Experimenting with explosives ???

Experimentation and Education? Cool. As long as what he was doing was on his property and caused no harm to anyone, they never had a real case against him to begin with. The most they should have done is question him (to make sure he knows he’s being watched) and then actually keep an eye on him to make sure his interests don’t don’t go beyond harmless experimenting.

 

Way to go Captain America!

 

This never gets old.

 

I played with explosives all the time when I was at school and everyone called them "Wills Bombs"

On one occasion we made one to remove a tree stump at the local recreation ground and it blew it 15 feet into the air.
The next day, before the teacher arrived, I wrote on the blackboard......KNO3 + S + 3, C12H22O11 = One Big Bang.

No one was in the least concerned and even the local policeman came to watch. All he said was "Be carefully sonny Jim"
He loved my electric detonators and how I connected them to a lamp post.

PS, I don't know why he called me "Jim"

 

In 7th grade I made friends with a kid from Chicago. He made a small cannon out of a pipe and made his own gunpowder somehow. He brought it to school to show me.

 

What about powdered aluminum

Its all fun, always start with small quantities learn how this stuff behaves. Seems benign till it isn't.

For just plain old noise with little effort its hard to beat oxy acetylene.

Booms are easy, have you tried to get a sugar rocket to go ? Mine sucked barely lifted the stick was thinking add a bit a of sulfur speed things up and skip the core burner and go for an end burner.

Fine line between a rocket and a firecracker.

 

This reminds me of the time I walked into an independent pharmacy in a small town near here. On the shelf where the Humco chemicals are I found an old 1lb jar of potassium Chlorate powder. It was so old that the paper label was yellowing even though it sat on a shelf inside for years. The pharmacist had no clue what it was for, so I bought it. Had some great fun with it until I ran out of it. My son asked me to get some more and I told him I didn't know where I could get it, as most pharmacies don't even carry the Humco stuff anymore. "Ebay", he said. I thought "Bull$h!t" but looked it up and holy cow, there was a whole page of listings for the stuff in 1lb containers. I don't know if they still have it now, as it's been a good 20 years since I saw that listing. Seemed hilarious at the time. Might get you arrested today.

 

Fun stuff !

 

This is easy.

 

There was a video on youtube years ago by a guy who made a sparkler. There it was, just a little foil-wrapped cone about 4" tall and maybe 2" wide at the bottom. He sat behind it with his back to the wall and lit it. Must've miscalculated somewhat, 'cuz it blew up pretty good, knocking him against the wall and on his butt to the floor. He gets back up with black stuff all over his face saying ""Well, I won't do THAT again...." It knocked him half-witless.

I laughed 'til my guts ached.

 

Yep, Seems benign till it isn't.

 

Taking it to the next level..

 

Simply whether the side of the tube of the base is the strongest. LOL.

My best prank was simply leaving a sack of kieselgur out in the chemistry lab, knowing what the teacher would assume.
To add to the effect, I mixed a liter of glycerin with water (NOT concentrated sulphuric acid) and left it in the fridge.

They evacuated the entire school when the teacher found it. Fortunately one of my friends explained that it was all a prank, before they called in the army bomb disposal squad.

PS, In case you don't see the joke. Had I used the acid. the mixture in the fridge would have converted into 2 liters of glycerol trinitrate (full strength nitroglycerin).
Adding the kieselgur, would have produced about 20,kg of dynamite.

Looking back, it could have been the reason that they moved me primarily to biology and decided that I should become a doctor.

PS, I made some fantastic grenades by oxidizing glycerin with potassium permanganate in a marmite jar.

 

A binary mixture that goes fast or does that do an ion exchange making something new ? I am guessing the latter. Never messed with KMnO4

Anyway LOL , looks like we both know how to do the magic. So many different ways.

Just say no to ketones and fragile oxygen bonds lol, that is so bad ass, you know what I am talking about so I wont even name them or hint further at the process of creation. I refuse too.

If I was to ever re ignite the hobby, no pun intended, I would want to add NI3 to the list of substances I have created.

Never did picnic acid either. Those crystals look super cool.

For beginners thermite is some very interesting stuff . Amazing Rust.com - Thermite

Have fun trying to light it, lol

Another good website Chemistry

If anyone is inspired to mess with any of this stuff SMALL QUANTITIES, milligrams !! and respect !

Its all fun till its not. Then its really not.

 

What I did that day with the glycerin was just to wind the teacher up. I never made any dynamite. LOL

 

How things have changed since the 1960's. My chemistry teacher would have thought that I was sick if I was not trying to blow the place up. LOL.

 

Yep, making a big ol boom was just boys being boys but now people for some reason have to get all mental about it.

And of course their is always coffee creamer fireballs

Look what just happened to adam though, stuff happens

 

People are terrified of everything these days

 

the most important finger too