I was not disappointed on the first day and in fact it was just the opposite. My home room was up on the second floor and I would be based in a no less than a science lab. It was as if I had been sent to heaven. For myself, all this excitement and entering into grade seven commenced in the fall of 1965.

Our homeroom teacher was male and he gave the immediate impression of being strict and totally in charge. He wore a dark suit, white shirt, and a dark tie. The first day instructions on home room procedures were sharp, clear, to the point and had no latitude. Minor doubts began to set in that this might not be all that much fun. I was wrong. In elementary school I had one teacher I would never forget. For junior high, this would be my most memorable teacher and his appearance of being harsh was a cover. He was the nicest and most helpful person you would want to know.

The classroom was completely tailored to teaching science subjects. Large blackboards covered the front wall and the other ones were plastered with large charts on the sciences. The most dominant feature in the room was the raised black lab bench that stretched the entire front length of the class. From it's built in sink, to it’s gas outlets, and it's Bunsen burners: it dominated and was there to be watched.

It was from behind this lab bench that the teacher wove his descriptions of science, demonstrated experiments, and held my mind totally mesmerized. He refused to let go and over the next several years, whether it was physical science, biology or chemistry, I was glued.

It was the demonstrations in chemistry that captured my attention and which drew me into my next hobby at home. My mother will well remember the Christmas when my requests for a chemistry set were as the pursuit of a dog for a bone. I would not let go, I had the clippings from the catalogue, and I had the features of what came with each set memorized. I was not to be deterred. My parents both worked long and hard hours to provide for our family so getting the chemistry set, the easy way, was not to happen. Children are so resilient and since I was typical, the disappointment wore off pretty quickly.

I would just save up my money from a paper route and I set out to put my own chemistry set together, piece by piece. It is amazing what childhood determination and imagination can do. I bought an alcohol burner, test tubes, clamps and a stand, and scoured the local drugstore for chemicals in bottles and little cans. I remembered my little mind becoming frustrated though. Why did these drugstores have all kinds of medicinal names on everything? I wanted the raw chemical elements such as sulfur, carbon and iodine. I did not want mercurochrome.

The other fascinating feature of my science home room was the long and narrow supply room attached to it. The keen interest from my friends, Bruce and Dennis, and I must have been apparent to the teacher. When I think back, it must have been obvious because we just hung around that teacher so much that he had to either send us away or remind us about going to our next class. Since the enthusiasm showed, he was thoughtful enough to give us a limited and private tour of the supply room. This room was lined to ceiling with numerous glass-doored cupboards and shelves.

The room had chemistry apparatus that made us drool with desire. It had test tubes, beakers, flasks, glass tubing for forming into shapes, rubber tubing and stoppers. Everything was stocked in all sizes, shapes, and in quantities by the drawer-full. The chemicals being stocked were equally impressive and seemed to include every type possible. He showed us containers of concentrated hydrochloric and sulfuric acid while cautioning us and giving examples of how dangerous and how powerful they were.

Somehow, without being certain, I doubt that those types of classrooms exist today for our average young people. I sense that the reasons for any limitations will be due to financial constraints, elaborate safety concerns, and topped off with threats of legal action for so much as a nosebleed. It is good for parents to be involved. However, I am glad my parents were old fashioned. They did not get together with other parents to review, petition and protest on the every move a teacher made. Although never stated, I gathered my parents felt that teachers were trained professionals and knew what they were doing. Teachers did not need to be second guessed, scrutinized, and challenged. Looking back, I saw nothing wrong and I was never hurt in any way.

My interest in chemistry was only heightened by the various demonstrations the teacher performed up at that lab bench. He mixed two dry chemical powders in a test tube, stoppered it with a tube leading to a inverted water filled flask in a large water laden beaker, and heated the test tube with a Bunsen burner. A gas was produced and displaced the water in the flask. He proved to us that he created pure oxygen by lighting a wooden stick, blowing out the flame, and inserting just the smoldering end into the flask. Seeing it burst into flames again was magical to me. Next he produced carbon dioxide and reversed the experiment by inserting a flaming stick into the flask only to have it immediately extinguish and fill the flask with smoke.

Now filled with a new desire, I had to get those chemicals and demonstrate that experiment at home to my brother, Arthur, and my sister, Linda. Although successful, they did not seem impressed with the creation of pure oxygen … maybe I needed that lab bench for effect.

The next experiments were performed by just my friends and I. Although it was a little dangerous and frightening for us, we were always safe and never got hurt. We secretly ascertained the ingredients to make gunpowder used inside fireworks. There we were, two or three boys, busy mixing the powders, filling short pipes planted in the ground, using wicks from firecrackers, lighting the wick, running back, and watching our handiwork. It was not always impressive. Sometimes we achieved a one or two inch flame and other times just a lot of smoke and bubbling molten goo. We wanted colored flame effects but had no knowledge on how to achieve that.

We were very fortunate that we never mixed a batch that was truly explosive. Some may call it luck or good fortune but I think God was watching over us, keeping the excitement kindled, and without the harm.

In all of our attempts and efforts, it was nothing like the Chinese fireworks that we sometimes lucky enough to watch with their impressive roman candles. I remember being told that the Chinese were the first to invent gunpowder way back in 1492. Or do I have that date confused with when Columbus sailed the ocean blue? The humor can be poor at times and by the way, there is a point to this chapter. However, you have to be patient while I reminisce.

What is it about chemistry? I remember taking grade eleven and twelve university entrance chemistry, as they used to call it. It was not an easy subject for me. The hobby and excitement from junior high had by then unfortunately worn off like old paint. When I went into first year engineering a lot of the courses were in common with science and this included first year chemistry. It did not get any better for me in university and as my lowest mark, I only managed to get a C.

There were so many different rules to learn and strange rules on handling what was referred to as chemical equations. Taking molecules and compounds on one side having some type of energy or reaction take place that converts them into chemicals and compounds on the other side of the equation. There were rules for doing all of this, but more importantly, there constantly seemed to be the exceptions.

I am probably exaggerating this, and it may be a deep seated psychological problem because I got poor marks, but there seemed to be more exceptions than rules. Also, it seemed the exceptions were what invariably appeared on all the exams. To me, there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to chemistry. It was not at all like mathematics or physics I was taking. These subjects had laws and logical deductions could be made. You learned a particular law and you could solve numerous problems in a consistent manner based on that law. You started the equations and it seemed to flow without all that memorizing by heart. For me, mathematical and physical equations were real equations. Chemical equations may indeed explain what happened in a given reaction, but there was no master law that could predict and control them. It was observations, experiments, and discovery: sometimes, by accident.

If we took the subject, a specific area of chemistry we all remember going through was studying the periodic table. If you did not take chemistry do not panic at this juncture: this will not get too boring, there will be a point to all of this, and possibly a test.

You may need a little refresher on all of the basics. An atom is the smallest unit of any element that occurs in nature. Using the simplest of descriptions, you will remember that an atom consists of protons at the core and electrons whizzing about in various electron shells. A more complex description would include neutrons and all those elusive subnuclear particles that physicists stumble upon when they split atoms. To stay balanced, each atom must have a matching number of protons and electrons. It starts with one proton and one electron that form the element we call hydrogen. Therefore, the element hydrogen is assigned the atomic number 1 and the elements go up in atomic number from there. When you add an electron and a proton to hydrogen it becomes helium, number 2, and another gas at room temperature. The elements fill the periodic table in rows according to some prescribed rules. As you already guessed, I cannot remember a single one of those rules. I certainly would not refer to them as laws, but someone might.

An element is defined as a substance that cannot be broken down into any other substance. The best example is water. Water is not an element as it can be broken down into two other substances, hydrogen and oxygen. Two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen make up the chemical formula that is repeated constantly: H₂O . Water is therefore called a compound. Not a complex compound … but, we like to drink it anyway.

By the way, adding electrons and protons to atoms or anything else is not a trivial thing done in your backyard. Enormous quantities of energy can be either required or released as witnessed by the lack of people playing with nuclear energy in their backyards. Also, if it was so easy to add electrons and protons, criminals would no longer need to focus their attention on counterfeiting money and get legitimate jobs converting other elements into gold instead.

When I went to school we were taught that there were 92 naturally occurring elements. Atomic number 92 was uranium with 92 protons and electrons. By the time I got to university the periodic table had increased and now showed 103. Evidently, period 7 includes the actinide series, which has been filled in by the synthesis of radioactive nuclei and goes up to element 103, lawrencium. Well, that is how my textbook describes the rule. I am not impressed.

What does impress and fascinate me is looking at the individual characteristics of some of these elements. Some of the low elements like hydrogen and helium, 1 and 2 respectively, are gases at normal room temperatures. This makes sense I guess because they are light in their atomic weight. As you move up the table to 6 you reach carbon. At room temperature this is a solid black material with great importance to life. Carbon combines very readily with other elements to form molecules. These complex molecules, and the chains they create, are found in all life-forms on Earth.

When you move up to number 10 you find that this element is neon. This is strange for me because neon is a gas. Engineers love laws and set patterns. Let me see, a couple of gases, then some solids, then a gas again … I will never remember all of this for the exam. When there is no rhyme and reason, when the logic is missing, it causes me grief. Still, what is so fascinating for me is the changing characteristics of all the elements. You move up to element number 16 and you find this to be sulfur. This is a yellow colored material, can be easily powdered, and does not smell to good when burnt.

Before sulfur is element 14, Silicon. This is classified as a semi-metallic element and is the second most common element found on the Earth. Curious is it not? Not only is it very common on Earth, but engineers managed to make it pretty common in every device that you use which employs electronics. I challenge you to find a modern electronic device today that does not have silicon in it. What a coincidence.

Element 26 is iron and it is silvery white metal that has magnetic properties. Copper is a brownish-red metal with element number 29 and is one of the most widely used metals and dates back to early prehistoric use. Moving up to 53 is iodine that is not classed as a metal but is a halogen. It is blue-black in color and is a solid a room temperature. Well, let us add one more proton and electron, going to element 54. Maybe we have another solid or maybe another metal? If you agreed you are incorrect. Element 54 is xenon and it is gas at room temperature and is almost totally inert. Inert means that it is extremely difficult to get this element to combine chemically with any other. Xenon is a gas that is used in flash tubes and is present in very minute percentages in the Earth’s atmosphere.

What law describes how these elements decide that they will change colors, change significant properties, and go from a gas to a solid or back to a gas? Go figure. It is akin to playing with a child’s set of plastic building blocks. You add another white block and another white wheel. Instead of looking like you thought it would: the whole structure suddenly turns green and floats into the air.

Going to element 79, we now strike gold. Gold is characterized as a bright yellow metal that is soft and one of the most malleable. It is an excellent conductor of electricity and heat. Yet, it is extremely inactive in that it is not affected by solvents, air, moisture and heat. These are some of the properties that make it so popular for jewelry: it will not tarnish.