{1 BURNED ASACID | SPATTERS CLASS IN COLUMBIA TEST Chemistry Instructor and His Assistant Are Seriously Injured in Explosion NINE STUDENTS ARE HURT | ‘Sulphuric Acid Blows Up in | Experiment When Chemicals | Are Taken From Shield The New York Eimes Published: October 21, 1941 | An explosion in the midst of a chemical demonstration at Colum- bia University injured eleven per- sons, two seriously, yesterday when apparatus containing con- centrated sulphuric. acid blew up. Dr, Clarence Hiskey, 29 Years old, of 49 West Seventy-sixth Street, an instructor in chemistry, and his laboratory assistant, Dr. Harold Erailey, 22, of 108 Inwood Avenue, Upper Montclair, N. J. suffered third-degree burna of the face, hands and body when the acid splattered throughout the classroom. They were taken to Enickerbocker Hospital, Where their condition was reported as serious. The nine students attending the lecture received varying degrees of burns, none of them serious. All but one, Mrs. Vivian Marlies, 29, of 640 Riverside Drive, were re- leased by the university medical authorities after treatment. Mra. Marlies suffered burns of the face, hands and right eye, and was taken by her husband, an assist- ant professor of chemical engi- neering at City College, to the Post-Graduate Hospital for fur- ther observation and treatment. ee ee Te esGas Heated for Test The accident occurred at 3:50 FP. M. in Room $11, Havemeyer Hall, the Columbia chemistry build- ing, at Broadway and 118th Street. According to one eyewitness ac- count, Dr. Hiskey and Dr. Bratley were trying to determine the criti- cal temperature of sulphur dioxide. This technique necessitates heating the gas in a liquid bath. Concen- trated sulphuric acid was used in the bath and heated to raise the temperature of the sulphur. As the experiment was progres- sing, fumes began to come from the apparatus. The instructors re- moved the chemicals from behind a plate glass shield to get rid of the fumes and the flask exploded. Both men and the class rushed to wash off the acid with water. University medical authorities were summoned and were at the scene in five minutes. Slight Damage to Room Slight damage was done to the @lassroom in the form of stains on the floors and walls. Those burned slightly and dis- missed were Chauncey P. Thomas, 21, of 8 Weyburn Road, Scarsdale, N. ¥.; Sanford Bayer, 21, of 10 Monroe Street, Glenridge, N. J.; Mrs. Hilda Roland Schurman, 21, of 45 West Highty-first Street; Henry Monogas, 21, of 421 West 119th Street; George Weil, 19, of 41 West Highty-sixth Street; Ever- ‘and Simonds, 21, of 33-73 164th | Street, Flushing, Queens; Gus Skal- ski, 21, of 229 Seventh Avenue, Palisades Park, N, J., and John R. Mencke, 22, of 210 West Seventieth Street.