Don't try this at home

[Vlad]

A good one to throw on a bonfire is a gas-strut, the kind of telescopic malarkey that holds up a car tail gate.
They go off bang somewhat louder than a very loud thing

 

[Grumps]

It all began in cub scouts... with a can of soda.

 

[Targa]

A good one to throw on a bonfire is a gas-strut, the kind of telescopic malarkey that holds up a car tail gate.
They go off bang somewhat louder than a very loud thing

They're a bit small compared to a gas strut from the supension.

 

[Vlad]

They're a bit small compared to a gas strut from the supension.

Well they were impressive enough nonetheless, old brake fluid burns with a very attractive green flame btw.
Tyres of course are excellent for getting a fire going.
Apparently it was an old tramps trick to save small slivers of tyre rubber to start your fire for a brew etc

 

[Vetinari]

@Vlad Which was best, Pirelli or Dunlop or Michelin?

 

[Targa]

Apparently it was an old tramps trick to save small slivers of tyre rubber to start your fire for a brew etc

@Vlad Which was best, Pirelli or Dunlop or Michelin?

It was a Goodyear for the rosie lee.

 

[Vlad]

@Vlad Which was best, Pirelli or Dunlop or Michelin?

Or the undoubted quality Chinese bike tyres 'Hissing Lung' ...

 

[skeller047]

When I was a kid, age 12 or 13, there was a guy who owned a small soda fountain/cafe near my house, frequented by pre-teens and teens after school. He would take kids he knew (boys) out behind the cafe, and showed us how to make gunpowder (charcoal and saltpeter), pack it into a single cup cut from a cardboard egg carton and set them off with a fuse made from a rolled up piece of paper napkin.

A few years later I had the thought that the guy was probably a pedophile and he might actually have been more dangerous than the homemade firecrackers. That was probably my first realization that it’s a miracle I’m still alive. (It certainly was not the last…)

 

[PigSquealer]

@Vlad Which was best, Pirelli or Dunlop or Michelin?

GOODYEAR !

 

[PigSquealer]

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.

High school metal shop was more fun than chemistry class. 15 gallon plastic trash bag. From the welding torches give the bag a decent fill of oxygen. Then a splash of acetylene. Close and secure a few feet of twisted toilet paper with a rubber band. Light the TP wick and run. Those poor guys in auto shop next door. At 30 meters you could feel the shockwave from the bang.

 

[Woodpad]

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

Take a glass milk bottle, fill it with water and place it behind the corner of the wall.
light a large cracker with a diameter slightly less than the opening of the milk bottle and wait until the fire is almost at the end of the fuse. The put it in the bottle and move to the other side of the corner.

 

[PigSquealer]

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

Never leave a partly full flask of Yukon Jack fireside. Ask me how I know. If I’d only had the above training experience….

 

[PigSquealer]

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

I’m not concerned. MI6 & CIA know we’re all bonkers.

 

[Tenor Viol]

A lot of the stuff that was demonstrated or we did in O and A level chemistry in the 70s is probably not permitted now e.g. working with things like phosphoric acid, benzene, and acyl chloride.

For O level, we had a few demos go awry... in one, we were nearly asphyxiated with chlorine. The upper school master, complete with gown and horn-rimmed glasses put his head around the lab door. Some were hanging their heads out of the open wondows, the rest of us were spluttering. "Everything OK?" he said to our teacher. "Just gassing them with chlorine.," - "Oh, jolly good, carry on...".

 

[Vlad]

A lot of the stuff that was demonstrated or we did in O and A level chemistry in the 70s is probably not permitted now e.g. working with things like phosphoric acid, benzene, and acyl chloride.

For O level, we had a few demos go awry... in one, we were nearly asphyxiated with chlorine. The upper school master, complete with gown and horn-rimmed glasses put his head around the lab door. Some were hanging their heads out of the open wondows, the rest of us were spluttering. "Everything OK?" he said to our teacher. "Just gassing them with chlorine.," - "Oh, jolly good, carry on...".

We made chlorine too, in the cylindrical gas jars, when done with the experiment we were told to go outside and release it, like a mug I took a very small sniff of it 😱 ..
Lets say, I was immediately aware of what a horrific weapon gas must have been in WW1

 

[Targa]

Log in or register to view this reply.

 

[Vlad]

Log in or register to view this reply.

 

[jonf]

Log in or register to view this reply.

 

[jonf]

Log in or register to view this reply.

 

[Woodpad]

Log in or register to view this reply.