Oh cool, thanks for reminding me that this book even exists. What's really cool is you can just read it on the internet archive! [1] Almost makes me want to invest in some borosilicate glassware and lab safety equipment, and make a youtube series based on experiments in the book or something haha
I used my chemistry set also to distill wine and drink the results, and for what I recall, it tasted good. Problem is that I was like 12, but did that only a couple times: creating stinking bubbling blobs was a lot more fun.
I liked created smoke bombs using sugar and potassium nitrate. One day, they went off while cooking them on my front porch. I poured some water on it so that any embers that fell between the board wouldn't ignite any leaves or debris under the porch. I mush have poured 40 gallons on it, because it was a cold day and the water was creating steam that I mistook for smoke. Not funny at the time, but pretty funny now. At least I had the sense to do it on a hotplate outside instead of in the house.
