[didgeoridoo]

“Much literature has historically claimed that hydrogen cyanide smells of almonds or bitter almonds. However, there has been considerable confusion and disagreement over this, because the smell of household almond essence is due to benzaldehyde, which is released along with hydrogen cyanide from the breakdown of amygdalin present in some plant seeds, and thus is often mistaken for it.[12][13] In an experiment to test what hydrogen cyanide smells like, the chemistry Youtuber NileRed described the smell as "not at all like an almond" but like "weak bleach or chlorine" or "swimming pools".[14]”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_cyanide

[chneu]

Shout-out to NileRed.

Nigel has a whole series of edible chem runs. The pop rocks one is pretty good. His schtick is that he orders ridiculous equipment for all his videos.

He's worth a watch.

[fuzzfactor]

HCN gas does smell a bit like Hydrochloric Acid.

Not like almonds at all.

Otherwise known as Muriatic Acid when used in pools, hydrochloric is an aqueous solution of HCl gas, which is a very acidic gas, highly soluble in water. It is usually supplied in its saturated solution of approximately 37% concentrated HCl gas dissolved in water. It's a smoker, as soon as you open the bottle of concentrate, vapors of HCl begin to escape and if you get a whiff it's pretty rough.

HCN can be supplied in gas form (pressure cylinders) if needed, but most cyanide is supplied as a solid salt like NaCN or KCN, which are "basically" non-acidic forms of cyanide.

These crystals can be dissolved in water (makes a very toxic solution) without the release of very much HCN gas, but the solution must be maintained in a relatively alkaline condition, otherwise if it is acidified the solution will liberate HCN and it smells like an acidic gas alright.

A little bit like HCl but even rougher.

Well in my back yard during college there was a big cherry laurel and once the little fruits were ripe it would be infested with birds who were wolfing them down. It's hot even in north Florida and after a while some of the fruits would get fermented to a certain percentage of alcohol. The birds were really partying then until it got to the point they would fall out of the tree drunk.

[AStonesThrow]

It's common to say that sulfur/natural gas smells "like rotten eggs" but I've probably not smelled a rotten egg in isolation for 40 years. But since I'm familiar with sulfur-type smells I could probably figure it out. I expect a future of bad and rotten eggs in our supermarkets...

[HeyLaughingBoy]

I'm familiar with the smells of sulfur (at least memories from decades ago), natural gas additives (mercaptan) and having chickens that like to lay in random hidden places, rotten eggs.

I don't think that there's much overlap in the scent profiles. Maybe a diluted rotten egg is similar to that smell of making black powder as a child, but not much.

[eszed]

> making black powder as a child

Storytime, please?

[HeyLaughingBoy]

[shrug]

Not much to say. Couldn't buy gunpowder as a 12-year-old, but the drug store would sell you saltpeter (KNO4?) if you said your mom was using it to cure ham and sulfur (I think it was used on wounds) and it was easy to make charcoal and grind it to a powder.

Mix the three together and stuff it into a small closed-end tube made from newspaper and scotch tape, with a piece of powder-infused cotton string for a fuze and you had yourself a rocket.