I bought two 1890's-ish medicine bottles at the antique show last night. After researching this one, I found out the stuff inside is really nasty.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_cyanideIt's boiling point is 79 degrees. It gets hotter than that in my house during the summer. The top is damaged badly like maybe it has boiled in the past and it burst. Some of the liquid is dried around the top.
What should I do with it? I can't sell it because I can't ship it. Ideas? I won't throw it out. Be careful with antiques guys! If this bottle did not still have the labels, I would not know what the liquid was and it would have possibly burst out poison!
Wikipedia:
A hydrogen cyanide concentration of 300 mg/m3 in air will kill a human within about 10 minutes. It is estimated that hydrogen cyanide at a concentration of 3500 ppm (about 3200 mg/m3) will kill a human in about 1 minute. The toxicity is caused by the cyanide ion, which halts cellular respiration by inhibiting an enzyme in mitochondria called cytochrome c oxidase.
Hydrogen cyanide absorbed into a carrier for use as a pesticide (under IG Farben's brand name Cyclone B, or in German Zyklon B, with the B standing for Blausäure)[24] was employed by Nazi Germany in the mid-20th century in extermination camps. The same product is currently made in the Czech Republic under the trademark "Uragan D2." Hydrogen cyanide is also the agent used in gas chambers employed in judicial execution in some U.S. states, where it is produced during the execution by the action of sulfuric acid on an egg-sized mass of potassium cyanide.
Hydrogen cyanide is commonly listed amongst chemical warfare agents known as blood agents.[25] As a substance listed under Schedule 3 of the Chemical Weapons Convention as a potential weapon which has large-scale industrial uses, manufacturing plants in signatory countries which produce more than 30 tonnes per year must be declared to, and can be inspected by, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
