Desmond John Kempson
(BGS staff 1973-?)

The following catalogue of disasters in Desmond Kempson's Physics classes was supplied by Pat Everitt.

• while demonstrating centripetal force with a bucket of water, the handle broke
• while demonstrating how friction generates heat by running Andrew Elsom up and down the bench, the subject's head became impaled on a gas tap
• someone dropped the glass bottled Radon generator, smashing it and causing radio-active powder to go everywhere. The laboratory was evacuated
• Mr Kempson touched the Van de Graff generator to prove how quickly it lost it's charge, but not on this occasion
• someone dropped a bottle of mercury which vanished into the floor and appeared a bit later in the chemistry labs via the ceiling. The laboratory was evacuated
• while electroplating items with copper sulphate someone used a (mainly magnesium) pencil sharpener, thus causing a chemical reaction that quickly filled the entire laboratory with hydrogen. The laboratory was evacuated