Author Topic: Darwin Awards (Read 43606 times)

hatler · « **Reply #175 on:** 10 February, 2021, 08:50:59 pm »

Same here, but in a dedicated facility with conducting footwear and floor. Doing it with an electric blender is pretty daft.

Beardy · « **Reply #176 on:** 10 February, 2021, 09:46:00 pm »

He was bang out of order.

ElyDave · « **Reply #177 on:** 10 February, 2021, 10:21:31 pm »

Quote from: hatler on 10 February, 2021, 08:50:59 pm

Same here, but in a dedicated facility with conducting footwear and floor. Doing it with an electric blender is pretty daft.

I did it in a mate's back garden, eyebrows may have been threatened

Ham · « **Reply #178 on:** 11 February, 2021, 08:19:23 am »

Oh come on now, who as a kid hasn't tried mixing saltpetre, sulphur and carbon? And soaked thread in a saltpetre solution to make a fuse? And stuffed the powder into an old tin can and set it off behind the playground?

ian · « **Reply #179 on:** 11 February, 2021, 09:55:59 am »

We used to file down pencil sharpers in CDT into a pile of magnesium powder. They'd generally hidden the more dangerous stuff at this point. Or Nigel had drunk it.

Jurek · « **Reply #180 on:** 11 February, 2021, 10:14:06 am »

A C206 Camping Gaz cylinder filled with a mixture of weedkiller and sugar will make a crater about 4 ft in diameter and approximately 1ft deep in soft earth.

LittleWheelsandBig · « **Reply #181 on:** 11 February, 2021, 10:24:19 am »

A steel can strapped to a roller skate and filled with pool chlorine and brake fluid is an excellent rocket car with an awesome flame out the back

Tim Hall · « **Reply #182 on:** 11 February, 2021, 10:47:27 am »

Quote from: Jurek on 11 February, 2021, 10:14:06 am

A C206 Camping Gaz cylinder filled with a mixture of weedkiller and sugar will make a crater about 4 ft in diameter and approximately 1ft deep in soft earth.

Such devices are rubbish at removing tree stumps which are in the way when constructing a new Venture Scout HQ. Apparently.

ian · « **Reply #183 on:** 11 February, 2021, 11:18:36 am »

The desktop flamethrower was every chemistry lesson at my school. The fiery demise of many a schoolbook.

hatler · « **Reply #184 on:** 11 February, 2021, 11:31:53 am »

One reversiste in our class took the tube off the bunsen and attached it to the tap and filled up the gas system with water. Arf arf.

PaulF · « **Reply #185 on:** 11 February, 2021, 11:46:20 am »

Also, or so I am reliably informed, the pressure in a school lab gas network is sufficiently low that it is theoretically possible to blow down a bunsen rubber hose an extinguish the bunsen burners sequentially. Also I imagine that a bunsen burner might, possibly, make a long range water pistol

ian · « **Reply #186 on:** 11 February, 2021, 11:48:37 am »

Given the inflammability of the entirely polyester school uniforms, I'm surprised that so many of us survived chemistry. You could pick up quite a static charge.

Jaded · « **Reply #187 on:** 11 February, 2021, 11:52:49 am »

Weedkiller and sugar mix, newspaper soaked in it and dried out.

A bucketful makes a fantasctic smokescreen, enough to cover one of the largest buildings in town

ian · « **Reply #188 on:** 11 February, 2021, 12:03:04 pm »

I'm sure sodium chlorate is on the watch-list these days, so don't get carried away. It won't work with Roundup.

rafletcher · « **Reply #189 on:** 11 February, 2021, 12:12:35 pm »

Quote from: Jaded on 11 February, 2021, 11:52:49 am

Weedkiller and sugar mix, newspaper soaked in it and dried out.

A bucketful makes a fantasctic smokescreen, enough to cover one of the largest buildings in town

Sodium Chlorate is indeed what you need, not publically available for many a year.

I mixed some (um, 50 years ago now) with sugar, poured a line on top of the 4ft diamter pine tree stump at the bottom of our garden, and set it on fire. Spectacular, especially when it set fire to all the set sap on the surface!

Jurek · « **Reply #190 on:** 11 February, 2021, 12:20:03 pm »

I think Sodium Chlorate got pulled in the 70s or 80s when it was the chemical of choice in many IEDs used in Northen Ireland.

The Family Cyclist · « **Reply #191 on:** 11 February, 2021, 12:26:16 pm »

Wasn't that long ago. I guess around 10 to 15 years ago. I used to sell it as a weed killer at work. Boringly it was a lot to do it leeching into water courses more then making bombs

ian · « **Reply #192 on:** 11 February, 2021, 12:30:20 pm »

I believe you can still buy it in small quantities as weedkiller but it contains retardants and The Man is watching you. But step up a bit, oxidize it and add ammonia to make ammonium perchlorate and, mixed with hydrogen peroxide as an oxidizer, you've got rocket fuel. To space and beyond! Or quite possibly Mr Frith & Daughter Funeral Directors.

chrisbainbridge · « **Reply #193 on:** 11 February, 2021, 12:52:33 pm »

Sure we made gunpowder. Then drilled holes in tree stumps, added powder and some fuse wire. Small plug of wood above the gunpowder and then connect fuse wire to a car battery. Removal of tree stump.

However the best one was Nitrogen tri-iodide (NI₃) which is a highly unstable explosive producing clouds of purple smoke! We produced this and dried it in the 6th form common room where some of it spontaneously exploded much t the concern of the arts students!

The next morning we sprinkled the crystals on the platform prior to assembly. There was much hilarity as the head strode onto the platform with other teachers amid the crackle of detonation and smoke!

ian · « **Reply #194 on:** 11 February, 2021, 12:56:18 pm »

Are children these days even allowed to use Bunsen burners?

T42 · « **Reply #195 on:** 11 February, 2021, 01:07:47 pm »

We used potassium chlorate, sulphur & charcoal, but got fizzier fireworks with a nice pink flame from potassium chlorate & sugar. We once set off a small amount on the top deck of a Belfast Corporation Omnibus and had to get off three stops too early before the conductor came up.

PeteB99 · « **Reply #196 on:** 11 February, 2021, 01:10:59 pm »

The other trick with Nitrogen Tri-iodide was to put a crystal into a piece of wet blotting paper and throw it so it stuck to the ceiling - when it dries out and falls the bang disrupts the next lesson quite nicely.

Kim · « **Reply #197 on:** 11 February, 2021, 01:28:00 pm »

Quote from: ian on 11 February, 2021, 11:18:36 am

The desktop flamethrower was every chemistry lesson at my school. The fiery demise of many a schoolbook.

Lighting the gas taps wasn't uncommon in mine, either. Or connecting them to the water taps to see who won.

Quote from: ian on 11 February, 2021, 11:48:37 am

Given the inflammability of the entirely polyester school uniforms, I'm surprised that so many of us survived chemistry.

I remember a boy in my class managed to set fire to his generously-sized school-issue polyester sleeve in the first week of secondary school SCIENCE lessons, which was then patched by his mum and remained with him until at least year 10. (Perhaps counter-intuitively, this was not a subject of ridicule because setting fire to yourself is much more cool than wearing embarrassing school uniform.)

More legendary was the time someone in not-my-chemistry-set re-enacted the end of Die Hard 2 using a sink full of some alkane or other.

I don't think I blew up anything at school, unless you count releasing the magic smoke from electronic components.

Moleman76 · « **Reply #198 on:** 20 February, 2021, 06:57:37 am »

regarding ways to make noise, a 2 liter plastic bottle, some water in the bottom, and dry ice bits added before securely capping, and then running away like crazy, is very effective.

hellymedic · « **Reply #199 on:** 20 February, 2021, 12:55:31 pm »

Quote from: ian on 11 February, 2021, 11:48:37 am

Given the inflammability of the entirely polyester school uniforms, I'm surprised that so many of us survived chemistry. You could pick up quite a static charge.

In my day, we had to wear a specific wool serge tunic, which was not washable and was only flammable immediately after its trip to the dry cleaner every half term...