Twist in the tube

Not long after leaving school, I got the job of lab. assistant, for ABM.  My job was to analyze grains for the production of beer and whiskey.  I was very puffed up with self importance, even though I was constantly having to leave the lab, walk down the hall to my boss and ask how to do the calculations.  {this being pre computer days}  I had a bank of test tubes over burners, into which I had to put some grain and five drops of hydrochloric acid, which I then cooked.  The steam went up and over the equipment, via lengths of rubber tubing and the resultant distilled liquid collected in another set of test tubes, ready for analysis.  Well, one day, feeling a tad groggy from the night before, I got one of my rubber tubes twisted.  You could hear the resultant explosion down the hall, where I was, once again pestering my boss.  I had destroyed the apparatus and we had acid dripping from the ceiling for a day.  I should have been sacked but I think my boss had a soft spot for me.  I never lived it down, though.I got married a year later and never went back to that sort of work…..no surprise really.