Don't try this at home

[Ghr9204]

Just imagine a youth looking at this package in a store front window circa 1923. Eh, wots a bit arsenie with your lead ?

Given the expense of saxes even then, I imagine that green liner was like fine jewellers cloth in a display case. One would not let a child put that in their mouths. One kept the case closed when done playing to store the sax and keep the case interior clean.

I remember in Mississippi when I became 12 years old, I was now allowed to buy cherry bombs and M-80's at fireworks stands. (Then kids my age did not need adult supervision. Rode my bike about a mile away to the stand by the beach.) The cherry bombs were cheaper, so I bought a few.

I quickly found in our backyard that these were no toy! It shot a 2 lb. coffee can that was upside down in the air 6 metres and split its seam top to bottom. That was the last time I purchased these.

One learned risk assessment at an early age.

 

[rhysonsax]

At boarding school in the '70s we saved up some discharged cases from the old Lee Enfield 303s we had for Combined Cadet Corps. I think that even keeping empties was against the rules. Then we filled one with match heads, crimped over the end of the case and left it to stew on the gas ring in the kitchen. Fortunately no one wandered into the kitchen before it exploded in a spectacular way.

Rhys
(Chartered Engineer, specialising in System Safety)

 

[Vlad]

Same era, we used to have fun as kids breaking open shotgun cartridges, and making all kinds of explosive fun out of the contents.
Another good one was light a banger, drop it in a biscuit tin and cram the lid on quick before it goes off, made a luvly bang and the lid would hit the ceiling

 

[Ghr9204]

I and a couple mates scoured the neighbourhood the day after 4th of July Independence Day for dud firecrackers, found a full bag full. We then unrolled the casing paper, poured the silvery explosive powder into a can.

When done, we then took a Texas Twizler (a special firework that skated across the ground, bounce, fly into the air maybe a metre high making a whistling sound) spent casing. It was about 100 mm in length and 25 mm in diametre. We filled it nearly full of powder. Then took the left over fuses, twisted them together until we had a master fuse about 100 mm long. We placed it at the edge of the street pavement.

One of my mates lit it with a punk. Instead of skating along the ground, it made a huge "boomb!" that brought out all the moms in the nearby houses out, wanted to know if any of us got hurt.

 

[Targa]

It was due to such teenage endeavours with gunpowder removed from fireworks that I have no eyelashes.

 

[rhysonsax]

It was due to such teenage endeavours with gunpowder removed from fireworks that I have no eyelashes.

Or whiskers ?

Rhys

 

[Targa]

Or whiskers ?

Rhys

Full set of whiskers fortunately.

 

[cappers]

Our A-level chemistry teacher showed us how to make nitrogen tri-iodide in volatile ammonium tri-iodide. Stable when kept dark and damp. Sprinkled in small quantities in the playground, once dry and trodden on it explodes with a loud 'crack!' and a cloud of purple iodine vapour.

I suppose today he'd be arrested.

 

[Ivan]

...nitrogen tri-iodide in volatile ammonium tri-iodide. Stable when kept dark and damp. Sprinkled in small quantities in the playground, once dry and trodden on it explodes with a loud 'crack!' and a cloud of purple iodine vapour...

That was also my teenage diversion

 

[Ghr9204]

If we were still kids and did this today, we'd probably be in State Custody Services (at least in US).

 

[Colin the Bear]

Our A-level chemistry teacher told us how to make nitrogen tri-iodide in volatile ammonium tri-iodide. Stable when kept dark and damp. Sprinkled in small quantities in the playground, once dry and trodden on it explodes with a loud 'crack!' and a cloud of purple iodine vapour.

I suppose today he'd be arrested.

Ours too. A cubic mm goes off like a firework. Very simple to make at home, so we did.

We had a slug sized amount drying on my friend's garden wall. A shout from his mum sent us to the corner shop for milk as they were out and Father was due home from work for tea.

Arriving back we were disappointed to see a purple scorch mark on the wall. We'd missed it.

The upstairs window opened and his little brother shouted. "Dad's gonna kill you"

Apparently he had seen some dust on the garden wall and attempted to blow it away.

He was deaf for three days and his face was stained bright purple. I legged it off home and didn't go round for several weeks. It still makes me chuckle. 🤭

 

[Pete Thomas]

I've edited the title slightly to give the thread its own focus.

 

[cappers]

Chemistry teaching has been totally sanitised and health & safety minded.
No bangs, smells, exothermic reactions, or playing with mercury, sodium or potassium
Those were the things that made chemistry lessons fun.

 

[Vlad]

Chemistry teaching has been totally sanitised and health & safety minded.
No bangs, smells, exothermic reactions, or playing with mercury, sodium or potassium
Those were the things that made chemistry lessons fun.

They don't do any kind of practical stuff like metalwork woodwork etc either as far as I know.. bonkers

 

[Colin the Bear]

Keep both hands behind the cutting edge. The only woodwork instruction I remember.

I didn't progress well. While my fellow classmate was building a canoe, I was still trying to stop my plant pot stand wobbling.

 

[Tuppertn]

Surprisingly, there's this stuff you can buy at any sporting goods store in the US. It's in two separate parts (ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder...sold together) that, when mixed, make a most serious explosive when shot with a high-powered rifle (which nearly every American has handy, of course). It's not fireworks. A pound of it is about a stick of dynamite.

We've used it at the ranch to remove tree stumps among other fun things. Deafening blast, big cloud of smoke and debris, complaints from neighbors well over a click away.

Tannerite is one brand name, but there are others. There have been so many injuries due to mixing this stuff with stupidity (also something nearly every American has handy in some portion). YouTube it. Watch a guy blow up a barn with over 150 pounds of the stuff.

It currently skirts regulations because of it's two-part nature so, as sold, it's not classified as an explosive. If this stuff had existed when I was growing up, I'd probably be dead.

 

[Pete Thomas]

I remember we used to make a hole in the ground and fill with a mixture of sugar and weedkiller. Add dirt over the top stick a fuse in and light. That was fun.

 

[Vlad]

Surprisingly, there's this stuff you can buy at any sporting goods store in the US. It's in two separate parts (ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder...sold together) that, when mixed, make a most serious explosive when shot with a high-powered rifle (which nearly every American has handy, of course). It's not fireworks. A pound of it is about a stick of dynamite.

We've used it at the ranch to remove tree stumps among other fun things. Deafening blast, big cloud of smoke and debris, complaints from neighbors well over a clicks away.

Tannerite is one brand name, but there are others. There have been so many injuries due to mixing this stuff with stupidity (also something nearly every American has handy in some portion). YouTube it. Watch a guy blow up a barn with over 150 pounds of the stuff.

It currently skirts regulations because of it's two-part nature so, as sold, it's not classified as an explosive. If this stuff had existed when I was growing up, I'd probably be dead.

Aluminium powder and Iron oxide ( rust essentially) mixed burns very fiercely, as Thermite it's used to weld rail track sections together... probably just as well I hadn't cottoned on to this as a youngster as we'd definitely have done some 'experiments' 😉

 

[Targa]

I think this thread might start to show up on the wrong sort of internet searches.

 

[Grumps]

I remember we used to make a hole in the ground and fill with a mixture of sugar and weedkiller. Add dirt over the top stick a fuse in and light. That was fun.

We'd dig a whole in the ground, build a fire, then throw a can of Rust-Oleum in it to see what happens...