Linus Pauling: Lloyd Jeffress had a chemistry set in his bedroom. And it wasn't a chemistry set because they hadn't been thought of yet.
It was a collection of a few chemicals and a little glassware that he had gathered together. This came when I was thirteen.
The following year there was practically no chemistry in the course in physiography, a little physics; properties of gases,
atmospheric pressure, a few things of that sort. The uh, I think even the barometer was discussed in. Now when I was walking
home from school with Lloyd Jeffress, when both he and I were thirteen, we came to his house. Mine was about a mile farther
along on the east side in Portland, and he said "would you like to see some chemical experiments?" And I said yes. We went
in and he carried out two or three which really did strike my fancy. So that from that time on I was a chemist.
Interviewer: Do you remember what any of those experiments were?
Linus Pauling: I only remember one of them. He mixed potassium chlorate and sugar and then put a drop of concentrated sulfuric acid on it
and it began to burn, this mixture. Produced steam, a cloud of smoke, and a black carbonaceous product and this, the combustion
zone spread through the material in a very interesting way.
