My children were talking about salt and sugar crystals this morning at breakfast, which awoke a dim memory in my mind of doing stuff with copper sulphate.
Would it be possible to get a decent sugar or salt crystal in the following way?
saturate near-boiling water with sugar/salt suspend a thread with a knot at the end (to provide a convenient forming place for the crystals) in the liquid allow it to cool slowly
Daniele
I remember trying to grow salt crystals, I could never get them to grow very big though. Never tried it with sugar :)
Think we used Alum when we did this at school, back in the murky past :)
Lee
Try growing crystals in waterglass (used to be used for preserving eggs). There's plenty of info if you Google for it.
Terry D.
=================== I seem to remember that sugar was sold in 'strings' in France formed by the method you want to try. I don't know how widespread the practice was but somebody here with more recent knowledge of French cuisine might confirm or otherwise.
Cic.
The largest singlw salt (NaCl) crystal I managed to grow just fitted into one of those individual jam/marmalade jars used by hotels. Don't use normal table/cooking salt - too many additives - try dishwasher salt instead.
These might be of some use:
Thanks. I hadn't thought that table salt would be that impure nor that DW salt is pure. I'll definitely try crystals of salt.
BTW slow evaporation works best. Get a super solution then leave in a steady temp for a few weeks. Copper sulphate is brilliant but you might not get hold of it.
Peter Scott
news:1ga2s9f.1p06hpi1of6djtN% snipped-for-privacy@apple-juice.co.uk...
I remember having good results as a kid with a solution of sodium silicate and water (about 1:6 IIRC). Various substances can be used to grow either a freely supporting crystal "garden" or just a single crystal on a string.
Things like copper sulphate work very well (blue crystals), cobalt chloride is very striking as well (deep red). There were various others that I forget which gave other colours. ISTR you could use epsom salts as well.
Watch "Horizon" tonight (BBC2 9:00 pm Thursday) and you might find out how to grow carbon crystals.
Salt's solubility is more or less independent of temperature so evaporation is the main way crystallisation will occur. Remember copper sulphate is poisonous.
Alum makes wonderful crystals if you can get it! It's also possible to grow a potash alum crystal and the use this as a seed for a solution of chrome alum, giving a multi-layer colourless/purple effect, though this is very difficult.
Cheers
Another Dave
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.