[StableAlkyne]

> older scientific literature is full of all sorts of knowledge that was obtained in ways that are shockingly unsafe by modern standards

My favorite is there are old manuals that recommend smoking while working with cyanide. Allegedly it produces a very disagreeable flavor when you inhale the cyanide through the cigarette, so you get warning to get out of the area*

This was before fume hoods were common, when you would most likely be doing this outside or next to a window

* I have not tested this, and I don't know of anyone who has, so don't rely on what could be an old telephone game for chemical safety

[krisoft]

The Stern–Gerlach experiment is famous for many things. One of them is that the only reason the silver deposits could be seen were because the experimenters smoked cheap cigars with sulfur in them, which turned the deposited silver to black.

"After venting to release the vacuum, Gerlach removed the detector flange. But he could see no trace of the silver atom beam and handed the flange to me. With Gerlach looking over my shoulder as I peered closely at the plate, we were surprised to see gradually emerge the trace of the beam…. Finally we realized what [had happened]. I was then the equivalent of an assistant professor. My salary was too low to afford good cigars, so I smoked bad cigars. These had a lot of sulfur in them, so my breath on the plate turned the silver into silver sulfide, which is jet black, so easily visible. It was like developing a photographic film."

[Bluestein]

Imagine the quantity of sulfur he must have absorbed in order for his breath to have a high enough concentration ...