40 years ago: Bottle of tear gas ruptures in KU’s Snow Hall

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Sept. 30, 1973:

  • A bottle of tear gas that ruptured in Snow Hall on the Kansas University campus this week had been defective and awaiting disposal, according to staff reports. Jackie McClain, biological sciences business manager, said that the accident had occurred after the bottle and canister had been removed from her office, where they had been under double lock, to Room 121 to be picked up by the radiation biophysics department. Disposal of the liquid had been postponed just an hour before the tear gas bottle lid had blown off. McClain said that the university had no employee trained to remove toxic or flammable chemicals, so they had to be picked up by trained personnel.
  • Raymond C. Moore Hall on KU’s west campus was dedicated today in front of a crowd of about 200 people, including Prof. Moore. The new building was to provide the Kansas Geological Survey with its first permanent home at KU since 1889.