Archery Experiment
Gunner Asch
Around age 10 my dad got me one of those little badass compound bow
beginner kits. Of course, the first month I went around our land
sticking arrows in anything that could get stuck by an arrow. Did you
know that a 1955 40horse Farmall tractor will take 6 rounds before it
goes down? Tough sumbich.
That got boring, so being the 10 yr. old Dukes of Hazzard fan that I
was, I quickly advanced to taking strips of cut up Tshirt doused in
chainsaw gas tied around the end and was sending flaming arrows all over
the place. Keep in mind this was 99.999% humidity swampland so there
really wasn't any fire danger. Ill put it this way- a set of post hole
diggers and a 3ft. hole and you had yourself a well.
One summer afternoon, I was shooting flaming arrows into a large rotten
oak stump in our backyard. I looked over under the carport and see a
shiny brand new can of starting fluid (ether). The light bulb went off.
I grabbed the can and set it on the stump. I thought that it would
probably just spray out in a disappointing manner.... lets face it to a
10 yr. old mouth-breather like myself, ether really doesn't "sound"
flammable. So, I went back into the house and got a 1 pound can of
pyrodex (black powder for muzzle loader rifles).
At this point, I set the can of ether on the stump and opened up the can
of black powder. My intentions were to sprinkle a little bit around the
ether can but it all sorta dumped out on me. No biggie... 1lb pyrodex
and 16oz ether should make a loud pop, kinda like a firecracker you
know? You know what? F**k that. I'm going back in the house for the
other can. Yes, I got a second can of pyrodex and dumped it too. Now
we're cookin'.
I stepped back about 15ft and lit the 2stroke arrow. I drew the nock to
my cheek and took aim. As I released I heard a clunk as the arrow
launched from my bow. In a slow motion time frame, I turned to see my
dad getting out of the truck... OH SHIT he just got home from work. So
help me God it took 10 minutes for that arrow to go from my bow to the
can. My dad was walking towards me in slow motion with a WTF look in his
eyes. I turned back towards my target just in time to see the arrow
pierce the starting fluid can right at the bottom.
Right through the main pile of pyrodex and into the can. Oh. Shit.
When the shock wave hit it knocked me off my feet. I don't know if it
was the actual compression wave that threw me back or just reflex jerk
back from 235 f**king decibels of sound. I caught a half a millisecond
glimpse of the violence during the initial explosion and I will tell you
there was dust, grass, and bugs all hovering 1ft above the ground as far
as I could see. It was like a little low to the ground layer of dust fog
full of grasshoppers, spiders, and a crawfish or two. The daylight
turned purple. Let me repeat this...
THE F**KING DAYLIGHT TURNED PURPLE. There was a big sweetgum tree out by
the gate going into the pasture. Notice I said "was". That sumbich got
up and ran off.
So here I am, on the ground blown completely out of my shoes with my
thundercats Tshirt shredded, my dad is on the other side of the carport
having what I can only assume is a Vietnam flashback ECHO BRAVO CHARLIE
YOUR BRINGIN' EM IN TOO CLOSE!! CEASE FIRE GODDAMIT CEASE FIRE!!!!! His
hat has blown off and is 30 ft. behind him in the driveway. All windows
on the north side of the house are blown out and there is a slow rolling
mushroom cloud about 2000ft over our backyard. There is a Honda 185s 3
wheeler parked on the other side of the yard and the fenders are drooped
down and are now touching the tires.
I wish I knew what I said to my dad at this moment. I don't know- I know
I said something. I couldn't hear. I couldn't hear inside my own head. I
don't think he heard me either... not that it would really matter. I
don't remember much from this point on. I said something, felt a sharp
pain, and then woke up later. I felt a sharp pain, blacked out, woke
later.... repeat this process for an hour or so and you get the idea. I
remember at one point my mom had to give me CPR so dad could beat me
some more. Bring him back to life so dad can kill him again. Thanks mom.
One thing is for sure... I never had to mow around that stump again.
Mom had been bitching about that thing for years and dad never did
anything about it. I stepped up to the plate and handled business.
Dad sold his muzzleloaders a week or so later. And I still have some
sort of bone growth abnormality either from the blast or the beating. Or
both.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, get your kids into archery. Its good
discipline and will teach them skills they can use later on in life.
Whenever a Liberal utters the term "Common Sense approach"....grab your
wallet, your ass, and your guns because the sombitch is about to do
something damned nasty to all three of them.
Tim Wescott
My dad never had any black powder around, but you can get a six foot long
flame out of a can of starter fluid (hair spray is only good for two).
Steve B
"Gunner Asch" <gun...@lightspeed.net> wrote in message
news:q88ul5tbkrpinc5k6...@4ax.com...
> One of the best emails Ive had in a very long time...<G>
>
>
> Around age 10 my dad got me one of those little badass compound bow
> beginner kits.
Funny story snipped.
I had a similar experience with a 55 gallon barrel, two tbsp. of gas, and
pure O2.
When the cops got there, they asked us if we heard a blast.
"Huh?" was our response.
By then, we had picked up the pieces of the barrel we could find. My
hearing is still wacky.
I have set industrial explosives, but I have never heard one like that.
Maybe it was the range .........................
Steve
Pete Keillor
Me, too. It was Mom's 15 yr. old collection of Sears and Monkey Wards
catalogs she finally realized were useless. She said burn 'em in the
burn barrel. I dumped them in the empty barrel, which they just
barely fit. Knowing they'd be difficult to burn because of the
tightly packed pages, I decided to help them along with about 1 gal.
of av gas, then realized I'd forgotten the matches. To keep all that
good gas from getting away, I put a torn open fertilizer sack over the
barrel (you can see where this is going). When I got back with the
matches, a couple of neighbor kids and my brother had arrived.
I proceeded to strike the match, lift the sack, and flick the match
in. In the next instant, we were all knocked down around the barrel
by the concussion, and I had an impressive view of about a 150' tall
column of catalog pages with fire between them. Then the damned
burning pages drifted into the dry grass in the pasture next door.
After Dad pounded me, we got to spend the next 30 minutes putting out
the grass fire. The neighbors about 1/4 mile away said it shook all
their windows.
A rather unique tech I had working for me once spoke my favorite quote
of all time. " I believe the best value for your entertainment dollar
is gasoline."
Pete Keillor
Robert Swinney
barrel. Until then I thought that oil was not flammable - or explosive.
Bob Swinney
"Pete Keillor" <keill...@chartermi.net> wrote in message
news:dsrul59lmutmkor0p...@4ax.com...
Wes
>My dad never had any black powder around, but you can get a six foot long
>flame out of a can of starter fluid (hair spray is only good for two).
Buddy and me were tossing a .22 shot shell back and forth tossing it at the concrete next
to each other's feet. I mastered the dynamics of toss and impact a bit quicker than Steve
Rivers, he got a load #11 shot in his leg. He knew it was a cartridge, I knew how it
worked. That was about 41 years ago.
Wes
--
"Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect
government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home
in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller
William Wixon
> Me, too. It was Mom's 15 yr. old collection of Sears and Monkey Wards
> catalogs she finally realized were useless. She said burn 'em in the
> burn barrel. I dumped them in the empty barrel, which they just
> barely fit. Knowing they'd be difficult to burn because of the
> tightly packed pages, I decided to help them along with about 1 gal.
> of av gas, then realized I'd forgotten the matches. To keep all that
> good gas from getting away, I put a torn open fertilizer sack over the
> barrel (you can see where this is going). When I got back with the
> matches, a couple of neighbor kids and my brother had arrived.
>
> I proceeded to strike the match, lift the sack, and flick the match
> in. In the next instant, we were all knocked down around the barrel
> by the concussion, and I had an impressive view of about a 150' tall
> column of catalog pages with fire between them. Then the damned
> burning pages drifted into the dry grass in the pasture next door.
> After Dad pounded me, we got to spend the next 30 minutes putting out
> the grass fire. The neighbors about 1/4 mile away said it shook all
> their windows.
>
> A rather unique tech I had working for me once spoke my favorite quote
> of all time. " I believe the best value for your entertainment dollar
> is gasoline."
>
> Pete Keillor
i used to know a guy, i think his story was like, as a kid he was told to
rake the leaves, he had an abandoned well (that had gone dry) in his yard, i
think the story was that it had stone slabs over it but there was a large
enough space between them were he had the idea to rake the leaves down into
the well and then burn them there (or, maybe it was that he noticed there
was a large accumulation of leaves that had fallen down the well between a
smaller gap?) he too wanted to accelerate the process and so poured
gasoline down the well onto the dry leaves. i think the story was that the
"rapid oxidation" caused the stone slabs to be thrown completely free from
the well. there was a lot more hysterically funny detail that i've
forgotten. i think, like the first story, his father may have just arrived
to see the show too, can't remember.
b.w.
Steve B
"Robert Swinney" <jud...@tx.rr.com> wrote in message
news:5e6dnSOlVodJF8LW...@giganews.com...
> Yeah, those burn barrels. I remember throwing half a can of motor oil on
> the red hot side of a burn
> barrel. Until then I thought that oil was not flammable - or explosive.
We went deer hunting in Central Nevada. Brought a big tent and expedition
gear. We found a cabin with a sign above the door that said, "Use it, just
don't tear it up." We thought we had died and went to heaven.
The people before us were pigs, so we decided to pick up and burn some
trash. We filled the can with debris, then set it afire. I think there was
a propane canister in there. One hell of a bang. Fires all over the place.
We managed to stop the worst one just before it got to the cabin. The cabin
and all our stuff would have gone up.
We were sweaty dirty sooty do gooders.
Steve
Jon Anderson
> i think, like the first story, his father may have just arrived
> to see the show too, can't remember.
Fathers have a way of showing up at just the right (or wrong) moment...
Jon
Gerald Miller
Around 1969, SWMBO bought a pair of those couch beds that flatten out
into a 3/4 bed. they came flattened out in cardboard boxes. came time
to get rid of the boxes, I rolled them into a bundle about 18"
diameter with about a 6" hole up the middle and about eight feet
long. next evening I had a fire going in the burn barrel out back and
when it had burned down a bit, I stood one of these in the barrel.
within miutes I had a column of fire must have been at least fifty
feet in the night sky. Fortunately, no one put in a fire call. The
next bundle got cut in half before burning!
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada
cavelamb
> Yeah, those burn barrels. I remember throwing half a can of motor oil on the red hot side of a burn
> barrel. Until then I thought that oil was not flammable - or explosive.
>
Reminds me of outhouse duty. RVN '68
Don Foreman
<desert...@fishmail.net> wrote:
We had two galvanized 30-gallon garbage cans. The pickup guy had
stacked the empties and they were stuck together. Ma told me to go
outside and separate them.
I tried tugging, banging, prying, etc to no avail. I set them back
upright in the driveway and drizzled an ounce or so of gasoline into
the space between them, gave that a minute to creep down to the bottom
and vaporize, and then tossed a match at the assembly.
The cans separated with a FWUMP! The inner can went high enough to
land on the roof, but it rolled off. The bottom of the outer can was
convex while the bottom of the inner one was concave but a bit of
hammering with a rubber mallet fixed those minor aberrations.
Pete Keillor
Yep, classic chimney fire with an all combustible chimney. I did that
once with a bunch of empty Sevin boxes (Dad was crop duster) stuffed
one inside the other to about 10' or so. I cut an air flap in the
bottom box. Gets rid of them quickly.
Bob La Londe
> I guess what I'm trying to say is, get your kids into archery. Its good
> discipline and will teach them skills they can use later on in life.
Nice chain mail. Too bad it fails logically. A can of old style ether
starting fluid would definitely "blow up" or atleast burn nearly
explosively, but a pile of loose Pyrodex will only burn in a big whoosh.
Maybe a faster whoosh if lit all at once by a cloud of expanding ether. The
Pyrodex will make a nice mushroom cloud, especially two pounds of it, but
getting it to blow up is pretty hard. Take that from somebody who has
burned more than a few pounds of it. Some actually in guns. I was once
sitting about 3 feet away from a one pound can that got a spark in it. I
saw a beautiful fountain of fire as I did a back flip out of my chair. Now
had the story been about black powder, (I've burned a few pounds of that
too) it burns a whole lot more energetically. FFF pistol powder makes dandy
firecrackers with water proof canon fuse all wrapped up in a paper football.
Sadly up until that point its all possible by observation if not exactly
what happened, but unless that stump was made of dry rotten paper mache that
conflagration still did not blow it out of the ground. Even if it was and
it did disappear it would have burned up, not blown out. Ask my dad. Him
and some buddies removed a stump from their swimming hole in French Creek
when they were young enough to do dumb things. Back then some folks still
owned dynamite. They might have use just a stick or 12 too many to remove
that stump.
Anyway Pyrodex is pretty hard to get to go bang any place other than the
chamber of a gun. It doesn't even make good firecrackers. Pyrodex
footballs just burn and spin by jetting sparks out the fuse hole.
And even if it went bang, there was nothing to contain the concussion to
direct damage to the stump, and even if there was the top of the stump is
the wrong place for it. My grandfather used to remove trees and stumps on
his farm with dynamite. A single stick burrowed up under the tree with a
hand trowel or a shovel or pick would knock them over and pulverize the
ground underneath nicely so he could easily pull the stump and roots away
with his tractor. That's my mom's dad... so I come from a strong line of
bang enthusiasts on both sides of the family.
On the other hand I bet it made one heck of an expanding fireball. As the
oxygen was burned up at the heart of the fireball the expanding cloud of
ether would have burned further and further out from the initial ignition
point. Might have gotten a nice shock wave from the collapsing wave front
as it collapsed back in on the vacuum. Probably burned so fast that most of
the Pyrodex didn't even burn until the initial fireball collapsed.
I know. I know. I'm just no fun at all.
P.S. I always hated Pyrodex. I had more misfires with it, and it gummed up
my guns faster than black powder. The only advantage it had was it was not
as corrosive as black powder. Didn't matter to me as I cleaned my guns
every time I used them anyway. With Pyrodex I had to clean them after every
shot.
Bob La Londe
"Jon Anderson" <jande...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:yRN7n.148915$H15.1...@en-nntp-02.dc1.easynews.com...
That's why some of us are still alive I imagine.
Dave__67
I prefer a 50 gal trashbag full of acetylene and oxygen.
Nuclear purple flash, a bang that'll echo for 10 seconds (at least in
the hudson valley), surprisingly little destructive power, and no
evidence except tiny bits of melted plastic.
Dave
TwoGuns
A friend of mine filled a 55 gallon trash bag with a mix of Oxy/
Acetylene, tied it off and then inserted two feet of cannon fuse. The
trash bag was placed in between the walls of two steel building about
two feet apart. When filled with the gas mix the bag expanded and was
held in place by the expanded gases. When the lit fuse burned into the
trash bag the noise was so loud everyone in town heard it. The
explosion was powerful enough to bow the walls of both steel
buildings. My friend joined the Army the next week to avoid the wrath
of his father. He preferred facing the Viet Cong over his pissed off
Dad.
DL
Jon Elson
> I prefer a 50 gal trashbag full of acetylene and oxygen.
>
> Nuclear purple flash, a bang that'll echo for 10 seconds (at least in
> the hudson valley), surprisingly little destructive power, and no
> evidence except tiny bits of melted plastic.
I gather that "no evidence" doesn't include all
the empty window
frames for a couple blocks. 50 Gal of
Acetylene/Oxygen makes
a GOOD boom!
Some friends of mine did this with a dry cleaner's
bag at the
local high school, and it definitely took out all
the windows for
blocks. They transported the filled bag in a car,
while some
of the guys smoked! Sheesh! Talk about doing
dumb stuff!
Jon
Pete Keillor
wrote:
You mean like this one....
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/6790966/detail.html
Pete Keillor
Dave__67
I had the advantage of some buffer space- no busted windows.
Dave
Hawke
and Gummer has a way of coming up with fantastic stories. This one the
tale of a ten year old that has access to gunpowder and is out shooting
flaming arrows. Smells fishy to me. But then I am not the kind to just
buy into any story someone tells especially when it comes from someone
with a known history of telling tall tales.
Hawke
Jon Anderson
> You mean like this one....
>
> http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/6790966/detail.html
That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.
Or these days, quite possibly, a felon...
Jon
Ignoramus27891
> One of the best emails Ive had in a very long time...<G>
> flammable. So, I went back into the house and got a 1 pound can of
> pyrodex (black powder for muzzle loader rifles).
> Yes, I got a second can of pyrodex and dumped it too. Now
> we're cookin'.
>
> One thing is for sure... I never had to mow around that stump again.
Yeah right, 2 lbs of unconfined pyrodex destroyed a stump...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QwQAK_Un5w
i
Dave__67
Static electricity will indeed set them off.
Had a quart bag go off in my hands once- wasn't too bad.
Dave
Artemus
"Dave__67" <spamT...@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:43e5250a-3ccc-4ed7-
<snip>
I prefer a 50 gal trashbag full of acetylene and oxygen.
Nuclear purple flash, a bang that'll echo for 10 seconds (at least in
the hudson valley), surprisingly little destructive power, and no
evidence except tiny bits of melted plastic.
Dave
My brother did this with a balloon. He taped it to his shop door and
stuck the glowing end of a cigarette into it. It knocked him on his ass
and blew the door off the hinges. He complained abut ringing in his
ears for weeks afterward.
Art
knews4...@yahoo.com
> "Dave__67" <spamTHIS...@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:43e5250a-3ccc-4ed7-
Try it with H2O2 from an electrolyser.
If you used a 50 gal trash bag you will surely wind up in jail, after
the emergency ward.
Wear ear plugs.
William Wixon
I prefer a 50 gal trashbag full of acetylene and oxygen.
Nuclear purple flash, a bang that'll echo for 10 seconds (at least in
the hudson valley), surprisingly little destructive power, and no
evidence except tiny bits of melted plastic.
Dave
i graduated college in '82. we messed around w/ oxy-acetylene things there
in the metal shop. i posted this once before, i foolishly volunteered to
light the "fuse" and it blew up the instant i touched the match to it, right
next to me. i completely lost my hearing for a few minutes. was scary.
after college us guys rented a "loft" in brooklyn. was the top floor, the
wrought iron roof trusses were in our space. i have a faint recollection
someone lit a oxy-acetylene thing indoors. was so loud and there was such a
shock wave dust gently fell from every truss in the place. i think that's
what made us all wide eyed, not so much the blast but that it shook loose
dust from all the trusses. we were like "*whoa*".
i don't think i/we ever had the balls to even consider doing a 50 gallon
bag. especially after witnessing what (a MUCH smaller) two-taped-together
styrofoam soup bowls sounds like.
b.w.
Ignoramus27891
>
> "Dave__67" <spamT...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:43e5250a-3ccc-4ed7...@g1g2000yqi.googlegroups.com...
>
> I prefer a 50 gal trashbag full of acetylene and oxygen.
>
> Nuclear purple flash, a bang that'll echo for 10 seconds (at least in
> the hudson valley), surprisingly little destructive power, and no
> evidence except tiny bits of melted plastic.
I was thinking, buy 3-4 helium balloons, tie one balloon full of O/A
to them, add a fuse, light the fuse and let it fly up in the air
before exploding. Kids might like it.
i
Bob La Londe
news:CsidnehLBduJm_zW...@giganews.com...
Long fuse.
azotic
"Ignoramus27891" <ignoram...@NOSPAM.27891.invalid> wrote in message
news:CsidnehLBduJm_zW...@giganews.com...
Turn it into a science project, fill your ballons with hydrogen/oxygen by
electrolysis of water instead of using O/A.
Best Regards
Tom.
Bob La Londe
news:EW78n.21094$mT7....@newsfe05.iad...
THAT will take a while.
Gerald Miller
wrote:
Make certain that Air Force One is a long way away!
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada
Stormin Mormon
building got lifted and separated.
--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
.
"TwoGuns" <R-D-L...@neb.rr.com>
wrote in message
news:c893c233-e0c4-4df9...@q4g2000yqm.googlegroups.com...
Dave__67
> "Ignoramus27891" <ignoramus27...@NOSPAM.27891.invalid> wrote in message
>
> news:CsidnehLBduJm_zW...@giganews.com...
>
>
>
> > On 2010-01-28, William Wixon <wwi...@frontiernet.net> wrote:
>
> >>news:43e5250a-3ccc-4ed7...@g1g2000yqi.googlegroups.com...
>
> >> I prefer a 50 gal trashbag full of acetylene and oxygen.
>
> >> Nuclear purple flash, a bang that'll echo for 10 seconds (at least in
> >> the hudson valley), surprisingly little destructive power, and no
> >> evidence except tiny bits of melted plastic.
>
> > I was thinking, buy 3-4 helium balloons, tie one balloon full of O/A
> > to them, add a fuse, light the fuse and let it fly up in the air
> > before exploding. Kids might like it.
>
> > i
>
> Turn it into a science project, fill your ballons with hydrogen/oxygen by
> electrolysis of water instead of using O/A.
>
> Best Regards
> Tom.
I've lit mixtures of H2 and O2 from electrolysis, and the reaction did
not seem nearly as energetic as acetylene and oxygen.
Dave
Larry Jaques
<jande...@comcast.net> scrawled the following:
IOW, it takes a _lot_ to hit the Darwin Awards list.
--
It is in his pleasure that a man really lives; it is from
his leisure that he constructs the true fabric of self.
-- Agnes Repplier
Larry Jaques
<ignoram...@NOSPAM.27891.invalid> scrawled the following:
The Chicago PD and DHS will be at your door shortly for even
-thinking- that, Ig. ;)
Steve B
"Ignoramus27891" <ignoram...@NOSPAM.27891.invalid> wrote in message
news:CsidnehLBduJm_zW...@giganews.com...
You have given me an idea for a late night large 4th of July aerial display.
TY.
Jim Stewart
Don't. If you want to fuss around with
acetylene, get some calcium carbide and
play with it.
RBnDFW
....get a kid to light it!
RBnDFW
Or not!
Michael A. Terrell
Don Foreman wrote:
>
> We had two galvanized 30-gallon garbage cans. The pickup guy had
> stacked the empties and they were stuck together. Ma told me to go
> outside and separate them.
>
> I tried tugging, banging, prying, etc to no avail. I set them back
> upright in the driveway and drizzled an ounce or so of gasoline into
> the space between them, gave that a minute to creep down to the bottom
> and vaporize, and then tossed a match at the assembly.
>
> The cans separated with a FWUMP! The inner can went high enough to
> land on the roof, but it rolled off. The bottom of the outer can was
> convex while the bottom of the inner one was concave but a bit of
> hammering with a rubber mallet fixed those minor aberrations.
Was that your first 'whack' at metal working? ;-)
--
Greed is the root of all eBay.
Doug White
news:CsidnehLBduJm_zW...@giganews.com:
> On 2010-01-28, William Wixon <wwi...@frontiernet.net> wrote:
>>
>> "Dave__67" <spamT...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>> news:43e5250a-3ccc-4ed7-843d-
f40806...@g1g2000yqi.googlegroups.com...
>>
>> I prefer a 50 gal trashbag full of acetylene and oxygen.
>>
>> Nuclear purple flash, a bang that'll echo for 10 seconds (at least in
>> the hudson valley), surprisingly little destructive power, and no
>> evidence except tiny bits of melted plastic.
>
> I was thinking, buy 3-4 helium balloons, tie one balloon full of O/A
> to them, add a fuse, light the fuse and let it fly up in the air
> before exploding. Kids might like it.
We used to fill taped up dry cleaning bags with methane for list, and
then hang and oxy-acetylene bag under it. For fusing, we used cannon
fuse & "detheramlizer" fuse. Thsi was like havy cotton cord, that would
char at about 1/4" a minute. It was used to retrieve model gliders bu
releasing the horizontal tail stabilizer after a period of time.
They would get very high up befoe there was a good flash & boom form the
O-A, followed by an orange firebal from the methane. No blown out
windows, and we all still have (most) of our hearing.
Do not try this at home, etc.
Doug White
Doug White
news:EW78n.21094$mT7....@newsfe05.iad:
It goes bang, but the energy released isn't nearly on a parr with O-A.
We did some careful comparisons when I was a kid, and O-A wins hands
down.
Doug White
RoyJ
have a 4 to 8 second response time. Bang wait BANG wait Boom wait BOOM
wait Kaboom wait KABOOM wait KABOOM!!!!! no more waiting, nothing left
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh
45f6-966f-d...@m16g2000yqc.googlegroups.com:
> I've lit mixtures of H2 and O2 from electrolysis, and the reaction did
> not seem nearly as energetic as acetylene and oxygen.
>
Acetylene has a free gas molecular weight of about 26. Hydrogen, 2.
Oxygen, 32.
67.2L of gas at 2(H2)+1(O2) ratio weighs 34 grams (3 mole volume)
67.2L of gas at 2(C2H2)+10(O2) ratio weighs 93 grams (3 mole volume)
Sooo... The trash bag full of acetylene/O2 has almost 3 times the mass of
the H2/O2 mixture.
Consider what the relative explosive force of three sticks of dynamite
would be vs. one.
LLoyd
Mach1
"Lloyd E. Sponenburgh" <lloydspinsidemindspring.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9D0F5152E429ll...@216.168.3.70...
It's not the mass of the gas doing the damage but the energy of the reaction
and the speed with which the reaction occurs.
Doug White
news:HrGdnSv2Wd0JvvnW...@posted.sasktel:
In particular, there is a triple bond in acetylene that stores a LOT of
energy. When that let's go, you get a lot more bang for your buck than
just connecting a couple hydrogen atoms to an oxygen.
Doug White
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh
news:Xns9D105F0F31CFA...@69.16.186.7:
> When that let's go, you get a lot more bang for your buck than
> just connecting a couple hydrogen atoms to an oxygen.
>
That's all fine and good, but it's the amount of mass set moving that
conveys an explosion's force to the objects around.
If the acetylene reaction were 1000 times as strong as the H/O reaction,
and you had 1/10th the mass in Acetylene mix that you had of Hydrogen
mix, you'd get the same net explosive force.
Explosion force is not linear with mass.
LLoyd
Gunner Asch
wrote:
>"Gunner Asch" <gun...@lightspeed.net> wrote in message
>news:q88ul5tbkrpinc5k6...@4ax.com...
>> One of the best emails Ive had in a very long time...<G>
>
>> I guess what I'm trying to say is, get your kids into archery. Its good
>> discipline and will teach them skills they can use later on in life.
>
>Nice chain mail. Too bad it fails logically. A can of old style ether
>starting fluid would definitely "blow up" or atleast burn nearly
>explosively, but a pile of loose Pyrodex will only burn in a big whoosh.
>Maybe a faster whoosh if lit all at once by a cloud of expanding ether. The
>Pyrodex will make a nice mushroom cloud, especially two pounds of it, but
>getting it to blow up is pretty hard. Take that from somebody who has
>burned more than a few pounds of it. Some actually in guns. I was once
>sitting about 3 feet away from a one pound can that got a spark in it. I
>saw a beautiful fountain of fire as I did a back flip out of my chair. Now
>had the story been about black powder, (I've burned a few pounds of that
>too) it burns a whole lot more energetically. FFF pistol powder makes dandy
>firecrackers with water proof canon fuse all wrapped up in a paper football.
>
>Sadly up until that point its all possible by observation if not exactly
>what happened, but unless that stump was made of dry rotten paper mache that
>conflagration still did not blow it out of the ground. Even if it was and
>it did disappear it would have burned up, not blown out. Ask my dad. Him
>and some buddies removed a stump from their swimming hole in French Creek
>when they were young enough to do dumb things. Back then some folks still
>owned dynamite. They might have use just a stick or 12 too many to remove
>that stump.
>
>Anyway Pyrodex is pretty hard to get to go bang any place other than the
>chamber of a gun. It doesn't even make good firecrackers. Pyrodex
>footballs just burn and spin by jetting sparks out the fuse hole.
>
>And even if it went bang, there was nothing to contain the concussion to
>direct damage to the stump, and even if there was the top of the stump is
>the wrong place for it. My grandfather used to remove trees and stumps on
>his farm with dynamite. A single stick burrowed up under the tree with a
>hand trowel or a shovel or pick would knock them over and pulverize the
>ground underneath nicely so he could easily pull the stump and roots away
>with his tractor. That's my mom's dad... so I come from a strong line of
>bang enthusiasts on both sides of the family.
>
>On the other hand I bet it made one heck of an expanding fireball. As the
>oxygen was burned up at the heart of the fireball the expanding cloud of
>ether would have burned further and further out from the initial ignition
>point. Might have gotten a nice shock wave from the collapsing wave front
>as it collapsed back in on the vacuum. Probably burned so fast that most of
>the Pyrodex didn't even burn until the initial fireball collapsed.
>
>I know. I know. I'm just no fun at all.
>
>P.S. I always hated Pyrodex. I had more misfires with it, and it gummed up
>my guns faster than black powder. The only advantage it had was it was not
>as corrosive as black powder. Didn't matter to me as I cleaned my guns
>every time I used them anyway. With Pyrodex I had to clean them after every
>shot.
<G> I didnt make any claim to the legitimacy or accuracy of the
letter..just that it was good. <G>
And while Ive had better luck with Pyrodex than you evidently have
had..I still guard my stock of Gearhart Owens black powder very
carefully. <G>
Gunner
Whenever a Liberal utters the term "Common Sense approach"....grab your
wallet, your ass, and your guns because the sombitch is about to do
something damned nasty to all three of them.
Gunner Asch
wrote:
>"Ignoramus27891" <ignoram...@NOSPAM.27891.invalid> wrote in message
Simply fill a 3 liter soda bottle about 2/3 full of water, pour in a few
ounces of Drano, add a couple bits of aluminum, foil is best but
cuttings work, and shake well. Then attach a good sized balloon to the
top of the bottle to be filled by the hydrogen Generator you just
manufactured.
When filled, take outside, tie closed with Cotton string....long
one...light end of cotton string and release.
Up and away!
Hardly makes a sound but sure is pretty when it blows
Gunner Asch
wrote:
Why? An OA rig removes the evidence
Jim Stewart
> On Thu, 28 Jan 2010 10:52:58 -0800, Jim Stewart<jste...@jkmicro.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Ignoramus27891 wrote:
>>> On 2010-01-28, William Wixon<wwi...@frontiernet.net> wrote:
>>>> "Dave__67"<spamT...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>>>> news:43e5250a-3ccc-4ed7...@g1g2000yqi.googlegroups.com...
>>>>
>>>> I prefer a 50 gal trashbag full of acetylene and oxygen.
>>>>
>>>> Nuclear purple flash, a bang that'll echo for 10 seconds (at least in
>>>> the hudson valley), surprisingly little destructive power, and no
>>>> evidence except tiny bits of melted plastic.
>>>
>>> I was thinking, buy 3-4 helium balloons, tie one balloon full of O/A
>>> to them, add a fuse, light the fuse and let it fly up in the air
>>> before exploding. Kids might like it.
>>
>> Don't. If you want to fuss around with
>> acetylene, get some calcium carbide and
>> play with it.
>
>
> Why? An OA rig removes the evidence
I guess because I played around with it a lot
when I was a kid. I grew up in coal mining
country and it was easy to get. I never managed
to hurt myself worse than ringing ears and a
cuff from my dad. There's considerably more
potential for destruction with an O/A rig.