Historian finds explosive acid among museum donations, bomb squad called

A historian's routine task of sorting through donations at the Eudunda Family Heritage Gallery in South Australia took a dangerous turn when he discovered a highly explosive substance.

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In one of the boxes that we brought forward was this odd-looking brown bottle with a gauze sort of label on it that said picric acid.

Samuel Doering was examining an old doctor's bag among a backlog of items when he found a brown bottle labeled "picric acid." He quickly realized the material was volatile and potentially hazardous. The donation had been transported from Victoria and had been stored at the gallery for several months without incident before being moved to the reception area.

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I looked it up and quickly discovered it's a highly volatile and very explosive material.

Picric acid, historically used for various medicinal purposes, is classified as a top-tier explosive in Australia, posing a "mass explosion hazard." The dried form of the acid can combust when exposed to heat or friction, making it more dangerous than TNT. Doering contacted local police, who then called in the bomb response unit to safely remove and dispose of the chemical.

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This donation had come from Victoria in the back of a car and nothing had happened, and it had sat in the archive room for several months and, again, nothing had happened, and then I carried it to the front of the gallery to be sorted and still nothing happened. The penny dropped after she [the police officer] said the bomb response unit was required.

While the exact disposal method was not detailed, local reports suggested a blast was heard echoing through the hills. The donation was believed to have belonged to Dr. Fred Leditschke, who graduated from the University of Adelaide in 1924, indicating the picric acid had been in storage for a considerable time.

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SAPOL's bomb technicians attended to safely remove and dispose of the chemical, identified as picric acid. It is believed an old bottle of the substance, which was historically used for medicinal purposes, was inadvertently included in a larger donation.