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BS: Rocket Science???
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Subject: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Charley Noble Date: 12 Sep 06 - 08:43 PM I'm sure that I'm not the only Mudcatter who experimented with rockets as a teenager. I am willing to share my experiences but would love to hear the stories of others in return. Now the rocket technology that I and my high school classmates used was based on paper matches. What we'd do is wrap the head of the match tightly with foil, then insert a pin to provide an exhaust passage. We would than bend the sharp ends of a paperclip into a launching pad, so that the "rocket" would be angled about 60 degrees. The rocket range was, of course, study hall, and the objective was to fire one off and watch it arching gracefully across the room, without being caught. Oh, it was important to have some large book opened on one's desk for concealed launching; I preferred the geography book. One used another match for igniting the foil-wrapped match head. We never really refined the technology beyond trimming the match to reduce weight and determining the minimum amount of foil required for lift-off. Non-lift-off was not desirable since it usually resulting in a conspicuous cloud of smoke rising from the launching pad, and a subsequent march down to the principal's office. There was discussion of two-stage rockets but none were successful. The larger kitchen matches had more fuel but were too heavy. The typical result was a flight of no more than six feet and neighboring desk mates were seldom amused. The paper matches would go twenty feet or more, and provoked much amusement as they eventually returned to earth. We never tried real rocket fuel (equal parts of carbon, sulfur and sodium nitrate). That came later when I was unofficial advisor to the science club at our technical school in Addis Abeba where I was teaching as a Peace Corp volunteer in the 1960's. Some students had approached me, wanting to know the basic components of rocket fuel, and not wanting to discourage their interest in science I provided the basic formula. I woefully underestimated their technical knowledge and ambition and was quite astonished to see later what they were working on. They had fashioned a 6-cylinder rocket launcher on a tripod base from which they could electrically fired foot-long cast aluminum missiles. The rocket fuel was a great success and the missiles went up in the air for a thousand feet or more before landing in the soccer field. The official science advisor, an Indian teacher, turned paler than I when this apparatus was demonstrated, and both of us nearly had heart failure when we learned that there would be a rocket firing demonstration when Emperor Haile Selassie paid the school a visit the following week. I have a great shaky picture of the rockets being fired off as proof of this successful demonstration. But I was fully prepared to hear from Peace Corps central that I would be shipped home on 24 hours notice. Apparently, HQ never heard of this special event and I was able to finish my tour in peace. However, the police at the station across from the school did observe the ceremony and were conspicuously absent at the next student protest demonstration. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: curmudgeon Date: 12 Sep 06 - 09:12 PM Great tale, Charley/. Do yo have any more to share with us? -- Tom |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Joe Offer Date: 12 Sep 06 - 09:23 PM Jerry Praver (of Bev & Jerry), hasn't worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for over 25 years, but he still oozes Engineering, with a capital "E." He has a T-shirt that says: As a matter of fact, |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Charley Noble Date: 12 Sep 06 - 10:00 PM Oh, there are more tales out there. How about the rest of you 'fessing up? You didn't study in study hall, did you? Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: GUEST Date: 12 Sep 06 - 10:12 PM For us it was the desire to create things that went boom. Not BIG booms, just booms that could be contained in a tiny localized area no bigger than a phone booth. Small booms. So, that doesn't really help with this thread (which is very entertaining, BTW). |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Charley Noble Date: 12 Sep 06 - 10:17 PM Guest- There was that idodide compound we used to mix up in chem lab, back when one worked with real chemicals rather than computer screens. They would make a healthy boom when stepped on. There were others who made do with commercial stuff such as "atom pearls" which did the same thing, in a more predictable fashon. Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Stilly River Sage Date: 12 Sep 06 - 10:27 PM My 14-year-old son has gone very low tech with his rockets lately. Though in the past he has had summer classes that used the retail rocket kits, the latest "launch" was a bottle of Coca-Cola and mentos. It gets quite a bounce, but there are no flames. I was cleaning in his room one evening, retrieving dirty laundry, when I found a packet of little twists of paper. With a sinking feeling I walked to the kitchen phone and called him at his father's house, where he was spending the evening. "What are these things I found in your room? Are they illegal?" (I didn't have the heart to ask if they were some sort of drug). He thought for a moment, then laughed. "Throw one on the floor, Mom. Right there in the kitchen." Pow! little pops emerged from an invisible spot on the tile floor. "Those are some poppers I got on a deep discount after July 4th," he told me. "They don't work very well." We still chuckle about it, but he knows to expect questions any time something with an unfamiliar look turns up. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: bobad Date: 12 Sep 06 - 10:33 PM While not in the realm of rocketry we played with what could be described as explosive projectiles. We would take an approximately 6" x 5/8" bolt to the end of which a nut was screwed on by a thread or two. Into the depression of the nut we would place a mixture of the cut off tips of wooden matches and gunpowder which was obtained by removing the slugs from 22 caliber bullets. We then screwed another bolt on to the nut and gingerly tightened the two as much as we dared. This bolt-nut-bolt device was then tossed into the air in a rotating motion while we took cover behind a sturdy brick wall. When the device hit the ground it went off like a pipe bomb and if we were able to find the pieces they were not in any condition to be reused. Luckily we survived this episode of rocket science experimentation without any serious injury. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: GUEST Date: 12 Sep 06 - 10:36 PM Same guest as 12 Sep 06 - 10:12 PM We found that if we placed wires from batteries into water and 'captured' the hydrogen in one container and oxygen in another, we could make a fairly respectable explosion. (I suspect it was th O2 that went boom, but I could be wrong. As you may have gathered, I wasn't the brains of the outfit.) Anyway, we'd get the stuff coming off one of the wires into a big jar (like the kind used to buy lots of mayonnaise or mustard) and put a spark plug in there. Then connect wires and get a loooong way back (we were young kids, so that may have been twenty yards) and connect the wires to a battery and the jar would go 'poof'. I can't recall how many drycells we wore out before the novelty paled, but it was a considerable number. And it was fun. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Charley Noble Date: 12 Sep 06 - 10:42 PM Bobad- Ingenious! And you survived! Even better. Guest (10:36)- Bravo! And you survived as well. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: John on the Sunset Coast Date: 12 Sep 06 - 10:45 PM Fifty odd years ago when I was taking HS chemistry, we (the nerds on the block...altho' that word wasn't yet in use) made our own July 4 fireworks. We made them from scratch, using charcoal, sulfur, magnesiun and various other elements for color and speed. We also formed our own paper tubes. We made beaucoup fountains and pinwheels, and about 2 dozen skyrockets emitting various colors. We would have made more except for a neighbor kid accidentally igniting a cupfull of powder we had just finished. While we were lucky the garage didn't burn down, we could not use it for several days as it was so acrid as to be uncomfortable to be inside. We had very few duds, and it was really cool to see our rockets rocketing into the Pacific Ocean at Playa del Rey, CA. I guess nowadays we might run afoul of Homeland Security. :>) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: GUEST Date: 12 Sep 06 - 10:57 PM Speaking of fireworks. We always thought we could improve on the store-bought fire crackers. When we could afford it we would buy about 5 or so of the larger ones, do some 'surgery' on the tops and bottoms and tape them together. Eventually we put the things in metal pipes to get them to go in a direction that while not predictable was at least away from us. We started a fire in a field in a park near us when one of the 'rockets' flew further than it was supposed to. The fire department showed up and we watched the activities with avid interest until an adult pointed in our direction from a block or so away. We know the fire was extinguished, but we weren't there to see it. No one knew the lanes better than we did, and we put blocks between us and the fire, because being apprehended would have entailed a 'stern talking to' from the police--although I think in the minds of nine year olds it might have involved visions of at least two or three years in jail--and a lickin' when we got to our respective homes. Charley, you have brought back some wonderful memories. Thank you. PS, we did have a few mishaps, but eyebrows grow back and 'sunburns' fade with time. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Bill D Date: 12 Sep 06 - 10:58 PM in high school chem class, I was fascinated by Calcium Carbide. Made a self-powered flame thrower....I put a stopper in a flask with a tube from it and a tapered pipette at the end, put Carbide and water in flask, and lit the gas, then used gas flame to heat the flask...wow!...it got hot! Then, got some random chemicals from the shelf and added Calcium Carbide.......BURBLE!!!!...stuff began to rise faster than I ever imagined, and a grey, gritty foam ran over the top, across the desk, and over the side onto the floor....and Mr Gobel came down the asile! "What's this, Bill?" "Oh, ummmm...I guess the flask wasn't clean..." "Well...better get this cleaned up..." "Yessir!" Of course he knew what I was doing....but I was getting an "A" at the time. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: GUEST Date: 12 Sep 06 - 11:03 PM I never did take any chemistry--in fact, almost no science at all--but every now an then our shop teacher would invite the science teacher down to demonstrate stuff. It is AMAZING what H2SO4 will do to a few spoons of sugar. But what a mess! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: frogprince Date: 12 Sep 06 - 11:06 PM I never have gotten around to rockets; I may yet have to indulge the kid inside to a little experimenting with 'em. A buddy's son, now father to a couple of school kids, confessed just a couple of years ago as to what really happened to his older sister's missing gerbil (or hamster, whichever is smaller). He said when he retrieved the remains of the rocket he sent it up in, in was kind of a pate... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Stilly River Sage Date: 12 Sep 06 - 11:20 PM Not rocket science at all, just a lucky shot, but when my children were little we used to drive down to Dinosaur State Park (Texas) on the Paluxy River. The tracks were interesting, but our desire was to play in the water. One afternoon some wag in our group decided that the muddy/clay mix they were playing with on the limestone shelf beside the river (the shelf filled with dinosaur footprints that had standing water in them) was dinosaur poop. My oldest child (probably six or seven at the time) and her father started making highly viscous (gobs of runny clay that barely clung together) "dino poop" that of course had to be tossed into the air with a high arc so they made a satisfying dino-poop-splat on the limestone shelf. One of those made a marvelous arc, almost slow motion in its beauty, and then it landed squarely in one of the water-filled footprints and caused a gush of mud and water and huge gales of laughter from our family and (until then unnoticed) passers-by who had stopped to watch the game. Like I say, not rocket science, but safer than matches and bent paperclips. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Bill D Date: 12 Sep 06 - 11:24 PM Then there was this old (empty)house....and the 4" pipe from the bathroom...and this left-over Cherry Bomb....somehow, 'someone', or two someones, got on the roof and dropped the Cherry Bomb down the pipe. Yep...blew the holy bejeesus out of the commode....I mean into little pieces! No one ever offered a guess about what happened, and house was torn down soon after. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: GUEST Date: 12 Sep 06 - 11:30 PM I got the worst lickin' of my life after a Halloween when a few of us decided to do time delay cherry bombs under people's metal garbage cans. We'd get the cans upside down, get long fuses (string soaked in some kind of lamp oil), start it burning and run real fast but not too far, because we needed to witness the faces of the very irate people who came out looking for the culprits who had awakened them from their slumbers. I guess that someone actually phoned my mother and it was real bad after that. I mean real real bad. We learned better for the following Halloween, because the 'pranks' got better in quality and pizzazz. However, that's another thing altogether. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Stilly River Sage Date: 12 Sep 06 - 11:31 PM If you were on the roof, you must have encountered some awesome off-gas from the event, through that same pipe! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Old Guy Date: 12 Sep 06 - 11:54 PM Reminds me of when I was in my early teens. I fooled around with rockets. The best one I ever made was from a the metal tube out of a ball point pen. It was fat at the top but it reduced down to normal size on the ball end which made a natural nozzle. I made the fins out of an aluminum toothpaste tube and I plugged the top with a wooden nose cone wrapped in aluminum foil. I packed it with potassium nitrate and sugar and maybe a trace of sulpher and or charcoal, I can't remember. That sucker flew straight up about 50 feet, made a 90 degree turn and headed straight for the neighbors picture window. I ran out of fuel just before it hit. I heaved a huge sigh if relief and never fired any more rockets. In the process I learned how to make wonderful stink bombs using only sulphur and candle wax. I would set them off in the boys restroom at school and exit the area pronto. So you see, I are a rocket sientist too. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Rapparee Date: 12 Sep 06 - 11:58 PM Tsk, tsk. Shame on all of you. TRUE rocket fuel is KNO3 and sugar, melted together at not greater than 375 degrees F. and poured into a heavy cardboard rocket body. Of course, you have to create a conical cavity at the open end so that the fuel burns evenly. (Please not that I have given no proportions for the ingredients!) Or KMnO3 and ___________. Or various other oxidizers and oxidizees. Or the very last day of high school, when the teacher left the chem lab supply room closet open and left the (open book) physics test. The last people there were the "brains" and they mixed a LITER beaker full of things like potassium perchlorate, aluminum powder, mercuric bichromate, powdered iron, and other such things. Then one of them volunteered to take it to the next-door park, pour the mixture into a convenient (and shallow) hole in the rocks, stick in about three feet of magnesium ribbon for a fuse, and light it.... Lovely, lovely mushroom-shaped-cloud effect.... Lovely police cars.... Even lovelier that certain parties were never caught. My mother's Three Big Rules: 1. You will no longer make explosives, pyrotechnics or similar items in the basement. Do it in the yard. 2. You will no longer make tear gas or ANY war gases in the basement -- see Rule 1. 3. If you're going to experiment with electricity don't trip the breakers. These were promulgated very very soon after Certain Events. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Seamus Kennedy Date: 13 Sep 06 - 12:23 AM Bill D's story reminds me of another calcium carbide incident. When I was 2nd year in Grammar school in Belfast, (Early '60's) our classroom as being repainted, so they stuck us in an old chemistry lab. The teacher's desk was an ancient chemistry table with a covered sink and faucet. Our history teacher used to amble in to start his class, still smoking his cigarette, and when class started, he wouldn't stub out the cigarette, he would lift the wooden lid of the sink and toss in the butt, figuring the lack of oxygen would extinguish it. You can see the rest of the story starting to unfold already, can't you? One of the bright lads in the class thought it would be a splendid practical joke to throw some carbide in the sink, and turn on the faucet for a moment, replace the lid tightly and wait for the history teacher to do his thing. It worked perfectly. The timing was perfect. In went the butt. BOOM!Up went the sink lid, hitting the ceiling. The history teacher thought there was a gas leak in the room, and that we were all in mortal danger. So we got the rest of the day off while the authorities came in and checked the place over. We were never discovered because the history teacher didn't want to admit what he'd been doing with the cigarette butts. Seamus |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Paul Burke Date: 13 Sep 06 - 04:10 AM We did a similar thing with ether in the sink- the vapour is heavier than air. Nitrogen tri-iodide (dissolve iodine in concentrated ammonia) was another favourite. Just don't leave it in a locker near a radiator. I wonder if Homeland Security will shut the Cat down and send Joe to Cuba? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Charley Noble Date: 13 Sep 06 - 07:59 AM :~) Homeland Security is probably monitoring this thread very carefully. The stories are very gratifying, and it's somehow reassuring to know that I and my science nerds were not alone. Apparently not a single female aspiring rocket scientist has posted to this thread. Perhaps they prefer to keep their early experiments secret. But inquiring minds do want to know more! Or maybe they just were less foolhardy. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 13 Sep 06 - 08:04 AM "bolt to the end of which a nut was screwed on by a thread or two. Into the depression of the nut we would place a mixture of the cut off tips of wooden matches and gunpowder" bobad, we didn't have easy access to guns and ammo in Oz, so we just used the match heads. Just as effective... :-) Now, if you bought 'penny skyrockets', and got a piece of black ABS pipe heat sealed at one end, and then you tied it down to a board, using a piece of mosquito coil as an igniter, you could drop a lit rocket down the tube and viola! instant bazooka... larger rockets were far more expensive, and conceivably dangerous.... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Rapparee Date: 13 Sep 06 - 09:02 AM Someone (not me!) flushed metallic sodium down the toilet. The less said about the result the better. We also put various clear indicators in the urinals. Ever see a first-year come running out screaming "I'm peeing blue!" Methylene Blue was a favorite to put in someone's luncheon drink. You really DID pee blue. And a Boy Scout Camp, cherry bombs tossed into the latrines with self-closing lids was always good for a ring of...stuff... on the lid. Relaxing with a good read wasn't the best idea. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: beardedbruce Date: 13 Sep 06 - 09:18 AM sorry- too busy working on launch of Optus D1 to give my stories now... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Stilly River Sage Date: 13 Sep 06 - 09:51 AM Okay, Charley, ignore my thread drift above, but last time I looked, I am of the female persuasion. My brother and I weren't too adventurous with gunpowder, though we used to sit in the driveway as kids and pound strips of caps with rocks, and see if we could hit the whole roll at once to make a bigger bang. But we weren't able to compound our own mixes like you lot. My brothers found some sulfur down by the railroad tracks one time and for some reason they thought they'd grind it up in the basement. When everyone got sick headaches and we finally figured out what was causing it that activity stopped. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: GUEST Date: 13 Sep 06 - 10:12 AM One of my favorites was to fill a five-gallon can with natural gas (filling it with water first, and letting gas from a tap displace the water), poking a small hole in the top and igniting the gas there. Result was, as the gas burned and air seeped in to fill the void, a series of small pops, becoming more frequent until they merged into a very loud whistle followed by a satisfying explosion when the proper air-to-fuel ratio was reached. To be tried outdoors, crouched behind some protective masonry. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Fergie Date: 13 Sep 06 - 10:29 AM Seamus I chuckled like mad when I read your story. I could see the whole episode in my mind, it reminded me of the time when I dabbled with experimental physics and caused an unexpected outcome. My first job was in a hardware store in Dublin. It was 1965 I was 15. We sold weedkiller by the pound, it was if my memory is correct, potassium chloride????? Well whatever it was, I was informed that if it was mixed with sugar and then lit it would explode, I was also told that if it was packed into a copper pipe and the ends were sealed and a fuse placed in a small hole in the pipe that it would make a small bomb. Now my father had given me the job to dig the back garden of a new house we had recently moved into. The rear gardens of these houses had been used as a road during the construction of the houses and consequently the ground was as hard as the hobs of hell. It was slow, tedious and backbreaking work. You can see it unfolding can't you? I dug a deep hole and into it I placed a 2" copper pipe about 12" long packed with 4lbs of this concoction. At first it wouldn't work, because the fuse would extinguish as soon as I shovelled loose clay into the hole. So I made a detonator by winding a piece of fuse wire into a spiral, then I soldered a long flex to the two ends. I inserted it deep within the pipe, sealed the ends, placed it at the bottom of the hole and packed the hole with clay. I took the two ends of the wire and stood behind a low wall. I then connected the flex to a battery. For a couple of seconds nothing, but when the coil within the device got hot enough. BANG! the ground erupted, tons of clay and gravel shot high into the air, the blast was so loud that I was deafened, a massive swoosh of air, birds everywhere flying in panic, then clay and earth began to rain down from above, the entire neighbour hood was covered in clay and dust. People came running in panic, praying that nobody was injured or worse, dead. Even though I was deafened, dazed and covered from head to toe in fine clay particles I had the presence of mind to retrieve the length of wire and I concealed it and the battery behind the coal bunker. Well when the smoke cleared you should have seen the crater, no exaggeration it was 5 foot deep and 8 feet in diameter. The police arrived to investigate, with my ears still ringing from the explosion I told them that I was digging the garden when the spade had struck something hard and then BANG. The gas company was called, but no gas pipe was found. The electricity company was called, no cable was found. The army was called, the Officer in charge told the police that the crater was definitely caused by a bomb, so my family and the neighbours were evacuated and moved a safe distance away. After hours of fruitless searching with mine-detectors and metal-detectors they confessed that it was a mystery to them what had caused the explosion, they hypothesised that maybe it was the remains of an old IRA dump, unexploded ordinance from the World Wars or some mysterious and rare natural phenomenon. Nobody ever suspected or ever found out what it was I that caused the bang, but it sure cured me of my interest in experimental physics. It must have also left an indelible mark on my psyche because forty years latter the sight of a garden spade still causes me to break out in a sweat and duck behind a wall, but nowadays I keep my ears well covered. Fergus |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Big Mick Date: 13 Sep 06 - 10:34 AM I love this thread!! I monkeyed with rockets all the time when I was a kid, buying this kit and that kit. But I think I will share a story that has to do with explosives from when I was a young lad, and a little full of the sauce. I went into a magic shop, and found that they had cigarette loads, and cigar loads. My Da would always have a cigarette at the dinner table after dinner and ask us about school, what we had done that day, etc. Staying at the table was mandatory as a family and talking until released by the Da, an idea that has merit today IMO. My brother and I saw these loads at the magic shop and decided to pull a trick on the Da. When we went to buy them, we decided that if a cigarette load was good for a cigarette, a cigar load would be better for a cigarette. They packed about 2-3 times the power. When we got home, snuck the old man's cigarette pack and pulled out a couple. That is when we figured if one cigar load was cool, then more would be better. We packed 3 in several of Da's fags, put them back so they would be the first out of the pack, and replaced the pack. At dinner, we were obviously on pins and needles. True to form, the old man pulls out his pack, Chas and I can scarcely contain ourselves. The whole family is there, Cookie the cat is on the window sill behind us, Mom serving up the pie. Da lights the cigarette, and KABOOM. My father is sitting there, filter still in his mouth, tobacco everywhere, my Ma dropped the pie, the cat pissed on the window sill and with tobacco all over himself. My brother and I were sitting there, wanting to laugh, but so scared we were near to tears. Da was furious, but then his face dissolved into laughter. We had a great laugh, then Da instructed Chas and I to get the dustpan, and clean the mess. We go over to the broom closet to get the broom and dustpan, and forgot the other fags still in the pack. While we are getting the broom and dustpan, Da lights number 2. Let us just say that the humor had all been expended with the first explosion. He chased us out in the yard..... the rest would be considered child abuse by todays standards. Today it is a favorite family story, but when it happened, my arse didn't find it quite so funny. Mick |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: bobad Date: 13 Sep 06 - 10:38 AM That's a fantastic story Fergus. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: bobad Date: 13 Sep 06 - 10:41 AM Good one Mick, had me laughing out loud. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Stilly River Sage Date: 13 Sep 06 - 10:49 AM Great story, Mick! I wish I'd thought of something like that when I was a kid, stuck sitting beside my mother and her ashtray at dinner. It would have been a bright spot as I remember the misery of eating with the smell of that smoke always in my nose. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Fergie Date: 13 Sep 06 - 10:49 AM Big Mick I laughted till the tears rolled, Fergus |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Big Mick Date: 13 Sep 06 - 10:50 AM Fergus ...... that is a priceless story. I am still laughing as we speak. And I am also filing it away for use later, should I decide to plant a garden in hard ground. Too funny!! All the best, Mick |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Fergie Date: 13 Sep 06 - 10:54 AM Big Mick we must share the same sense of humour, Fergus |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Big Mick Date: 13 Sep 06 - 10:55 AM I am sure of it, Fergus. Mick |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Rapparee Date: 13 Sep 06 - 11:00 AM Well...we were experimenting with smoking...and had access to .22 cartridges...and one of the wimpy guys left his packet o' fags where they could be messed with. No, not what you think. We pulled the bullet out of a cartridge, carefully worked the tobacco out of one of the cigs, poured in the powder, and carefully replaced all the tobacco we could. That evening he pulled out out a cigarette and offered some to us (we refused, of course). He lit it...and smoked it with what appeared to be pleasure. Then he lit up again. About halfway down the cigarette there wwas a FWOOSH! as the nitrocellulose ignited and flashed. Luckily, he wasn't hurt and assumed that something was wrong with the cigarette. He did have to change pants, though. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Old Guy Date: 13 Sep 06 - 12:08 PM I did not relate my bomb making experiences here for fear that I would be charactarized as a bomber. Do you think someone at NSA is feverishly tracking down some IP numbers as we speak? Be on the lookout for black hellicopters. My rowdy friends and I used to go to the drive theater and deposit an ash can, three times the power of a cherry bomb, in the waste can in the rest room with a lit ciggarette impaled on the fuse. It gave us about 10 minutes of getaway time. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Charley Noble Date: 13 Sep 06 - 02:27 PM Mick and Fergus- LOL Glad you're still around to share the tales. You've reminded me of a Garrison Keillor ice-fishing story that we've adapted for Maine: Parody by Garrison Keillor 1999 Adapted by Charlie Ipcar et al 2/8/03 Tune: The Greenland Whale Fisheries The Ice Fishing Song-2 When I was young I'd tell tall tales, And lying was my sport, But I've told no lie since late last week, When the gang and I went "nort", me boys, The gang and I went "nort." The gang was Fitzie, Mike and me, We met the break of day; We packed the booze and the cooler in the back, In our kingcab tore away, me boys, In our kingcab tore away. We reached the lake after dark, And drove out on the ice; We opened up the shack and we fired up the stove, And passed that bottle twice, me boys, Passed that bottle twice. The fishing hole was thick with ice, And it was late at night; So Fitzie reached into his tackle box, To get his dynamite, me boys, To get his dynamite. He lit the fuse, threw it down the hole, And then he stamped and cursed; "Cripes, I've made a foolish mistake, That was our old bratwurst, me boys, That was our old bratwurst." Then from the hole where the bratwurst sank, A giant fish leaped out, "A togue, a togue," we all did shout, "With the bratwurst in his mouth," me boys, The bratwurst in his mouth. So we passed the bottle once again, To celebrate the catch; Then Fitzie reached down for a cigar, And I saw him light the match, me boys, I saw him light the match. That cigar blew Fitzie over Isle au Haut, And Mike to the Bay of Booth; But since my life was spared that day, I'm here to tell the truth, me boys, Yes, I'm here to tell the truth. Keep up the good work! Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Bill D Date: 13 Sep 06 - 02:44 PM My father showed us how to build clothespin match guns and fold water bombs out of paper...(he said they used to drop them from 2nd story windows over the schools front entrance) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Skivee Date: 13 Sep 06 - 02:49 PM In every discussion of this sort somebody just has to blunder in and be a wet blanket. In this case the party pooper crown has fallen to me. Wow, you folks were VERY lucky. The reason that the sport of model rocketry was invented was that kids were injuring and killing themselves while "experimenting " with making rockets. Like many of the stories above, the lids found out how to mix the chemicals, but didn't know the danger they were in. The favorite method of self-destruction was to stuff those match heads you enjoyed playing with into spent CO2 cartridges. While those kids thought they were making rocket motors, they were actually making grenades. Literally Hundreds lost hands, eyes or their lives. They also didn't learn anything about how to make a working rocket. If you've ever seen professional fireworks teams working, you have noted that they are really careful. This is because these chemicals can KILL YOUR ASS. Rocket motors work by creating basically a controlled sustained explosion. An important word here is "controlled". Black powder blows up with an expansion rate of about 11,000 feet per second. You can't run that fast. Other chemicals blow up with higher or lower rates...but you still can't run that fast. Model rockets are built from low weight materials, and powered by reliable mass produced motors. The densest part of the motor is the nozzle, made of clay. In the unlikely event of an engine exploding, the clay turns to dust, and the heavy cardboard tubing turns to chunky paper. No deadly shrapnel. Once the student doesn't have to worry about building a bomb, they can pay attention to the more interesting problem…aerodynamics. Okay, enough ranting. Google "Model Rocketry" for info on how to enjoy this stuff without blowing yourself up. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Skivee Date: 13 Sep 06 - 02:57 PM I meant to say "SOME of you folks"... The stuff that most of the boneheads like me were trying didn't put us in the dire peril of the more ignorantly adventurous. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Don(Wyziwyg)T Date: 13 Sep 06 - 02:57 PM Not rockets exactly, more a sort of multiple mortar. At grammar school, I was one of a number of chemistry geeks, who were allowed to use the lab out of school time. Not a wise move on the part of the authorities. I had made a quantity of nitrogen tri-iodide, which comes out as a dark grey paste, perfectly safe and stable while wet. I painted it on sheets of paper, then folded in half over and over to form thick wads, then left it to dry. We had a maths teacher who would stride into the classroom with a huge stack of books, and slam them down on his desk. On the day in question there were two wads onder the corners of the desk lid. "Good morning class!"....SLAM....KERRRACK! All of a sudden it's raining books, and thirty kids are diving for cover under desks and chairs. The desk lid has wrenched the hinges out, and is lying on the floor, split in two, while on the other side of the desk stands a very frightened teacher, covered in small bits of burnt paper, and trying to stop shaking. Of course I had to own up, to prevent the whole class copping it, and when the head got tired of caning me (took a long time, he was a very fit man), he banned me from the lab, except for classes, and suspended me for a week. Some people have NO sense of humour! For a long time our maths teacher would, on meeting me, stop and watch me till I was out of sight. Know what though?....IT WAS WORTH IT! Don T. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Seamus Kennedy Date: 13 Sep 06 - 05:56 PM Mick, Fergie - two beauties! On another occasion, a friend of mine whose Dad worked for the railway found a box of blue detonators. They were about the size of shoe-polish tins, 3" in diameter and 3/4" deep. what they were used for in the railway, I don't know. But my pal told me they were like bombs. We went to the field out behind our houses to find out. So we set them on rocks on the ground, climbed up on an 8' wall, and started throwing rocks down on top of them... Holy shit! They went off just like bombs; a huge bang, a flash, and the metal casing flew by us at bullet speed. If we'd been hit, we'd have been killed stone-dead. Cool! So we did it again....3 more times, until the neighbours started coming out to see what the hell was going on. We grabbed the remaining detonators and bolted out of there. Seamus |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Don(Wyziwyg)T Date: 13 Sep 06 - 06:00 PM Dunno about the USA, Seamus, but in the days when all signals were manually operated in the UK, I believe they were placed on the track in heavy fog to warn drivers of red signals. Don T. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Rapparee Date: 13 Sep 06 - 06:09 PM Yep, Skivee, my friends, brothers and I could have been hurt or killed. Anyone else ever mess with poison gas? Like o-Chlorobenzylidene malononitrile or bromacetone or phosgene or chlorine or diphenylaminechlorarsine? Doing this was the reason for my mother second Big Rule. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: Big Mick Date: 13 Sep 06 - 06:21 PM It is good to see that there are others who really have no business still trodding the path for the stupid shit they did when they were kids. LOL. Boy, I could go on for hours...... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Rocket Science??? From: GUEST,thurg Date: 13 Sep 06 - 06:22 PM Couple years back, in a staff meeting, the science teacher was expressing his frustration with trying to get certain concepts across to the kids. "It's not exactly rocket science", he says. Then stops. Then says, "Okay, actually it IS rocket science ... but ... " |
