How to make an Atomic Bomb...

[Harpoon]

Well, no, not really, that's too complex and way the heck off topic for here...


However, the kids in the neighborhood have found a new game just in time for the summer.


IED's


Ingredients (so I've been told by one of the police officers at the scene):

1 empty plastic pop (or soda if you insist, though it's STILL pop) bottle, with cap
1 "average sized" piece of aluminum foil
An undisclosed amount of Liquid Draino
An undisclosed amount of ammonia


So they tell me that if you put all the ingredients into the bottle, seal it up, and shake it a bunch then set it on the ground (or maybe toss it a few feet) it will blow up. The chemical reaction between the foil, draino, and ammonia generates a gas (I think co2) that eventually makes the bottle explode. They dind't know how big of an explosion it would make, probably no more than a few feet at best and only enough to cause harm at very close range, if you got the chemicals on your skin or into your clothes...


There were three of these things laid out in an interesection this evening and the fire department (not the one I'm in...) had to come out and "neutralize" them.

One kid on the scene was treated for chemical burns to his hand, most likely one of the guys who made the bombs. Caught him "blue handed," from the blue stain of the stuff they were putting in the bottles.

First pic is of the bottle after it was "defused" and the second one is a "before" shot with firefighters in the background, the "bomb" is in the lower left corner.

 

[Ross]

Hey this really works, so kids, don't be trying this at home!!!! I had a video of these idiots making it. Stupid kid stands there shaking the bottle and BOOM, all 3 people now have chemical burns on there faces and exposed flesh. This one is no way funny.

These fools used Chlorine and Alcohol. Watch what happens!

 

[hensylee]

Oh, my how the world has changed since I was a kid so many years ago. All we did in summer was play and ride our bikes up and down the street, an occasional baseball game (in the street) and sit in a circle at night and play spin the bottle or chase lightnin bugs.

 

[terryj]

I nearly made my own bomb a few weeks ago. But, not on purpose. My husband asked me to fill the spray bottle up with bleach so he could wash off the pool furniture. I picked up the wrong plastic bottle and thinking it had some bleach already in it I proceeded to add more bleach. There was ammonia in the bottle. Within 2 seconds the bottle was putting out a nauseous cloud of smoke. I ran the bottle outside and my husband took it and let the water hose run into it. We now have all our spray bottles clearly marked.

 

[Les]

I'm amazed at this - whatever happened to kick the can, ding dong ditch, hide and seek and (sometimes) throwing rocks at the ice cream truck and having to be in the house when the streetlights came on?

That all left at the same time parental and personal responsibility did. Entitled, bored kids are much worse than the "juvies" of our era...

 

[Marguerite53]

also, without chemicals....

also, without chemicals....

There is a way to up-end 2 plastic liter bottles, neck to neck, and "set them off" like a rocket. I don't think there is anything but water, design and pressure. My son and friend did this (after their teacher had demonstrated it in school). Sounded harmless enough. It was taking so long to shoot off that apparently the friend went over and leaned over it to see if anything was wrong. Kablamm! shot off in his face. Thank God he was wearing glasses so the little pool of blood was where the glasses' rim had cut his face, not something gawd-awful otherwise. Demolished the glasses. Scared the **** outta me. He had quite a shiner for awhile!!

Marguerite

 

[Barry]

Actually, kinda restored my faith in the younger generation that they're getting outside and doing some creative stuff, but disheartening that - if this is typical - it's something that literally blows up in your face.

Serious geezer factor here - I'm in my late 50's - and when I was a kid we did stuff like this: Common one was making a bomb out of a CO2 cartridge by filling it up full of shaved match heads and making a fuse by rolling shaved match heads into paper. Worked! And we didn't get hurt. Other less ridiculously dangerous ones included making a mortar out of two tin cans, one sliding into the other, a bit of water, and a fire-cracker, making a pistol out of a wooden clothes pin that would ignite and shoot a Lucifer match (a strike-anywhere wooden match)

 

[Barry]

Hey Barry - so you're the one that burned down all those houses years ago between Lassen and Devonshire, huh?...

Upon advice of legal counsel, I respectfully decline answering that question.

Actually, the only thing of what I spoke of that was "bad" was making a bomb out of a CO2 cartridge. The folks knew about making a mortar with tin cans and a firecracker and knew about the match-guns and were OK with that. They would never have gone for the bomb, though - that was pretty dangerous although nobody ever got hurt.

Regarding the topic of this thread...

http://home.earthlink.net/~enigmaep/annihilation/buildabomb.html

 

[Harpoon]

Why do I get the feeling I'm gonna be recruited to be the fire department's "ordinance disposal coordinator"????


Mucking around picking up co2 cartridges and jury-rigged matchboxes while the rest of the world stands back at least 500 feet with fire blankets and charged hose lines in hand just in case something slips out of my hand and makes a "nice little" crater in the street.....


All I wanted to do was be an EMT.... I didn't sign up to defuse little kids science fair projects!!!!!






My dad tells me of the day when he and his brother rigged up the family car with an alarm/noisemaker/smoke generator type of device that got them both grounded for a week or more. We've engaged in a few small "expeditions" to blow stuff up in a secluded space away from flammable materials (houses and trees) and uppity neighbors who panic and dial 911 whenever a car hits a pothole as it drives past their house.... Though I was more fond of target practice with a small rifle and a box of Ritz crackers.


My brother and I were more inclined towards the "What Burns?" games. Basically taking various household chemicals (perfumes, detergents, make-up, glues) and checking for flammability, always under "strict laboratory conditions" of course.


We also blew up a few rockets on the pad in a big field at the college campus where folks often go to either fly kites, R/C aircraft, or model rockets.

Damned near lost my head once when I tried launching a model fighter jet modified to accept a small, single stage, rocket engine where the jet engine would normally be located... Rockets are supposed to fly up, not sideways and then DOWN.


I suspect the youth of today is about like the youth of yesterday, just that now they seem to lack a little common sense every now and then.


How does one teach that, common sense? I've been trying to figure it out with my son who at least once a day starts to pee before he gets his pants down in fron of the toilet.


Maybe that's not common sense though, maybe that's a lack of patience...


Dunno.

We don't have any Drano in the house, I know that much anyways.

 

[Barry]

Harpoon, when's your son gonna quit acting like a kid and act like an adult by flushing the toilet just before he's quite done peeing?

Anyway, common sense is a highly over-rated virtue.

Your post reminded me of another swell thing I used to do as a kid. I liked making models of tanks, etc., and building a M-80 or cherry bomb into them. After spending hours putting the model together, the next day after the glue had dried I'd blow it up. I guess I was a nihilist at an early age...

 

[Harpoon]

Barry>>That or actively meditating on the concept of impermenance....



I knew a kid who said he used to do that with his toys, mostly G.I. Joe stuff but also model airplanes and the like. Never could see why you'd want to destroy your own work like that, especially because the blasts are so brief and wouldn't be all that impressive.


Now, in the day of digital video on the web and elsewhere with the ability to record and play back moments of stupidity at nauseum....


It's a wonder there aren't more videos on TV of kids blowing stuff up then getting caught by the police.

 

[Ross]

My cousin and I took the CO2 cartridge thing to a new level. Instead of match heads, we'd cut the nipple off and load em up with gun powder and a fuse. Talk about insane! These were guaranteed shrapnel throwers not to mention the 1 foot size hole or so they blew in the ground.

Had alot of fun with Polish Cannons though. Not safe by any means, but they were fun.

 

[Barry]

...Had alot of fun with Polish Cannons though. Not safe by any means, but they were fun.

What's a Polish Cannon?

 

[Ross]

Take about 4 or 5 empty pop cans.
First can, cut an ignition hole in the bottom side of it, then flute the top of it with a can opener.
Take the remaining cans, cut the tops and bottoms out, tape them together tightly over the first can rim to rim.
Pour some rubbing alcohol in, just a touch, not much, then shake it out.
Insert tennis ball till seated, light match and hold at ignition hole and fire that tennis ball!

 

[Jean]

Uh huh! And here I thought my husband and his buddies were the only idiots exploding stuff back in the 50s and early 60s. He grew up to be a mechanical/electrical engineer, another a chemical engineer and the third an aeronautical engineer.

They (before I knew any of them) experimented blowing up various homemade concoctions in an old interurban trolley tunnel (unused for years). One of the dads worked for the old Willies plant in Toledo and had access to magnesium. Being insane himself he brought some home for the boys to play with. I guess it made fine bombs. Only trouble they spilled some of it in a water puddle. Hubby and one buddy still have scars on hand and arms from that trick!

The dad and kids from that same family made a rocket ship big enough to do a home movie of it "lifting off" after the littlest boy was shown getting in it (of course he got out first, or so they tell me). Only trouble was, they kinda over fueled it and it blew up all over the Anthony Wayne Trail! They scurried around and hid the debris, and played as dumb as everyone else when the cops came.

They would be labeled as terrorists today!

 

[Barry]

Thanks for the info on the Polish Cannon, Ross.

Anyone here ever made a spud-gun? http://www.spudtech.com/content.asp?id=5

I made one a few years ago, and I was pretty impressed. Lotsa fun! Be careful, though, they're quite powerful.

Some municipalities have outlawed them. California was going to, but I don't know if the law went through. To date there is one (absurdly stupid) casualty from them: A kid blinded himself by loading a frog into one and then looking down the muzzle of the gun when it went off.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/West/04/26/spud.gun.ban.ap/

I recommend neither using frogs as projectiles, nor looking down the muzzle of any weapon.

 

[Karlynn]

We had our spud gun confiscated by the Nature Cops while we were houseboating with friends a few years ago. $150 fine. If we'd been shooting off a shot gun and had a hunting license, it would have been legal.

Our spud gun days are over.

 

[perrybucsdad]

We had our spud gun confiscated by the Nature Cops while we were houseboating with friends a few years ago. $150 fine. If we'd been shooting off a shot gun and had a hunting license, it would have been legal.

Our spud gun days are over.

Karlynn,

I made one of those too, but mine was pnumatic. I would load it with about 120psi of air, and WHAMO!! It made a great water cannon too!! Mine was quite large (long mostly) and I could get about 5 gal of water in it. The kids thought it was great when I would discharge it into the air and we would have an instant rainstorm.

I also shot a spud at a tree in our front yard one time. I was about 60 feet from the tree when I fired it. To show you the power that these things have, with a 120psi load at 60 feet with a standard sized spud, it took a all the bark off the one spot of the elm tree that it hit. Not to mention that it made instant hash brown potatoes (all over the side of my inlaws car too.... oops!)

I currently have a friend who is making one out of steel pipe so it can take a higher pressure load.... I'm staying away from that though. 120 psi was good enough for me and was 1/3 the load rating for the PVC pipe that I was using.

- John

 

[Barry]

We had our spud gun confiscated by the Nature Cops while we were houseboating with friends a few years ago. $150 fine.

Too weird.

I presume there was some sort of local ordinance that prohibited them?

Talk about a law fixing something that isn't a problem. Only casualty I know of is the kid who stupidly shot himself in the face with a frog (!!!!), and I don't think spud guns are ever going to catch on as something to use to rob a liquor store with. And they don't make enough noise that they'd disturb the peace. Now, if you shoot it at someone or do damage by shooting it that'd be a different matter - but there's already laws against assault and against vandalism.

When spud guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have spud guns. I'll give up my spud gun when they pry it out of my cold, dead fingers!

 

[Harpoon]

SOme place south of here (or maybe it's southwest...) but still in the county there's folks that hold an annual pumpkin hurling contest...

They have three categories:

• Mechanical
• Spring-loaded
• Unlimited class

The unlimited class is basically giant gas powered (pneumatic) guns that can shoot pumpkins upwards of 1000 yards down range...

The others only manage a few hundred feet at best.