Madson of Santos reacts during the match between Santos and Palmeiras as part of Brasileirao Series A 2022 at Vila Belmiro Stadium on May 29, 2022 in Santos, Brazil. (Photo by Carla Carniel/Reuters)

Turkana tribesmen walk with guns to protect their cattle from rival tribes near Baragoy, Kenya August 4, 2017. (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

Spectators pass through security screening ahead of the New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square in New York, on Sunday, December 31, 2017. (Photo by Peter Morgan/AP Photo)

Baylor's DiJonai Carrington shoots past UConn's Paige Bueckers during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in the Elite Eight round of the Women's NCAA tournament Monday, March 29, 2021, at the Alamodome in San Antonio. (Photo by Morry Gash/AP Photo)

A woman wearing traditional clothes reacts as men throw water at her during a traditional Easter celebration in Holloko, Hungary on April 10, 2023. (Photo by Bernadett Szabo/Reuters)

Paul Dixon is an engineer by day and an astrophotographer by night. He shot this broken boat on Dungeness beach, Kent in the last decade of August 2024, 17 times, stacking the images upon each other before combining them with a similar composite of the Milky Way. (Photo by Paul Dixon/Media Drum Images)

This artist image released from Japan's airline All Nippon Airways (ANA) on April 17, 2015 shows ANA's Boeing 787-9 aircraft into the colors of R2-D2 robot of Star Wars. Japanese air carrier ANA will place the special colored jetliner in service in this autumn. (Photo by AFP Photo/All Nippon Airways)

If we were to burn NH4Cr2O7 with HgSCN in the Dark Ages in Europe and show it to anyone, it is us who would be burning next on a fiery cross of Inquisition. And it’s no wonder, since this experiment produces a truly marvelous result. At first, as you ignite the mixture of NH4Cr2O7 and HgSCN, all you can see is that it is slowly burning with a reddish flame. After a while, however, a crater is formed in the middle of the burning pile, and then, suddenly, tentacle-like appendages start sprouting from the burning mixture. And you can almost hear the scream of the mad occultist – “Come forth, Kraken! Come forth!” But of course, this is simply a chemical reaction that is called the "Pharoah's Serpent". It was also often sold in firework stores until people realized that it was toxic.