Re: ghost crystal problem

[William Beaty <billb@ESKIMO.COM>]

On Tue, 30 Jan 2001, Kim S. Palermo wrote:

> The problem is that there are tiny air bubbles trapped in the crystals,
> so they are not completely invisible.

Bigger bubbles usually can be knocked free.

I hadn't seen the tiny ones.  Could be effervescence from fresh tap water.
Try using "stale" tap water which is many hours old.  Or try shaking up
the water while in a bottle, then let the bubbles rise (that should
provide lots of surfaces for the excess gas to escape from) .  You can
make the water "stale" by boiling it breifly beforehand and then letting
it cool.  This drives out the dissolved air, so tiny bubbles won't
magically appear later.

PS, it looks really weird if you pump some air into the bottom of the
container full of crystals.  The bubbles take crazy pathways through the
apparently empty container.

Also: the acrylimide material is very inexpensive at garden supply stores.
You can buy huge sacks of it to mix with dirt.  Some are blue rather than
transparent though.


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