Date of incident: November, 1988 Place: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I was in my grade 11 chemistry class one day. We were doing an exercise with test tubes and Bunsen burners. I can't recall the exact substance we were heating in the test tubes but it was a powder compound of some sort. I believe that it was supposed to simply change color or somehow visibly change its appearance.
The exact scientific details are lost on me now. As instructed, and like everyone else, I was holding my test tube with tongs over the blue flame. There was simply the normal hubbub in the classroom, with nothing untoward. However, at a certain moment, I got a very strong conviction in my mind that something not-good was going to happen to my tube.
I looked at it intently, and noticed that it was giving off a faint hissing sound. I couldn't tell if everyone else's tube was doing the same. Oh no, this is going to explode, I remember clearly thinking. I think that not more than ten seconds passed - and the test tube exploded with an extremely loud bang... I was beyond shocked!
Everyone in the classroom immediately turned around, while there I was, holding only my tongs. There was no sign of the test tube, no shards of glass; I was not injured in any way except that my hearing was impaired perhaps for more than an hour.
There was no odor and absolutely no sign of the glass test tube or its contents. Strangely, there was no reaction from the teacher and class continued after that as if little had happened! Perhaps strangest of all besides the fact that I wasn't injured, was that I knew the explosion was going to happen. I have never had such foresight before, or afterwards, ever since then.
