Linus Pauling: Lloyd Jeffress had a chemistry set in his bedroom. And it wasn't a chemistry set
because they hadn't been thought of yet. It was a collection of a few chemicals and
a little glassware that he had gathered together. This came when I was thirteen. The
following year there was practically no chemistry in the course in physiography, a
little physics; properties of gases, atmospheric pressure, a few things of that sort.
The uh, I think even the barometer was discussed in. Now when I was walking home from
school with Lloyd Jeffress, when both he and I were thirteen, we came to his house.
Mine was about a mile farther along on the east side in Portland, and he said "would
you like to see some chemical experiments?" And I said yes. We went in and he carried
out two or three which really did strike my fancy. So that from that time on I was
a chemist.
Interviewer: Do you remember what any of those experiments were?
Linus Pauling: I only remember one of them. He mixed potassium chlorate and sugar and then put a
drop of concentrated sulfuric acid on it and it began to burn, this mixture. Produced
steam, a cloud of smoke, and a black carbonaceous product and this, the combustion
zone spread through the material in a very interesting way.
