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Arsenic is, of course, the quintessential poison of antiquity. Everyone who's anyone has been murdered with arsenic. Many people, those with a wood deck for example, have enough arsenic around the house to kill most of their neighborhood (it's used to treat wood to make it insect and rot resistant). This use is being phased out and will be banned starting in 2004, in the US. Its use in rat poison and the like was banned long ago.
Huge quantities of arsenic are used in gold mining, which is a good reason you don't want a gold mine in your back yard. It's also why arsenic is used to treat lumber even though safer treatments are available: Large amounts of waste arsenic are available cheap from the mining industry, which would have to spend a lot of money to dispose of it safely, if they couldn't sell it to people to put in their back yards.
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  CCA treated wood.
CCA (chromated copper arsenate) treated wood is nasty, nasty stuff.
Arsenic is very toxic. It is an acute poison, a contact poison, a chronic cumulative poison, and a carcinogen. There is no part of arsenic that is not poisonous. This sample of treated lumber would make you very sick if you ate it. A treated lumber deck has enough arsenic to kill at least a hundred people, including you. Do not use acidic deck washes. Never, never burn treated lumber.
And shop at Menards: They have eliminated arsenic from their treated lumber two years before it is due to be banned.
Source: Hardware Store
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 15 April, 2002
Price: Donated
Size: 3"
Purity: <5%
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Native arsenic.
This sample of native (naturally occurring) arsenic is from the Burraton Coombe Quarry, St. Stephen-by-Saltash, Cornwall, in the UK.
It happened to arrive in my mailbox on the very day Oliver Sacks was visiting the Periodic Table Table, so we got to open it together.
Source: Andrew Goodall
Contributor: Andrew Goodall
Acquired: 12 November, 2002
Price: Donated
Size: 1"
Purity: >80%
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Sample from the RGB Set.
The Red Green and Blue company in England sells a very nice element collection in several versions. Max Whitby, the director of the company, very kindly donated a complete set to the periodic table table.
To learn more about the set you can visit my page about element collecting for a general description or the company's website which includes many photographs and pricing details. I have two photographs of each sample from the set: One taken by me and one from the company. You can see photographs of all the samples displayed in a periodic table format: my pictures or their pictures. Or you can see both side-by-side with bigger pictures in numerical order.
The picture on the left was taken by me. Here is the company's version (there is some variation between sets, so the pictures sometimes show different variations of the samples):
Source: Max Whitby of RGB
Contributor: Max Whitby of RGB
Acquired: 25 January, 2003
Text Updated: 11 August, 2007
Price: Donated
Size: 0.2"
Purity: 99.99999%
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Sample from the Everest Set.
Up until the early 1990's a company in Russia sold a periodic table collection with element samples. At some point their American distributor sold off the remaining stock to a man who is now selling them on eBay. The samples (except gases) weigh about 0.25 grams each, and the whole set comes in a very nice wooden box with a printed periodic table in the lid.
To learn more about the set you can visit my page about element collecting for a general description and information about how to buy one, or you can see photographs of all the samples from the set displayed on my website in a periodic table layout or with bigger pictures in numerical order.
Source: Rob Accurso
Contributor: Rob Accurso
Acquired: 7 February, 2003
Text Updated: 29 January, 2009
Price: Donated
Size: 0.2"
Purity: >99%
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Pure arsenic.
David Franco feels bad when I have impure samples, so he sent me this nice chunk of pure arsenic. I suppose normally if someone mails you arsenic it's considered a bad sign....
Source: David Franco
Contributor: David Franco
Acquired: 20 January, 2003
Price: Donated
Size: 0.5"
Purity: 99.8%
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Granules.
This is one of quite a few samples that Greg sent because he didn't think my existing ones were quite good enough. Check out the purity on this baby! He sells lots of very nice and very unusual elements on eBay and elsewhere: Check the Source link for details.
Source: Greg P
Contributor: Greg P
Acquired: 2003-05-1
Price: Donated
Size: 0.4"
Purity: >99.9999%
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Beautiful crunchies.
This is just about the most beautiful toxic and carcinogenic metal you're likely to see. My other arsenic samples are all fairly badly oxidized, but this one is bright and shiny, and should stay that way since it's ampouled under argon. This sample was donated by Dave Roberts of DePauw University, who I got to know while I was installing the beautiful periodic table display that now graces their Julian Science Center. Dave found a bunch of surplus elements in their chemical storeroom, and naturally Max Whitby and I graciously offered to take them off his hands.
I chose this sample to represent its element in my Photographic Periodic Table Poster. The sample photograph includes text exactly as it appears in the poster, which you are encouraged to buy a copy of.
Source: Dave Roberts
Contributor: daverobers
Acquired: 1 November, 2003
Text Updated: 11 August, 2007
Price: Donated
Size: 0.4"
Purity: 99.9%
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Small tin of arsenic.
I guess this tin is for when you want to carry around a bit of arsenic in your purse or whatever. Does this bother anyone? It looks pretty well-used to me, which is another thing to worry about. Oh well, at least it's empty now.
Source: eBay seller fogie1
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 28 November, 2003
Text Updated: 11 March, 2007
Price: $17.50
Size: 1.5"
Purity: 0%
Sample Group: Medical
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Small plate of arsenic.
Hm, now where did this little bit of arsenic come from? I really must keep better track of incoming samples.
Source: Unknown
Contributor: Unknown
Acquired: 9 May, 2007
Text Updated: 9 May, 2007
Price: Unknown
Size: 1"
Purity: 99%
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Paris Green pigment/poison.
From wikipedia-so-you-know-it-must-be-right:Paris Green is a common name for copper(II) acetoarsenite, or C.I. Pigment Green 21, an extremely toxic blue green chemical with four main uses: pigment, animal poison (mostly rodenticide), insecticide, and blue colorant for fireworks.
Other names for the chemical are Emerald Green, Parrot Green, Schweinfurt Green, Imperial Green, Vienna Green, and Mitis Green. It is almost never called Paris Green when referencing its use as a pigment. Since the use of Emerald Green as a pigment has been abandoned (around 1960), if one comes across the chemical today it is usually referred to as Paris Green. And indeed I did find it referenced as Paris Green even though this example is sold by the ACME Quality Paints company, indicating that they at least used to think of it as a pigment. If you look at the 360 degree rotations of this sample you can read the stern warnings and antidote suggestions on the back and sides.
They describe it as an insecticide, but I'm more interested in its use as a pigment because of the fascinating relationship this and related arsenic-based pigment compounds have to the notion that dry sunny climates are healthier than damp English weather. Huh?
For a period during the 1800's green arsenic pigments were popular in wallpaper, including patterns by the extremely popular William Morris. Problem is, when the air is damp, mold can grow on the wallpaper and convert the arsenic into arsene gas, which slowly poisons anyone in the room. People noticed that they tended to get weak and sickly during the damp winter months, and if they moved to a drier climate they got better quickly. Ergo, damp weather is bad for you, vacationing on a sunny island is good for you. It took a hundred years before people realized it was just the wallpaper, and by then the myth of damp being bad for you was firmly established. Homeopathy started the same way around the same time: Doing nothing (i.e. using a homeopathic remedy) was less harmful than many of the common medical treatments of the day, so when you switched from traditional medicine to homeopathy, you tended to get better. And again, by the time people figured out that it was traditional medicine being bad, not homeopathy being good, that accounted for the improvement, it was too late and the myth lives on to this day.
Source: eBay seller shipper39
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 27 December, 2008
Text Updated: 29 January, 2009
Price: $86
Size: 3"
Purity: 40%
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Native Arsenic with Loellingite.
This heavy (and toxic!) lump of naturally occurring arsenic contains a small, light colored inclusion of loellingite, which is FeAs2.
Source: Frank Liebscher
Contributor: Frank Liebscher
Acquired: 28 January, 2004
Price: Donated
Size: 1.25"
Composition: As+FeAs2
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Etched gallium arsenide wafer.
Unlike all my other integrated circuit wafers, this one is incredibly thin. Watch the rotation video to see how delicate it is (and in fact it's cracked in several places, though it's still hanging together, implying that the metallization layers are strong enough to keep it intact even though the substrate is broken).
Remarkably, you can actually see the etching of the circuits from both sides, meaning that the gallium arsenide crystal substrate must be incredibly thin. I don't know how this is done, or why.
Source: SoCal (Nevada), Inc
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 24 February, 2007
Text Updated: 24 February, 2007
Price: $19
Size: 4"
Composition: GaAs
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Arsenopyrite.
Description from the source:
Arsenopyrite ( FeAsS mon.), Huanzala, Peru. Aggregates of Arsenopyrite crystas replacing exagonal Pyrrothite, with Pyrite and Quartz, very interesting for the collectors. 6x3,5x2 cm; 56 g.
Source: Simone Citon
Contributor: John Gray
Acquired: 26 September, 2008
Text Updated: 28 September, 2008
Price: Trade
Size: 2.4"
Composition: FeAsS
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Proustite.
Description from the source:
Proustite (Ag3 AsS3 trig.) and Acanthite (Ag2 S mon.), Uchucchacua Mine, Lima, Peru. Extremely good ruby red crystals with massive Acanthite and Calcite. 6x4,5x2,7 cm; 87 g.
Source: Simone Citon
Contributor: John Gray
Acquired: 30 September, 2008
Text Updated: 1 October, 2008
Price: Trade
Size: 2.4"
Composition: Ag3AsS3
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Niccolite.
Description from the source:
Niccolite, Arsen (Ni As hex.), Yachymov (ex Joachimstal), Boemia, Czech Republic. Very nice crystal sections, gray yellowish with a bit of pinkish, on massive Arsen. Present a light green patina of the rare Bismite. 3,2x2x1 cm; 10 g.
Source: Simone Citon
Contributor: John Gray
Acquired: 30 September, 2008
Text Updated: 1 October, 2008
Price: Trade
Size: 1.25"
Composition: NiAs
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Getchellite.
Description from the source:
Getchellite ( As Sb S3 mon.), Chaidarkan, Kirghizstan. Cleavage material with Stibnite on matrix. 2,2x1,8x1 cm; 6 g with box.
Source: Simone Citon
Contributor: John Gray
Acquired: 14 October, 2008
Text Updated: 14 October, 2008
Price: Trade
Size: 1"
Composition: AsSbS3
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Niccolite.
Description from the source:
Niccolite, Arsen (Ni As hex.), Yachymov (ex Joachimstal), Boemia, Czech Republic. Very nice crystal sections, gray yellowish with a bit of pinkish, on massive Arsen. Present a light green patina of the rare Bismite. 3,2x2x1 cm; 10 g.
Source: Simone Citon
Contributor: John Gray
Acquired: 14 October, 2008
Text Updated: 14 October, 2008
Price: Trade
Size: 1.25"
Composition: NiAs
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Erythrite.
Description from the source:
Erythrite (Co3 (AsO4)2x8 H2 O mon.), Dome Rock, South Australia, Australia. With pseudocubic Smolianinovite. 3x2,2x1,5 cm; 7 g.
Source: Simone Citon
Contributor: John Gray
Acquired: 30 October, 2008
Text Updated: 13 March, 2009
Price: Trade
Size: 0.75"
Composition: Co3(AsO4)2.8H2 O
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Cobaltite.
Description from the source:
Cobaltite (Co As S orth.), Geyer, Tyrol, Austria. Cristalline gray masses with pinkish Erytrite from a very old austrian mine. 1,5x0,8x0,8 cm; 4 g with box.
Source: Simone Citon
Contributor: John Gray
Acquired: 28 January, 2009
Text Updated: 29 January, 2009
Price: Trade
Size: 0.6"
Composition: CoAsS
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Renierite.
Description from the source:
Renierite ((Cu,Zn)11(Ge,As)2Fe4S16 tetr.), Kipushi, Shaba, Dem. Rep. of Congo. Perfect example, with brown-orange-reddish cristalline masses. 1,5x1,2x1 cm; 3 g.
Source: Simone Citon
Contributor: John Gray
Acquired: 28 January, 2009
Text Updated: 29 January, 2009
Price: Trade
Size: 0.6"
Composition: (Cu,Zn)11(Ge,As)2Fe4S16
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Gallium Arsenide Microwave Amplifier.
This is a Celeritek CTR-990126 CPW microwave transceiver, and there's a stunningly beautiful little city inside. The input and output are not wires: They are waveguides, hollow tubes that the signal travels through as an electromagnetic wave. You can see the miniature antennas that pick up the signal from the waveguide at the bottom left and right of the picture, or at the top and bottom of the Spin video.
Look at the next sample to see the circuitry up close.
Source: eBay seller time-warp
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 24 March, 2009
Text Updated: 25 March, 2009
Price: $50
Size: 4"
Composition: GaAs
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Gallium Arsenide Microwave Amplifier.
This is one of the micro-circuits inside a Celeritek CTR-990126 CPW microwave transceiver seen up close (see previous sample for an overall view).
At microwave frequencies the shape of everything matters, and signals a nearly as happy to travel through air as they are through wire. Notice how in some places the signal path clearly continues across gaps where there is no wire: Interwoven loops of wire act like transmitting and receiving antennas, or if you will like capacitors, that are able to pass only very high-frequency signals.
I'm not an expert in microwave circuitry so I can't tell you exactly what each of these components is, but somewhere in there are gallium arsenide transistors and diodes.
Source: eBay seller time-warp
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 24 March, 2009
Text Updated: 25 March, 2009
Price: $50
Size: 4"
Composition: GaAs
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