Ammonium Sulfide Stink Bomb
What You Need
- Single-edge razor blade
- Box of wooden safety matches
- Clean, empty glass jar with lid
- 1 cup ammonia
What to Do
With adult supervision, use the single-edge razor blade to carefully cut off the heads of all the matches. Place the match heads in the jar. Add the ammonia to the jar and immediately screw on the lid tightly. Let it sit for one week. The solution can be thrown or poured directly in an area you think already stinks. Or place the jar uncapped behind a door that opens into the target room. When someone enters, the door will knock over the jar, spilling the liquid.What Happens
The solution stinks like rotten eggs.Why It Works
The sulfur in the match heads combines with the ammonia to form ammonium sulfide.Bizarre Facts
- The origin of the children's refrain, "Last one there is a rotten egg," is unknown.
- In 1830, French inventor Charles Suria produced a reliable match with a tip coated with white phosphorus—a chemical that, unfortunately, gives off poisonous fumes which cause phossy jaw, a fatal disease that rots away the jawbone. By 1900, white phosphorus was banned.
- In 1871, when the British Parliament considered imposing a match tax at a penny a box, thousands of match workers protested. The resulting riots prompted Parliament to strike the tax.
- The most vile-smelling substances in the world, according to The Guinness Book of Records, are ethyl mercaptan and butyl seleno mercaptan, each with a smell reminiscent of a combination of rotting cabbage, garlic, onions, burned toast, and sewer gas.
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