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"Miniaturized Versions", Ingested or inhaled?
"A miniature binary weapon is used in an assassination in the Frederick Forsyth novel The Devil's Alternative. It consists of two half-capsules, a non-resistant one containing potassium cyanide[verification needed] and an acid-resistant one containing hydrochloric acid. The substances mix after the halves are assembled and the seal between them is broken, and form hydrogen cyanide. The surplus acid eats through the capsule walls of the non-resistant half, and after a delay of several hours, the lethal content is released into the intestinal tract of whoever ingested it."
I've never read the afore mentioned novel(regrettably), although I feel it's safe to say the afore mentioned design is highly doubtable as its purpose is unclear to anyone with high school level chemical knowledge. If it is supposed to be ingested, that is. For one, Potassium cyanide is lethal enough as a toxin in its own right, and hydrogen cyanide formed after mixture is hardly more potent. Even if it is, few people need to be killed multiple times. The process doesn't seem to achieve anything useful. A second weakness is that human gastric acid contains hydrochloric acid itself, hence rendering the second half-capsule completely redundant. This makes the supposedly ingested capsule effectively a unitary chemical weapon: the one takes the KCN half dies, while the worst thing that can happen to the other guy is a bad case of stomach acid. However, if the capsule is to be placed into close vicinity of the supposed victim, both peculiarities cease to be. KCN isn't easily inhaled unintentionally while HCN is known to be a killer in gas chambers, and you do need the HCl half to create HCN and setting it loose. In this sense the capsule becomes a binary chemical weapon. If any of these made sense to anyone who has access to the novel, effort put in checking up with the book will be greatly appreciated. pun@166.111.61.45 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 219.234.81.120 (talk) 08:33, 9 October 2009 (UTC)