled everything out. What I had now was a bunch of nice and crystal clear oil, and according to the paper, if this were trithioacetone, it should freeze when it's cooled down.
22:33
To test this out, I put it into some ice water and I let it sit there for a while. Then when I came back to it about an hour later, I was really happy with what I saw. It had completely solidified, and it had formed some really nice crystals. The moment that I saw this, I was basically 99.5% sure that this was some nice and pure trithioacetone. To be absolutely sure, though, I was going to have to run some tests. I quickly ran it on my machine that can do something called FTIR,
23:09
and this was what it gave me. It was basically a fingerprint of the chemical that I made, and all I had to do next was find a reference one for the trithioacetone. I then did the super complicated and scientific process of just comparing their shapes, and I saw that they were pretty much the same. Then just for good measure, I also did an HNMR on it, and I again got exactly what I was looking for. Now, I was 100% sure that I had successfully made the trithioacetone.
23:42
However, before trying to turn this into the horrible thioacetone, I felt that I had to know what this smelled like in its pure form. It's supposed to only be a fraction of the terribleness, but I had to get at least some idea of what I was dealing with. I already smell it from here. It's like just sulfury. It reminds me a bit of [inaudible 00:24:08]. It just has a nasty, sulfury, rotten smell. It's not that bad.
24:19
But now I'll open it and see if my opinion changes.
24:33
Still not that bad. What's worse is just it permeates out of the vial, and just leaves a weird sulfury smell in the area. That's actually worse than its pure form. But it's still not that bad.
24:50
Yeah, it's not that bad. Are you done? It's so bad.
24:57
It's so bad. What are you... -Can you smell it from there? -God. Dude, your nose. You don't smell it? I smell it. It's not that bad.
25:10
That's the nastiest thing I've ever smelled. I'm about to throw up. No. Actually? Yeah.
25:17
In general, I'm pretty resistant to smells, so it didn't bother me that much. But having my friend react like this got me a bit worried. This is because the thioacetone is supposed to be insane compared to this. There was no way I was going to be breaking apart the trithioacetone in my fume hood or anywhere near someone who could be assaulted by it, and in my mind, there was only one logical thing to do.
25:50
I rented an entire island, so I'd be far away from any potential victims. The only downside was that if it were horrible, it would be way harder to get away.
26:04
But I figured I'd deal with that later.
26:08
When I eventually got to the island, I took a quick little tour, and I tried to find what I felt would be the best spot to do it.
26:24
When I eventually found| something that I liked, I went back and got all my supplies, and I started putting together my setup.
26:33
This was thankfully, really easy, and the biggest and most complicated thing that I needed was just the table.
26:43
Besides this, the other main thing was just the lab stand with a small flask attached to it. With all this in place, I was able to get started, and the first thing that I had to do was put on a lab coat and some gloves. This wasn't so much for safety, though, and it was just because I really didn't want to get stinky stuff on my hands or my clothes. With all my protection in place, I was able to pull out the trithioacetone, which I thought transporting would be a horrible, stinky experience.
27:15
However, by sealing it in a Neogene bottle and a larger vial, I was actually able to completely block out the smell, and it was totally fine. That wasn't the case now, though, because it was time to open the vial, and I was immediately blessed with its wonderful smell. Yeah, it still smells terrible. I then got a glass pipette and I carefully sucked out a small amount of it.
27:40
I don't think we need to add very much, just this.
27:48
I ended up getting a bit more than I expected, though, which scared me. I went back and pulled out most of it and left behind only a very small amount. Now, with it all loaded, I quickly resealed the trithioacetone, and there was just one final thing that I needed. It was a vacuum pump, and all I had to do was connect it to the flask. To do this, I just spun around the adapter to make sure that the grease made a good seal, and that was about it.
28:18
I then turned it on and started sucking out all the air. After about a minute, I felt that I had a nice vacuum, so I carefully turned the valve to seal the flask. I then turned off the pump and pulled off the rubber hosing, and at this point, I was pretty much good to go. It was now finally time to turn it into the thioacetone, and in theory, all I had to do was heat it up. I was honestly a bit scared that I was about to create a disaster. Lots of confidence.
28:52
But again, there was only one way to find out. When I felt that I was ready, I very nervously started blasting it.
29:03
The goal here was to just heat it up until it got to at least 500 or 600 C.
29:10
It's boiling. This is because at that temperature, the trithioacetone was supposed to crack and split apart into the thioacetone. The vacuum was important because it helped keep everything sealed, and it should also prevent the trithioacetone from burning.
29:28
But anyway, after blasting it for a while, I eventually felt that it had gotten hot enough. That's definitely a 500 C.
29:37
Okay.
29:40
There's a nice vapor in there.
29:44
I feel scared. At this point, I felt that things were looking pretty good, but the flask was still really hot, so I had to wait for it to cool down.
29:55
When I came back to it about 10 minutes later, it was only slightly warm, and I carefully took it off the stand. Now, I guess this was the moment that I was waiting for, and I really didn't know what to expect. I guess all we need to do is turn it to let the air back in,
30:19
and open it.
30:25
I really thought that I was just going to be assaulted the moment that it was opened, but even when I smelled the flask directly, I didn't notice anything crazy.
30:37
It smelled pretty much the same as the original trithioacetone and considering how much I'd been anticipating this moment, I smell something. I was disappointed. It was possible that I just had a broken sense of smell or something, though, so I asked my poor friend behind the camera for his opinion.
31:00
Yeah, it does stink. But is it different than before? No, it smells like before. It smells the same. It just stinks. Nothing's changed.
31:13
It didn't seem like I had actually made any thioacetone, and I figured that it was because I hadn't gotten it hot enough. To properly split it apart, I was going to have a bit more courage and to really blast it so that it for sure got to at least 500 degrees Celsius. What was nice was that it still looked like there was a bunch of trithioacetone in the flask, so I didn't have to reload it. All I had to do was reattach the vacuum pump and suck out the air.
31:43
Then, about 30 seconds later, I turned off the pump and pulled off the tubing. I was now ready to blast it, and this time I decided to use a real blow torch, and I would go until I was absolutely sure that it was hot enough.
32:17
Okay, I think that that was hot enough, and it's starting to like, Oh, that's good. What I started noticing was that it was turning orange at the top. From what I read online, this was actually a very good sign that thioacetone was forming. This is because thioacetone isn't very stable above negative 20 C, so it tends to start polymerizing and turning orange. I was now very confident that I had actually made it, and I was getting pretty excited.
32:49
What I had to do now was just wait for it to cool down, but I was worried that all the thioacetone would polymerize. Instead, I just pulled the entire thing off the stand and I did a quick test to see if it smelled. No. Then after that, I very nervously opened it up and I was mentally preparing myself for something horrifying.
33:15
Oh. Unlike last time, it actually smelled almost immediately, and it definitely wasn't pleasant. But it also wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting. I don't know if it's worse. I then tried smelling the flask directly, but I just didn't feel like it was that bad. This whole time, though, I could hear my friend behind the camera suffering. -Do you smell it? -Yeah, it reeks. It reeks.
33:46
It smells so bad. I felt bad for him, but I was also very surprised because he was not only far away, he was also slightly upwind. However, I then remembered that there were some claims that thioacetone actually smelled worse when it was less concentrated, so, I decided to try holding the flask further away to see if it would make a difference. When it was up close, it had much more of a chemical smell, and it was a slightly rancid version of a natural gas leak.
34:19
Further away, though, I felt that it was more like garbage mixed with sewage, and it was definitely a lot worse. However, I still didn't think it was that bad, and I had a hard time believing that this was the chemical responsible for all the stories. I then started thinking, though, that maybe I was just working with way too little of it. All of the stories make it sound like this unbelievably terrifying chemical, but at the end of the day, it's just stinky and really potent.
34:51
To get a big result, it would still need a decent amount of it and when I went back and read about that disaster in 1889, they were apparently working with 100 grams of trithioacetone, which is absolutely insane. I didn't have anything even remotely close to that, but I put in most of what I had left, which was probably around 0.25 grams. I also felt that with a lot more, I didn't need to use a vacuum, and I just started blasting it.
35:22
Just like before, as I heated it, the trithioacetone started fuming, and then it eventually all started boiling. Unlike last time, though, all of the vapor started slowly turning orange and pouring out of the flask. At this point, though, I still didn't smell anything because the wind was blowing it away from me. However, considering how much of it I was making, I was getting a bit concerned.
35:49
But anyway, I eventually felt that I had blasted it enough and it was time to test it out. But let's go down to wind a little bit.
36:00
Oh, yeah. You can smell it right here. It was definitely a lot stronger than the other time, but it was also the same thing, and I just didn't think that it smelled that bad. One thing that I hadn't tested yet, though was how far the smell could travel. I'm going to go deeper in the forest. This was something that was a big part of all the stories, so I tried going a bit further away. However, I quickly realized that I was probably the worst person to be doing this test
36:30
because I clearly wasn't very sensitive to it. Yeah, I think I can still smell it, but it's not that bad.
36:39
I asked my friend behind the camera for one final sacrifice. Up until now, the wind had been strong enough that he hadn't smelled anything, but that unfortunately changed for him when he got closer to the flask.
37:01
It stinks. What on 10, what is it now?
37:06
Like 10 on 10. He was clearly a lot more sensitive to it than I was. Oh disgusting. And it seemed to get even worse for him as he got further away. Oh, where does it stop?
37:20
Oh no. I honestly thought this was funny, but then it looked like he was actually getting worried. Dude, it still stinks. We got to stop this. It then continued to get worse. It gets stronger right here. I still wasn't really concerned until he got to the water. It's going to travel across the... It's going to travel across the lake.
37:51
I had honestly rented this island mostly because I thought it would be funny for the video and I didn't actually think the smell would travel this much. However, we weren't exactly in the middle of nowhere. There were still a bunch of houses, only a couple of hundred meters downwind, and I was genuinely starting to get worried. Kind of concerned that somebody might call 911.
38:19
Besides its horrible ability to travel, though, I was also starting to realize one of the other big issues with thioacetone. It doesn't smell like it's coming from anywhere. No, it's 360-degree smell. There was no clear direction that it was coming from, and I could see how this could be very overwhelming. Also, without knowing the source, I could see how someone could interpret it as a gas leak or something else dangerous. It also seemed to really stick around,
38:48
and even after several minutes, it was still really unpleasant.
38:54
Shut it down. Shut it down.
39:03
He's angry, too. Eventually, though, the smell seemed to mostly go away and at this point, I was done making the thioacetone. However, I was still somewhat concerned that someone would call the police and I really didn't want to have to try and explain what I was doing. So I quickly dismantled my little forest chemistry setup and I packed it all in my car. I then transported all of the horribly, stinky stuff back home and it was a somewhat unpleasant two-hour drive. But anyway, in the end,
39:38
I had successfully made the mythic thioacetone, and I'm very happy that I got to personally experience its horribleness. It wasn't quite as overwhelmingly bad as I was hoping it would be, but it made up for that by being almost unbelievably potent, and I was genuinely surprised by how far it could travel. I can totally see how a relatively small amount of it could terrorize an entire town. On that scale, I wouldn't be surprised if at least a few people vomiting or passed out. For the most part,
40:11
I think that it's pretty much as bad as it's claimed to be, and it's almost definitely one of the worst-smelling chemicals ever made. In the future, I might try making some other smelly chemicals, but for now, I think I'm going to take a break from the stinky stuff.
40:29
Instead, I'm going to try and focus on some less offensive projects like turning paint thinner into cherry soda.
40:37
Before I go, though, I want to quickly mention another YouTuber named Lab Coats, who technically made the thioacetone before me. I only realized this after I had already filmed everything and was putting the video together. But either way, I think he deserves credit for being the first one to do it, and I definitely recommend checking him out if you want another opinion. Also, I want to give a big thanks to all my patrons for making projects like this possible,
41:06
and to brilliant.org for sponsoring this video. If you haven't ever heard of Brilliant, it's a website with a whole bunch of lessons in things like math, chemistry, physics, and computer science. I think they teach them in a really fun way. This is because all of their courses are fully interactive, and I think it makes it feel a lot more like a game. What I also like is that the lessons are very concise and I don't ever feel overwhelmed with information.
41:35
On top of that, each lesson and course is chopped up into many small sections, so there isn't even a huge time commitment. I'm actually working on a few courses right now, and I'm still progressing, even when I just randomly go on when I get the chance. In particular, though, I've been focusing on the astrophysics lessons and I've been really enjoying them. With all that being said, though, I do really personally like Brilliant and if you're interested in learning something new in a fun way,
42:04
I definitely recommend checking them out. You can also get started for free by going to brilliant.org/NileRed or by clicking the link in the description. The first 200 people who sign up using my link will also get 20% off an annual premium subscription.
42:23
But yeah, that's about it. I'm going to go vomit. Actually? Probably not, but I feel like I have to.
42:35
As usual, a big thanks goes out to all my supporters on Patreon. Everyone who supports me can see all my new videos at least 24 hours before I post them to YouTube. You'll also get access to all the older videos that I had to take down and if you support me with five dollars or more, you'll get your name at the end like you see here.
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