BS: What Did You do with Atom Pearls?

Subject: BS: What Did You do with Atom Pearls?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 23 May 10 - 08:35 PM

This thread will separate out the generations!

I dropped "Atom Pearls" in the hallways of my high school and they went BANG! when other students stepped on them. It was not a nice thing for me to do.

One could purchase them via ads in comic books, along with special X-ray glasses that would permit you to see through clothing. I wonder if one can still buy such great stuff.

I doubt that any other Mudcatters has ever done nasty stuff with Atom Pearls. But here's your opportunity to 'fess up, before you meet The Great Cosmic Muffin in the Sky.

Charley Ignoble

Subject: RE: BS: What Did You do with Atom Pearls?
From: Rapparee
Date: 23 May 10 - 10:53 PM

I don't know what "Atom Pearls" were, but I think I know in general what you're talking about. We used to put a similar firework under the little "cushions" on toilet seats in high school. They were also useful in other ways, such as being launched by rubber bands and sling shots (Brit.: catapults).

Now, cherry bombs were even more useful. Take the latrines at Boy Scout camp: simple outhouses, with seat lids that were angled so they would close when when not occupied (kept the flies down). Drop a cherry bomb in, let the lid close, the explosion lifts the lid while depositing a coating of the latrine contents on it, and the lid closes again. You quickly learned to check the underside of the lids before relaxing for a comfortable moment of thought and meditation.

Subject: RE: BS: What Did You do with Atom Pearls?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 24 May 10 - 08:11 AM

When I was a wee lad in Brum , Wilders Penny Bangers were High Explosives for Kids ! One Penny Banger could Total a Die Cast model car - I KNOW because I tried it !

Subject: RE: BS: What Did You do with Atom Pearls?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 24 May 10 - 08:43 AM

Penny bangers were fine, LF, but you could do some real damage with a threpenny canon! We were never rich enough to experiment with air bombs though. Fortunately:-)

DeG

Subject: RE: BS: What Did You do with Atom Pearls?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 24 May 10 - 08:47 AM

Oh - And back to the original subject. You can still get (I think) things that I imagine are like atom pearls. Never heard of thenm by that name but the things I mean fo off with a loud 'crack' when impacted either by throwing them at something hard or by standing on them. I think they are called little imps or devils or some such. Small amount of impact explosive in a twist of paper. Great fun.

:D

Subject: RE: BS: What Did You do with Atom Pearls?
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 May 10 - 09:45 AM

We called the "cracker balls"; I believe elsewhere they were called "torpedoes". The explosive inside, for the chemically inclined or the merely curious, is silver fulminate.

Subject: RE: BS: What Did You do with Atom Pearls?
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 May 10 - 09:46 AM

Oh, yes -- you can take the ones available these days and hold them as you snap your fingers.

Subject: RE: BS: What Did You do with Atom Pearls?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 24 May 10 - 09:53 AM

I believe you could use nitrogen triiodide nowadays but I wouldn't go within 5 miles of quantities of either larger than a pinhead myself!