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Paleochemistry: Tallow Notes
http://paleochemistry.blogspot.com/2014/03/tallow-notes.html
Experiments in early chemistry. Thursday, March 6, 2014. So after the misadventure of Tallow 2. Which resulted in a mere 600g of rendered tallow in the pot. I shall start over. That will be covered in the next instalment, Tallow 3. In the meantime, I thought I might write down a few lessons learned. If you're doing this with butcher scraps as I am, remember that you're handling a non-sterile bacterial culture medium. This is a perfectly safe operation, provided you take precautions and use common sense.
paleochemistry.blogspot.com
Paleochemistry: May 2013
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Experiments in early chemistry. Monday, May 20, 2013. I have only a couple days before I leave on my trip, and I wanted to get something else done before I left, so a quick attempt at paper seemed reasonable. This may seem more craft than chemistry, but filter paper is important later on, so I'm including it here. Dry grass, Potash, Water. A boiling pot, heat, a screen. 1 meter stalks of dry California grass. Step 1: Remove the nodes. Grass with nodes circled. A handful ( 500ml) of straight grass stems.
paleotechnology.blogspot.com
Paleotechnology: Spinning yucca fibers: some notes.
http://paleotechnology.blogspot.com/2014/02/spinning-yucca-fibers-some-notes.html
Experiments in early technologies. Thursday, February 6, 2014. Spinning yucca fibers: some notes. This process is fairly well documented in several YouTube videos, but having done it myself a fair bit, I wanted to add or clarify a few details that the videos glossed over. There are three main methods of spinning twine, and like the gears on a bicycle, they're a continuum of the tradeoff: easy vs fast. Here are some videos that are good examples of each. One of the best. Hand over Hand, uses yucca). Thigh...
paleochemistry.blogspot.com
Paleochemistry: Humor
http://paleochemistry.blogspot.com/2014/03/humor.html
Experiments in early chemistry. Tuesday, March 18, 2014. You Might Be a Home Chemistry Geek if. You're at the market buying Honey, Baking Powder, Vinegar, Kosher Rock Salt, Corn Oil and a sturdy looking glass measuring cup, but don't plan to do any cooking today. You've bought a gallon of apple juice for the sealable glass jug it comes in. Your water bill is higher than the rest of your utilities combined. You go through more paper towels than most families of six. Of distilled water, so you really do.
paleochemistry.blogspot.com
Paleochemistry: Soap 2
http://paleochemistry.blogspot.com/2014/03/soap-2.html
Experiments in early chemistry. Thursday, March 13, 2014. In which I make soap but do no damage to my kitchen. I melted the 1kg tallow from Tallow 3. Over heat low enough to produce no steam or smoke. I combined 120g of slightly lumpy (not completely anhydrous) sodium hydroxide lye and 325ml of water, let it cool, then added it slowly to the warmed liquid tallow. Stir, stir, stir. I am not shaping the soap at this point, I'm just setting it aside as large cakes for later use.
paleochemistry.blogspot.com
Paleochemistry: DEA List II
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Experiments in early chemistry. Legality: DEA List II. Production of this substance may be illegal in some jurisdictions under certain circumstances. 21CFR1310.02 a and b. In 1995/6, two lists were created "List I" and "List II", for which commercial. Manufacturers and distributors must register, and for which possession with the intent to manufacture illegal substances. Such as methamphetamine, ecstasy, etc) is illegal. On these lists were two elements. Bottom line: Do not. Subscribe to: Posts (Atom).
paleochemistry.blogspot.com
Paleochemistry: October 2013
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Experiments in early chemistry. Monday, October 7, 2013. Hope on the composting front: from the desert? Integrated biological treatment of fowl manure for nitrogen recovery and reuse. In Journal of Environmental Management. By Roy Posmanik, Ali Nejidat, Boaz Bar-Sinay and Amit Gross. Link to paywalled paper. Shows some amazing results from a relatively simple system: a net uptake and conversion. First, Kudos to the authors. Great project, nice work. Particular merit for the explicit. It would seem to mak...
