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Delayed Fire

Action:

    Several drops of liquid from a medicine dropper fall into a paper cup place over a metal mat.  After several seconds a reaction takes place with a burst of flames.

You Need:

1. pulverized potassium permanganate - one gram
2. glycerine in a small dropper bottle
3. paper cup
4. metal mat
5. darkened room

Why:

    Pulverized potassium permanganate oxidized glycerine rapidly.  Heat generated results in a flame.

How:

    Place the paper cup containing the potassium permanganate on a mat.  Glycerin is then dropped into the cup.

Suggestions:

    You may use an iron crucible in place of a paper cup.  If the crucible has been warmed previously, an immediate reaction takes place.  Otherwise, a period of up to a minute will elapse before the flame occurs.  This experiment is most effective in a darkened room.

Pages 62 & 63 of Chemical Magic, second edition, by Leonard A. Ford.  Revised by E. Winston Grundmeier and published by Dover Publications, Inc., New York, # 0-486-67628-5.