I See Nothing

"I am very, very ignorant of chemicals," Young said.

In a meeting last December with Donald J. Ciapenelli, director of the chemical laboratories, Atkinson asked for space to pursue his "hobby in pyrotechnics" and showed Ciapenelli a list of chemicals he was using but did not mention nitroglycerine, Ciapenelli said yesterday.

Ciapenelli contacted Vanelli, who told a prep room employee that if space was available, Atkinson could store his chemicals and conduct further experiments there, John B. Mathers, coordinator of lecture services and director of the prep room, said yesterday.

On four occasions, Atkinson manufactured up to 11 milliliters of nitroglycerine in the prep room, Vanelli said he learned after the evacuation.

The project was "not scrutinized as carefully as possible," Mathers said Friday, adding that "communications between the director's office and here were not very clear."

"When you do work in the Science Center we want some responsible people sponsoring you," Vanelli said. But he added, "I don't think anybody had really given him approval."

Reason to Worry

Atkinson's experiments were "not criminally or maliciously inspired," but "if someone had diligently researched his list of chemicals, they would have been concerned," O'Keefe said.

O'Keefe added that the state police would not charge Atkinson, but they would arrest him if he repeated the experiments.

A freshman in Massachusetts Hall, who asked not to be named, said Monday she occasionally felt jolts and heard explosions at night coming from Atkinson's room. She added that some students had complained about noxious fumes in the halls. Another student said Monday that Atkinson's "activities have not caused a furor in Mass Hall."

Kistiakowsky said Monday that nitroglycerine "is regarded as one of the most dangerous high explosives." But he added, "When I was still a high school kid I also made a little nitroglycerine. When my mother found out, she wouldn't let me experiment in the house anymore.