Laughing Gas

Learn how to make laughing gas from Ammonium Nitrate. Laughing gas was one of the earliest anaesthetics. After a little while of inhaling the gas the patient became so happy [ain't life great?] he couldn't keep from laughing. Finally he would drift off to a pleasant sleep.

Some do-it-yourselfers have died while taking laughing gas. This is because they has generated it through plastic bags while their heads were inside. They were simply suffocating but were too bombed out to realize it.

The trick is to have a plastic clothes bag in which you generate a lot of the gas. Then you stop generating the gas and hold a small opening of the bag under your nose, getting plenty of oxygen in the meantime. Then, Whee!

To make it you start with ammonium nitrate bought from a chemical supply house or which you have purified with 100% rubbing or wood alcohol.

First, dissolve a quantity of ammonium nitrate in some water. Then you evaporate the water over the stove, while stirring, until you have a heavy brine. When nearly all the moisture is out it should solidify instantly when a drop is put on an ice cold metal plate.

When ready, dump it all out on a very cold surface. After a while, break it up and store it in a bottle.

A spoonful is put into a flask with a one-hole stopper, with a tube leading into a big plastic bag. The flask is heated with an alcohol lamp.

When the temperature in the flask reaches 480 F the gas will generate. If white fumes appear the heat should be lowered as the stuff explodes at 600 F.

When the bag is filled, stop the action and get ready to turn on.

CAUTION: N2O supplants oxygen in your blood, but you don't realize it. It's easy to die from N2O because you're suffocating and your breathing reflex doesn't know it. Do not put your head in a plastic bag (duhh...) because you will cheerfully choke to death.