A fairly common event at some county fairs "back when" was the "anvil toss" in which an "activator" - usually black powder, home brew variety - was placed under a shop anvil and set off to "see how high it will go."

Family legends relate that sometime in the 30s "the kids" decided to try it at home and put a 160 pound anvil through the roof of the barn, but the stories were short on the technical details (except that it didn't hurt the anvil much) and always degenerated into reminiscences (possibly a little exaggerated?) about grandpa's reaction to the experiment. The impression was that "stern scoldings" weren't the only form of disicpline administered in that era(?) - but apparently they all survived.

John