# Burning Sulphur

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burning-sulphur/137580>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [November 19, 2002, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burning-sulphur/137580 "2002-11-19T18:50:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Legomancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/779978/32.png) [@Legomancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Legomancer)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burning-sulphur/137580/1 "2002-11-19T18:50:24Z")

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Maybe this should be in GQ, but here goes anyway. A friend of mine is working on a writing project and needs to know about burnt sulphur - as in, what color it is when burnt, smell, etc. Here’s her own words:

“In the scene I’m writing, two people are looking at the aftermath of a fire. There’s a trail of burned powder that I have decided is a trail of sulphur (maybe this is a bad choice and I can change it later)…anyways, assuming that it is sulphur, i need to know what it would look like if it had burned. It would be powder but it would have been ground off a block naturally discovered, so it can be assumed to have plenty of impurities.”

Can anyone help out with the details here? What would such a trail look like?

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burning-sulphur/137580/2 "2002-11-19T19:20:03Z")

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Get **The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments** – describes the different states of sulfer and what they look/smell like. Or you can get some sulfer/sulphur yourself and burn it.

Sulfer becomes a watery yellow liquid when heated, then becomes red and plastic-like. If you burned some I suspect you’d generate a lot of hydrofen sulfide gas, which would be both smelly and toxic.

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**Author:** ![monica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@monica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monica)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/burning-sulphur/137580/3 "2002-11-19T21:27:12Z")

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Logomancer, has your friend been talking to my 8th grade Earth Science teacher? He made the mistake of burning sulpher…it smelled terrible. All i can remember is the smell…think rotten eggs. _shudder_ By the way, I would strongly advise against trying to burn it anywhere that’s not wide in the open with lots of airflow.

~Monica