hydrogen cyanide
Noun
Meaning
a highly poisonous gas or volatile liquid that smells like bitter almonds; becomes a gas at around 90 degree Fahrenheit and is most dangerous when inhaled; the anhydride of hydrocyanic acid; used in manufacturing
Source: WordNetSynonyms
Hypernyms
Related terms
Examples
Alkaline solutions are safer to use because they do not evolve hydrogen cyanide gas.
As a method of execution, poison has been ingested, as the ancient Athenians did (see Socrates ), inhaled, as with carbon monoxide or hydrogen cyanide (see gas chamber ), or injected (see lethal injection ).
Apricot pits contain 89-2,170 mg/kg hydrogen cyanide (wet weight).
By mass, polonium-210 is around 250,000 times more toxic than hydrogen cyanide (the LD 50 for 210 Po is less than 1 microgram for an average adult (see below) compared with about 250 milligrams for hydrogen cyanide citation ).
In 1876, William Ramsay combined acetylene and hydrogen cyanide into pyridine in a red-hot iron-tube furnace.
Poisoning by hydrogen cyanide gas within a gas chamber (as a salt of hydrocyanic acid is dropped into a strong acid, usually sulfuric acid) is one method of executing a condemned prisoner as the condemned prisoner eventually breathes the lethal fumes.