Droning on

[Tone]

I thought I'd get myself a drone as I can't explore the countryside like
I use to.

So, I was buying this one from Leftpondia, through PayPal. But I aborted
the purchase when it suddenly looked a bit dodgy.

Next day I get a notification from PayPal that they have paid £120 to
this firm in Beverley Hills. I also get a receipt from the company for
the correct amount in dollars. Yet no zbarl has been taken out of my
bank account.

I ignored it for a couple of days. Then last night I get an email
telling me the drone is being shipped. Still no pnfu has gone from my
account. It can't now either, as I have blocked the company in my PayPal
account.

I suppose, eventually, if it arrives, they'll want it back.

I'll offer to fly it over the pond.

Tone

[Nick Odell]

I have a couple of tiny ones. I bought the first one on eBay for 25p
because it came up in a camera listing I had been scrolling through
and I didn't believe I'd actually get it with my first and only bid.

I bought the second one for a quid in the same way. Both were sold by
people who didn't understand basic electrickery and who claimed they
didn't work any more.

Because they each weigh less than 250g and are sold in toyshops I
exploit the grey area of the wording of the current regulations and
haven't registered either of them (and if you are going to tell me why
I can't do that I should let you know that I already have my fingers
in my ears and am going la la la la - I can't hear you).

I sometimes carry one in my pocket when I am out walking and then if I
see something I want to photograph from a different perspective I
-ahem- open up my coat and whip it out. I get about five minutes
flight time from each battery which is plenty good enough for that
sort of thing.

Nick

[RustyHinge]

I'll send you the emu of one of my neighbours if you like: he uses a
drone for aereated photography.

He'd know a reliable supplier.

--
Rusty Hinge
To err is human. To really foul things up requires a computer and the BOFH.

[Tone]

On 23/11/2021 11:39, RustyHinge wrote:
>
> I'll send you the emu of one of my neighbours if you like: he uses a
> drone for aereated photography.
>
> He'd know a reliable supplier.

uncletone at tempofm dotty co dotty uk

Tone

[Brian Gaff (Sofa)]

Might need a lot of batteries and people on boats to change them all.


So, what is your worry? I think mine would be the interception by the
customs and it costing more for import duty and delivery than the item cost
in the first place.

Brian

--

This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...
bri...@blueyonder.co.uk
Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"Tone" <em...@address.com> wrote in message
news:snih7h$4id$1...@dont-email.me...

[Richard Robinson]

I met someone who was into drone photograpy, a few weeks ago. He had a
time-lapse photo of a wind-farm, with the blades in a couple of dozen
positions. "Like sunflowers", he said. Fantastic.


--
Richard Robinson
"The whole plan hinged upon the natural curiosity of potatoes" - S. Lem

My email address is at http://qualmograph.org.uk/contact.html

[Nick Odell]

On Fri, 26 Nov 2021 19:47:32 -0800 (PST), Don Stockbauer
<donsto...@hotmail.com> wrote:

>I bought a quad copter , took it out and flew it, there was a slight nguyen and it would just drift downnguyen no matter what . its instructions claim it has constipation for a steady nguyen but it doesn't , try to fly it it just winds up down nguyen so it's up on the shelf.
>
It's probably the flatteries. It almost always is. Either they are not
being properly charged or they've been properly charged so many times
they are now exhausted. Or it's the wrong battery in the first place.
Fix the battery issue and it ought to work fine.

>I think I'll get a Benson gyrocopter. I was actually gonna try to get one of those as a teenager but my family said we don't want you dead . maybe that would've been better.

Bensons are cool. No need to end up dead if you stay within the
operational parameters.

Nick

[Maus]

There were stories a while ago that enterprising travellers (nudge,
nudge) were scouting targets with drones. I rang a relative to tell her
that, and she said, "There has been a drone around here all day"


--
grey...@mail.com
That's not a mousehole!

[Tone]

On 27/11/2021 11:26, Maus wrote:
> There were stories a while ago that enterprising travellers (nudge,
> nudge) were scouting targets with drones. I rang a relative to tell her
> that, and she said, "There has been a drone around here all day"

I guess an air rifle shot would fix that.

Tone

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

Air rifles are classed as firearms in this country and require a
license so are paintball guns. Spud guns might not need a license[1] but
there is a law against having realistic imitations in public places without
authorisation.

A slingshot or any kind of bow would be OK though[2], unless it hit
someone or was thought to be threatening someone. You could probably be
successfully sued for damaging it though.

[1] If the spud leaves with 1 joule or more of energy then it's a firearm
and must be licensed.
[2] It needs a muzzle to be a firearm.

--
Steve O'Hara-Smith
Odds and Ends at http://www.sohara.org/

[Nick Odell]

One joule? Wow! That's about the amount of energy expended by an
airsoft gun with a little plastic pellet so your laws seem to have set
the limits incredibly low. I reckon the most dangerous aspect of the
spud gun must be the possibility that the spud carries an infection
and the pellet could be responsible for the next round of Potato
Blight

Nick

[Nick Odell]

Or another drone.

I bought my £1 drone because I thought it might be useful as spare
parts for my 25p drone but since I managed to get each of them to work
properly and since they are similar to each other but not quite as
interchangeable as I had hoped, I fly them both.

The £1 drone had had its rotor guards removed before I got it so the
first horizontal contact it would have with anything else would be a
pair of high-speed spinning blades. In my fantasies about other drones
overflying my property I go outside and politely ask the drone flyer
to respect my privacy and not to do it any more and if they do it
again, to then send up my kamikaze attack drone and bring the offender
down in my garden. It hasn't happened yet: mainly because nobody I can
think of would find the street where I live remotely interesting
enough to overfly.

Nick

[Sam Plusnet]

There's more than one way to strangle a badger.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighter_kite


--
Sam Plusnet

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On Sat, 27 Nov 2021 18:11:38 +0000
Nick Odell <ni...@themusicworkshop.plus.com> wrote:

> One joule? Wow! That's about the amount of energy expended by an
> airsoft gun with a little plastic pellet so your laws seem to have set

Correct an airsoft gun qualifies as a firearm here, they're
perfectly capable of blinding someone.

> the limits incredibly low. I reckon the most dangerous aspect of the

Yes they have pretty much at the point at which the projectile is
capable of causing an injury, I'm not unhappy about that nor about the
banning of realistic imitations. I do occasionally wonder about needle guns
because it seems to me that they could be a lot more dangerous at low
energies - but needle guns are rare (the only one I know of was made by a
school friend of mine just to see if he could) and I suspect there would be
a quick adjustment if that ever changed.

[Maus]

On 2021-11-27, Nick Odell <ni...@themusicworkshop.plus.com> wrote:

I have several toy drones thrown in a corner over there->. Looking at
the internet, I see drones that `Might' be useful at around 12,000
euros. They are dangerous, it is very hard to know how far a person is
from the drone camera, and very easy therefore to actually hit someone.

One of my son's friends brought his to a valley in the mountains, and
sent it off, when it got to where the winds were interrupted, whiff, it
was blown miles away and never found.

The one I described earlier was disposed of by a shotgun blast by her
neighbour. Anyone thinking an airgun would do does not understand the
problems of knowing how far away the thing is. Ask someone who was in a
ack-ack battery when the V1's were coming over, which at this time are
very rare.

[RustyHinge]

What do you understand by the term 'needle gun'?

[RustyHinge]

My stepfather was. By the time V1s began, the Bofors batteries were
radar equipped and the doodle bugs were rarely missed.

I unforget when I was at bawdy fpubby in 1944 I was walking on the Downs
(in crocodile, woodjer bleeve) whenin the sky over the chnnel there
appeared a ragged line of puffs of smoke, then a big red flash and more
smoke.

Then we heard the Bofors battery in Newhaven open up, an almost at the
same time the thuds of the exploding30zz shells - then a noise like
thunder. Ages and ages later a series of echoes of the tableau returned
from the Serapu coast.

What was more random was the accuracy of 3·7" gnus we watched, firing at
drogues towed a long, long way behind a tug (aircraft), but radar ain't
a lot of hfr locating cloff sox innit.

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On Sat, 27 Nov 2021 21:07:58 +0000
RustyHinge <rusty...@foobar.girolle.co.uk> wrote:

> What do you understand by the term 'needle gun'?

A small device that fires a thin pointed needle like projectile.
The only one I've seen was powered by a soda-siphon cartridge and fired
modified pins (no head and a short length of cotton glued on as a tail) hard
enough to push one through a paperback book a few feet away.

[Maus]

On 2021-11-28, Ahem A Rivet's Shot <ste...@eircom.net> wrote:
> On Sat, 27 Nov 2021 21:07:58 +0000
> RustyHinge <rusty...@foobar.girolle.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> What do you understand by the term 'needle gun'?
>
> A small device that fires a thin pointed needle like projectile.
> The only one I've seen was powered by a soda-siphon cartridge and fired
> modified pins (no head and a short length of cotton glued on as a tail) hard
> enough to push one through a paperback book a few feet away.
>

The needle gun was an early rifle used by the prussian army in 19th
centory. The needle penetrate the cartridge and hit a primer at direct
back of the bullet. Main snag was that the needle broke constantly and
had to be replaced. Quickly replaced by modern Mausers after the
Franco-Prussian war.

[Thomas Prufer]

On Sat, 27 Nov 2021 18:11:38 +0000, Nick Odell <ni...@themusicworkshop.plus.com>
wrote:

>One joule? Wow! That's about the amount of energy expended by an
>airsoft gun with a little plastic pellet so your laws seem to have set
>the limits incredibly low. I reckon the most dangerous aspect of the
>spud gun must be the possibility that the spud carries an infection
>and the pellet could be responsible for the next round of Potato
>Blight

Of a one-joule spud gun, yes.

This is very much like* a spud gun, only shooting baseballs:

https://youtu.be/cqidD7kVnxY?t=1071

and the baseballs reach well over Mach 1.


Thomas Prufer





* well, maybe...

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On 28 Nov 2021 08:58:09 GMT

Maus <Grey...@mail.com> wrote:

> On 2021-11-28, Ahem A Rivet's Shot <ste...@eircom.net> wrote:
> > On Sat, 27 Nov 2021 21:07:58 +0000
> > RustyHinge <rusty...@foobar.girolle.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> >> What do you understand by the term 'needle gun'?
> >
> > A small device that fires a thin pointed needle like projectile.
> > The only one I've seen was powered by a soda-siphon cartridge and fired
> > modified pins (no head and a short length of cotton glued on as a tail)
> > hard enough to push one through a paperback book a few feet away.
> >
>
> The needle gun was an early rifle used by the prussian army in 19th
> centory. The needle penetrate the cartridge and hit a primer at direct

I see, I'd not come across that before. My first encounter with the
term was in the hands of Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius character
whose needle gun fired needles laced with a mixture of curare and LSD, I'd
hate to experience that! Michael Moorcock had a nasty imagination.

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 10:42:51 +0100
Thomas Prufer <prufer...@mnet-online.de.invalid> wrote:

> On Sat, 27 Nov 2021 18:11:38 +0000, Nick Odell
> <ni...@themusicworkshop.plus.com> wrote:
>
> >One joule? Wow! That's about the amount of energy expended by an
> >airsoft gun with a little plastic pellet so your laws seem to have set
> >the limits incredibly low. I reckon the most dangerous aspect of the
> >spud gun must be the possibility that the spud carries an infection
> >and the pellet could be responsible for the next round of Potato
> >Blight
>
> Of a one-joule spud gun, yes.
>
> This is very much like* a spud gun, only shooting baseballs:
>
> https://youtu.be/cqidD7kVnxY?t=1071

It seems there are two things called spud guns. One is a canon that
launches a whole potato the other is a toy gun that fires a small pellet of
potato made by digging the end of the gun (or cap cartridge) into the spud.

They came in cap fired versions that looked like a tiny revolver
and held a metal cartridge with the spud in one end and a cap (or three) on
the other and air fired varieties like this (which seem to be the only ones
made now):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spud_gun

This looks like the cap based one I had when I was twelve:

https://www.etsy.com/ie/listing/807238503/cap-gun-pistol-made-in-england-potato?ref=reviews

With two or three paper caps or a cut down plastic cap (the ones
that came in rings) behind it the spud pellet did sting.

[Nicholas D. Richards]

In article <20211128103129.66d8...@eircom.net>, Ahem A
Rivet's Shot <ste...@eircom.net> on Sun, 28 Nov 2021 at 10:31:29 awoke
Nicholas from his slumbers and wrote

Nice bang could be had with two largish bolts screwed into either side
of a nut, Between them were place a 'number' of the paper caps. Screw
hand tight and throw into the air landing on concrete. Certainly loader
than you got out of pop gun.
--
0sterc@tcher -

"Oů sont les neiges d'antan?"

[Nick Odell]

On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 09:39:16 +0000, Ahem A Rivet's Shot

<ste...@eircom.net> wrote:

>On 28 Nov 2021 08:58:09 GMT
>Maus <Grey...@mail.com> wrote:
>
>> On 2021-11-28, Ahem A Rivet's Shot <ste...@eircom.net> wrote:
>> > On Sat, 27 Nov 2021 21:07:58 +0000
>> > RustyHinge <rusty...@foobar.girolle.co.uk> wrote:
>> >
>> >> What do you understand by the term 'needle gun'?
>> >
>> > A small device that fires a thin pointed needle like projectile.
>> > The only one I've seen was powered by a soda-siphon cartridge and fired
>> > modified pins (no head and a short length of cotton glued on as a tail)
>> > hard enough to push one through a paperback book a few feet away.
>> >
>>
>> The needle gun was an early rifle used by the prussian army in 19th
>> centory. The needle penetrate the cartridge and hit a primer at direct
>
> I see, I'd not come across that before. My first encounter with the
>term was in the hands of Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius character
>whose needle gun fired needles laced with a mixture of curare and LSD, I'd
>hate to experience that! Michael Moorcock had a nasty imagination.

Not necessarily imagination.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Needlegun#In_fiction links here from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flechette#Small-arms_ammunition where it
cheerfully says:

Work at Johns Hopkins University in the 1950s led to the development
of the direct injection antipersonnel chemical biological agent
(DIACBA), where flechettes were grooved, hollow pointed, or otherwise
milled to retain a quantity of chemical or biological warfare agent to
be delivered through a ballistic wound. The initial work was with the
nerve agent VX, which had to be thickened to deliver a reliable dose.
Eventually this was replaced by a particulate carbamate. The US
Biological Program also had a microflechette to deliver either
botulinum toxin A or saxitoxin, the M1 biodart, which resembled a 7.62
mm rifle cartridge.

Nick

[Richard Robinson]

When I was a kid, I had a peashooter. Wad of plasticene with a pin
sticking out ... just to see, yes. I then took it apart, because it
was obviously capable of doing Damage, with bad luck.

[Richard Robinson]

Gurglemaps Street View ...

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 13:21:24 +0000
Nick Odell <ni...@themusicworkshop.plus.com> wrote:

> On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 09:39:16 +0000, Ahem A Rivet's Shot

> >whose needle gun fired needles laced with a mixture of curare and LSD,
> >I'd hate to experience that! Michael Moorcock had a nasty imagination.
>
> Not necessarily imagination.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Needlegun#In_fiction links here from
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flechette#Small-arms_ammunition where it
> cheerfully says:

I might have know he got the idea of a needle gun from somewhere,
the term flechette gun I usually associate with something that fires a
bunch of needles at once - they appear more often in fiction than needle
guns usually described as being like a pepper pot at the business end.

> Work at Johns Hopkins University in the 1950s led to the development
> of the direct injection antipersonnel chemical biological agent
> (DIACBA), where flechettes were grooved, hollow pointed, or otherwise
> milled to retain a quantity of chemical or biological warfare agent to

I was thinking of his particular mix when I said nasty imagination,
I truly dread to think what a sublethal dose of curare coupled with LSD
would do to the sanity of the victim - he reputedly had direct experience
with the effects of LSD, as have I.

> be delivered through a ballistic wound. The initial work was with the
> nerve agent VX, which had to be thickened to deliver a reliable dose.
> Eventually this was replaced by a particulate carbamate. The US
> Biological Program also had a microflechette to deliver either
> botulinum toxin A or saxitoxin, the M1 biodart, which resembled a 7.62
> mm rifle cartridge.

I see he's not the only one with a nasty imagination, mine is not
so nasty the worst I came up with was a sodium sliver under a water soluble
film - I expect it would hurt, a lot.

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 12:54:12 +0000
"Nicholas D. Richards" <nich...@salmiron.com> wrote:

> Nice bang could be had with two largish bolts screwed into either side
> of a nut, Between them were place a 'number' of the paper caps. Screw
> hand tight and throw into the air landing on concrete. Certainly loader
> than you got out of pop gun.

Containment works wonders for explosives.

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 08:26:20 -0600
Richard Robinson <rich...@privacy.net> wrote:

> When I was a kid, I had a peashooter. Wad of plasticene with a pin
> sticking out ... just to see, yes. I then took it apart, because it
> was obviously capable of doing Damage, with bad luck.

I have a fairly clear memory of making a crossbow out of a single
blade of leaf spring and a grooved piece of wood that probably came from a
school desk somehow the details of the trigger mechanism are vague but the
sawn off six inch nail embedded into a tree is a clear memory (it scared
the penc out of me).

The thing about this is that given where it was I must have been
under six years old - I was involved in building pram wheel based go carts
at the time but still it has always seemed a very advanced bit of jbex for
my age. Neither parents nor siblings remember it - but then I was left to
my own devices a lot and the beer garden of the pub we lived in was huge.

Was it real or did I invent the memory somewhere along the line,
I'll never know - even the tree is gone there's an estate where the
Rosemary Branch used to be in Cherryhinton (careful I might smile).

[RustyHinge]

That was a needle-fire gnu, and was why I asked.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyse_needle_gun

[Peter]

Ahem A Rivet's Shot <ste...@eircom.net> wrote in
news:20211128155831.69a8...@eircom.net:

> On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 08:26:20 -0600
> Richard Robinson <rich...@privacy.net> wrote:
>
>> When I was a kid, I had a peashooter. Wad of plasticene with a pin
>> sticking out ... just to see, yes. I then took it apart, because it
>> was obviously capable of doing Damage, with bad luck.
>
> I have a fairly clear memory of making a crossbow out of a single
> blade of leaf spring and a grooved piece of wood that probably came
> from a school desk somehow the details of the trigger mechanism are
> vague but the sawn off six inch nail embedded into a tree is a clear
> memory (it scared the penc out of me).

My grandfather gave me a very old Diana air rifle when I was a nipper - I
can't remember how old but I do remember my mother being very displeased.
It was knackered: it had a range of 2-3 yards, depending on the
projectile. With hindsight I wouldn't be at all surprised if either my
grandfather or my father (or maybe both) had dismantled it and sawn the
spring in half before I was allowed to use it. I loved that gun but it
mysteriously disappeared at some stage.

--
Peter
-----

[RustyHinge]

Unlikely to have been a factual memory. When I was a teenager I molished
a crossbow using a suspension spring. Its performance was woeful: a
swift downward parabola. Penetration was around zilch.

I modified it eventually to use 4 of coil springs in tension.

[Tone]

On 28/11/2021 17:48, Peter wrote:
> I loved that gun but it
> mysteriously disappeared at some stage.

Stock conjuring trick in a local theatre was it?

Tone

[Nick Odell]

I seem to recall from the seventies or eighties that USian troops were
going into battle with 7.62mm calibre[1] weapons loaded with
flechettes encased in disposable sabots[2] which flew at supersonic
speeds. It's not so much that they would hurt a lot, more that the
impact would likely blow a limb right off. Unpleasantnesses are narsty
businesses eh, wot?

Nick
[1]As they were USian, ought I have said "caliber"?
[2]Nice bit of redundancy in my language, don't you think? I'll be
talking about ATM machines and PIN numbers before you know it

[RustyHinge]

On 28/11/2021 17:48, Peter wrote:

I arrived home with a ferret one day. On the grounds that I would smell
of ferret (reasonable) the Old Man made me take it back. Dig, for it was
he who provided the ferret, allowed me to choose from a variety of other
treasures. I chose an air pistol, one of those you pushed in the muzzle
and then loaded from the back. I also got a packet of ·177" darts.

I set up a target on the lawn and when the Old Man came home, he swiped
it and I never saw it again.

When I molished a gnu which went "BNAG!", did I proudly show the old man?

[Thomas Prufer]

On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 12:54:12 +0000, "Nicholas D. Richards"
<nich...@salmiron.com> wrote:

>In article <20211128103129.66d8...@eircom.net>, Ahem A
>Rivet's Shot <ste...@eircom.net> on Sun, 28 Nov 2021 at 10:31:29 awoke
>Nicholas from his slumbers and wrote
>>On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 10:42:51 +0100

>> It seems there are two things called spud guns. One is a canon that
>>launches a whole potato the other is a toy gun that fires a small pellet of
>>potato made by digging the end of the gun (or cap cartridge) into the spud.
>>
>> They came in cap fired versions that looked like a tiny revolver
>>and held a metal cartridge with the spud in one end and a cap (or three) on
>>the other and air fired varieties like this (which seem to be the only ones
>>made now):
>>
>>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spud_gun
>>
>> This looks like the cap based one I had when I was twelve:
>>
>>https://www.etsy.com/ie/listing/807238503/cap-gun-pistol-made-in-england-
>>potato?ref=reviews
>>
>> With two or three paper caps or a cut down plastic cap (the ones
>>that came in rings) behind it the spud pellet did sting.
>>
>Nice bang could be had with two largish bolts screwed into either side
>of a nut, Between them were place a 'number' of the paper caps. Screw
>hand tight and throw into the air landing on concrete. Certainly loader
>than you got out of pop gun.

I has several of the "dig out a bit of spud, squeeze, pop out" ones. One alone
is no good, need several for a battle...

I also had little plastic finned bomb-shaped cap things: either place plastic
cap on metal tip and toss. Or place one or more of the paper strip caps under
the anvil. We almost always used the paper ones, as the plastic ones were much
more expensive.

<https://images.feuerwerk-forum.de/2018/01/346616_a04fdeb0bf773bec852599a5e75b4cec.jpeg>


Thomas Prufer

[Chris Elvidge]

I remember having both these toys, too. Much fun!

--
Chris Elvidge
England

[Thomas Prufer]

On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 14:21:03 +0000, Ahem A Rivet's Shot <ste...@eircom.net>
wrote:

>On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 12:54:12 +0000
>"Nicholas D. Richards" <nich...@salmiron.com> wrote:
>
>> Nice bang could be had with two largish bolts screwed into either side
>> of a nut, Between them were place a 'number' of the paper caps. Screw
>> hand tight and throw into the air landing on concrete. Certainly loader
>> than you got out of pop gun.
>
> Containment works wonders for explosives.

Those caps contain "Armstrong's mixture", which is known and feared in
pyrotechnic circles for going off at inopportune moments. The standard charge
for a paper cap is around 10 milligrams...

Thomas Prufer

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 13:21:03 +0100
Thomas Prufer <prufer...@mnet-online.de.invalid> wrote:

> I also had little plastic finned bomb-shaped cap things: either place
> plastic cap on metal tip and toss. Or place one or more of the paper
> strip caps under the anvil. We almost always used the paper ones, as the
> plastic ones were much more expensive.
>
> <https://images.feuerwerk-forum.de/2018/01/346616_a04fdeb0bf773bec852599a5e75b4cec.jpeg>

I unforget those and had one or two - I never knew that tip was for
plastic caps though, they always got paper caps in them.

[Richard Robinson]

Metoo. But, not v. impressive pops, even with several.

My brother used to open the caps, build a little pile of powdered gnu
and set if off with fusewire.

[RustyHinge]

I made my bnag!s from first principles.

[Tone]

On 29/11/2021 12:21, Thomas Prufer wrote:
> I also had little plastic finned bomb-shaped cap things: either place plastic
> cap on metal tip and toss. Or place one or more of the paper strip caps under
> the anvil. We almost always used the paper ones, as the plastic ones were much
> more expensive.

I had a small metal one on a home made hanky panky para shoot. Used to
wrap it up and fire it in the air with a catapult. It would float down
fast enough to fire the caps inside when it landed in the street. Great fun!

Home made bows (not bows or bows) and arrers could also be pretty lethal
if the arrers were flighted right with chicken fevvers.

Looking down tappy tappy cyber powered kids nowadays don't know they're
bornded.

Tone

[Peter]

Thomas Prufer <prufer...@mnet-online.de.invalid> wrote in
news:9of9qg554rh31k4ib...@4ax.com:

> I also had little plastic finned bomb-shaped cap things: either place
> plastic cap on metal tip and toss. Or place one or more of the paper
> strip caps under the anvil. We almost always used the paper ones, as
> the plastic ones were much more expensive.
>
> <https://images.feuerwerk-forum.de/2018/01/346616_a04fdeb0bf773bec85259
> 9a5e75b4cec.jpeg>

I had one of those as a kid, though it didn't look as flashy as the one
in your photo. A tapered torpedo-shape - unscrewed the metal head from
the plastic body to inset the caps.

--
Peter
-----

[Maus]

Oh, dear god, I had hoped that thing had been lost to memory. Incredible
dangerous.

[Maus]

On 2021-11-28, Ahem A Rivet's Shot <ste...@eircom.net> wrote:
> On 28 Nov 2021 08:58:09 GMT
> Maus <Grey...@mail.com> wrote:
>
>> On 2021-11-28, Ahem A Rivet's Shot <ste...@eircom.net> wrote:
>> > On Sat, 27 Nov 2021 21:07:58 +0000
>> > RustyHinge <rusty...@foobar.girolle.co.uk> wrote:
>> >
>> >> What do you understand by the term 'needle gun'?
>> >
>> > A small device that fires a thin pointed needle like projectile.
>> > The only one I've seen was powered by a soda-siphon cartridge and fired
>> > modified pins (no head and a short length of cotton glued on as a tail)
>> > hard enough to push one through a paperback book a few feet away.
>> >
>>
>> The needle gun was an early rifle used by the prussian army in 19th
>> centory. The needle penetrate the cartridge and hit a primer at direct
>
> I see, I'd not come across that before. My first encounter with the
> term was in the hands of Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius character
> whose needle gun fired needles laced with a mixture of curare and LSD, I'd
> hate to experience that! Michael Moorcock had a nasty imagination.
>

I must download and read some of his books. He was a good writer.

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On 29 Nov 2021 15:33:26 GMT

Maus <Grey...@mail.com> wrote:

> I must download and read some of his books. He was a good writer.

Yes apart from his tendency to write essentially the same book many
times (the eternal champion series gets a tad repetitive) - still can't
blame a pro for doing what sells.

[Richard Robinson]

RustyHinge said:
>
> I made my bnag!s from first principles.

Famously explosive things, them.

[RustyHinge]

On 29/11/2021 17:01, Richard Robinson wrote:
> RustyHinge said:
>>
>> I made my bnag!s from first principles.
>
> Famously explosive things, them.

And once, when my plans went awry, and it wooden go off, would have
landed me in very hot water.

Never trid to molish (and unmolish) glyceryl trinitrate again.

[RustyHinge]

Oh no. I unforget using red match heads, or the stuff broken off them to
provide the oomph.

I may have to tell you about the emptying of a short stretch of the
River Roding one day...

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 17:59:29 +0000
RustyHinge <rusty...@foobar.girolle.co.uk> wrote:

> I may have to tell you about the emptying of a short stretch of the
> River Roding one day...

A fiend of mine once emptied the village pond making a small
propane cylinder explode.

[Sam Plusnet]

Thing I could never jbex out was, things like them would become a sudden
craze at school.
After a while the school would ban them from the playground & the craze
would go away (something else would crop up later to replace it).
Sometime a year or so later, the craze would start all over again.

--
Sam Plusnet

[Tim+]

Ahem A Rivet's Shot <ste...@eircom.net> wrote:

> On 29 Nov 2021 15:33:26 GMT
> Maus <Grey...@mail.com> wrote:
>
>> I must download and read some of his books. He was a good writer.
>
> Yes apart from his tendency to write essentially the same book many
> times (the eternal champion series gets a tad repetitive) - still can't
> blame a pro for doing what sells.
>

In my first (long) term at Uni, I bought one of his books every day. I
don’t recall ever finding that I’d run out of new titles to read,

Tim

--
Please don't feed the trolls

[Maus]

On 2021-11-29, Ahem A Rivet's Shot <ste...@eircom.net> wrote:
> On 29 Nov 2021 15:33:26 GMT
> Maus <Grey...@mail.com> wrote:
>
>> I must download and read some of his books. He was a good writer.
>
> Yes apart from his tendency to write essentially the same book many
> times (the eternal champion series gets a tad repetitive) - still can't
> blame a pro for doing what sells.
>

They all do that.

[Maus]

Louis L'Amour did that as well (my favourite writer)

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On 29 Nov 2021 19:56:21 GMT

Maus <Grey...@mail.com> wrote:

> On 2021-11-29, Ahem A Rivet's Shot <ste...@eircom.net> wrote:
> > On 29 Nov 2021 15:33:26 GMT
> > Maus <Grey...@mail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> I must download and read some of his books. He was a good writer.
> >
> > Yes apart from his tendency to write essentially the same book
> > many times (the eternal champion series gets a tad repetitive) - still
> > can't blame a pro for doing what sells.
>
> They all do that.

Most anyway - I always admired Spedding for her response to her
publisher wanting more of the same after her "Walk in the Dark" trilogy
(Alexander the Great thinly disguised as a lesbian). She said she'd done
that and didn't want to do it again - then hootered off to Peru to write
a bilingual novel in English and an obscure South American language I'd
never heard of and now can't remember the name. Wound up getting rescued
from jail there by her fan club (she was a bit fond of the marching powder).

[Nicholas D. Richards]

In article <slrnsq9sgd....@dmaus.org>, Maus <Grey...@mail.com>
on Mon, 29 Nov 2021 at 15:30:21 awoke Nicholas from his slumbers and

wrote
>On 2021-11-28, Nicholas D. Richards <nich...@salmiron.com> wrote:
>> In article <20211128103129.66d8...@eircom.net>, Ahem A
>> Rivet's Shot <ste...@eircom.net> on Sun, 28 Nov 2021 at 10:31:29 awoke
>> Nicholas from his slumbers and wrote
>>>On Sun, 28 Nov 2021 10:42:51 +0100
>>>Thomas Prufer <prufer...@mnet-online.de.invalid> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Sat, 27 Nov 2021 18:11:38 +0000, Nick Odell
>>>> <ni...@themusicworkshop.plus.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>
>> Nice bang could be had with two largish bolts screwed into either side
>> of a nut, Between them were place a 'number' of the paper caps. Screw
>> hand tight and throw into the air landing on concrete. Certainly loader
>> than you got out of pop gun.
>
>Oh, dear god, I had hoped that thing had been lost to memory. Incredible
>dangerous.
>
>

They may faded from memory. None of mine seem to have had any
inclination in that direction. Perhaps they teach the right(wrong)
chemistry at school?
--
0sterc@tcher -

"Oů sont les neiges d'antan?"

[Nicholas D. Richards]

In article <ZM9pJ.351796$xalc....@fx12.ams1>, Sam Plusnet
<n...@home.com> on Mon, 29 Nov 2021 at 19:23:37 awoke Nicholas from his

Ditto stink bombs. Horrible things though.
--
0sterc@tcher -

"Où sont les neiges d'antan?"

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 21:52:44 +0000

"Nicholas D. Richards" <nich...@salmiron.com> wrote:

> In article <ZM9pJ.351796$xalc....@fx12.ams1>, Sam Plusnet

> >Thing I could never jbex out was, things like them would become a sudden
> >craze at school.
> >After a while the school would ban them from the playground & the craze
> >would go away (something else would crop up later to replace it).
> >Sometime a year or so later, the craze would start all over again.
> >
> Ditto stink bombs. Horrible things though.

Also itching powder (joke shop or rose hip hairs) nasty nasty stuff.

[Richard Robinson]

Hula hoops, Davy Crocket hats. Skipping for boys. Yoyos.

[Nicholas D. Richards]

In article <20211129234041.a243...@eircom.net>, Ahem A
Rivet's Shot <ste...@eircom.net> on Mon, 29 Nov 2021 at 23:40:41 awoke

Nicholas from his slumbers and wrote

On the other hand whoopee cushions and mucky pup. Not nasty
--
0sterc@tcher -

"Oů sont les neiges d'antan?"

[RustyHinge]

hmmm. unforgets me of Ellisdons

[Thomas Prufer]

On Mon, 29 Nov 2021 21:58:40 +0000, "Nicholas D. Richards"
<nich...@salmiron.com> wrote:

>They may faded from memory. None of mine seem to have had any
>inclination in that direction. Perhaps they teach the right(wrong)
>chemistry at school?

Eh. Read this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_M._Klap%C3%B6tke

Works on better explosives that are also biodegradable and environmentally
sound, at the (well, one) University of Munich...



Thomas Prufer

[Nick Odell]

Oh. THAT University of Munich

Not the one that inexplicably disappeared in a puff of organic, vegan
and enviromentally-friendly smoke one day and nobody was quite sure
why?

Nick

[Mike Fleming]

I think I have a couple of shelves-worth of his books upstairs. Must get
round to re-reading them sometime.

[Mike Fleming]

On 29/11/2021 12:21, Thomas Prufer wrote:
>

> I has several of the "dig out a bit of spud, squeeze, pop out" ones. One alone
> is no good, need several for a battle...

Sekiden gnus? I remember having one.

> I also had little plastic finned bomb-shaped cap things: either place plastic
> cap on metal tip and toss. Or place one or more of the paper strip caps under
> the anvil. We almost always used the paper ones, as the plastic ones were much
> more expensive.
>
> <https://images.feuerwerk-forum.de/2018/01/346616_a04fdeb0bf773bec852599a5e75b4cec.jpeg>

I had one of those too. Paper caps under anvil for me.

[Mike Fleming]

On 29/11/2021 17:01, Richard Robinson wrote:

> RustyHinge said:
>>
>> I made my bnag!s from first principles.
>
> Famously explosive things, them.

Scratch is a more useful material, rather less single-purpose.

[Mike Fleming]

On 29/11/2021 19:23, Sam Plusnet wrote:
>
> Thing I could never jbex out was, things like them would become a sudden
> craze at school.
> After a while the school would ban them from the playground & the craze
> would go away (something else would crop up later to replace it).
> Sometime a year or so later, the craze would start all over again.

Just remembered another mini-craze - Magnetops.

https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/pict/132038514782_/Vintage-1960s-Magnetop-Duncan-Yo-Yo-Spinning-Top.jpg

And clackers - banned from many schools. It's all good fun until
somebody loses an eye.

https://i0.wp.com/www.writeofthemiddle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Clackers-FeatureImage.jpg

[Peter]

"Nicholas D. Richards" <nich...@salmiron.com> wrote in
news:icbH$mAsuU...@salmiron.com:

> Ditto stink bombs. Horrible things though.

I managed to score a half-litre bottle of ammonium sulphide{1] from a
shop in Manchester. Made life rather unplesant for Prunts and teachers
for a while, until it was taken off me and disposed of somewhere. Into
the Irwell, I should imagine.

[1]it's sulfide now, but I refuse.
--
Peter
-----

[Nicholas D. Richards]

In article <j0mrdv...@mid.individual.net>, Mike Fleming
<mi...@tauzero.co.uk> on Tue, 30 Nov 2021 at 14:39:58 awoke Nicholas

from his slumbers and wrote

>On 29/11/2021 19:23, Sam Plusnet wrote:
>>
>> Thing I could never jbex out was, things like them would become a sudden
>> craze at school.
>> After a while the school would ban them from the playground & the craze
>> would go away (something else would crop up later to replace it).
>> Sometime a year or so later, the craze would start all over again.
>
>Just remembered another mini-craze - Magnetops.
>
>https://www.picclickimg.com/d/l400/pict/132038514782_/Vintage-1960s-Magnetop-
>Duncan-Yo-Yo-Spinning-Top.jpg

Never saw one of those. Had one of these circa 1950 and frozen to death.

http://tinyurl.com/2p8fctx5

The hum used to drive my Mum mad until she stuffed it with one of my
Dad's hankies. Never worked after that.

>
>And clackers - banned from many schools. It's all good fun until
>somebody loses an eye.
>
>https://i0.wp.com/www.writeofthemiddle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Clackers-
>FeatureImage.jpg

After my time and probably before my son's time. He could 'walk the dog'
though.

[Mike Fleming]

And fosforus.

The leftpondians won't stop misspelling aluminium so I won't stop
spelling sulphur properly.

[Richard Robinson]

Mike Fleming said:
>>
> all good fun until
> somebody loses an eye.

Spinning off at another tangerine, I'd like to commend the Chris
Brookmyre novel of that name. Splendid fun (until ...), if you
enjoy pisstaking thrillers.

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On Tue, 30 Nov 2021 14:34:00 +0000
Mike Fleming <mi...@tauzero.co.uk> wrote:

> Sekiden gnus? I remember having one.

Not a name I know so I fwse'd - seems it's a make not a model they
made a lot of gnus most of which seem to be able to fire something and be
some variant on an airgnu. There were air powered and cap powered spud
gnus, only the air powered ones seem to remain.

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On Tue, 30 Nov 2021 15:09:15 -0000 (UTC)
Peter <mys...@prune.org.uk> wrote:

> [1]it's sulfide now, but I refuse.

but not rephuse in protest.

[RustyHinge]

The Leftpondians just didn't ad-just when the rest of the whirled added
the 'i' - the original speeling *was* aluminum, but the 'i' was added to
bring it into line with the others - sodium, lithium, barium,
unobtainium and aquarium.

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On Tue, 30 Nov 2021 18:12:48 +0000
RustyHinge <rusty...@foobar.girolle.co.uk> wrote:

> unobtainium and aquarium.

byzantium and delerium.

[RustyHinge]

On 30/11/2021 18:46, Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:
> On Tue, 30 Nov 2021 18:12:48 +0000
> RustyHinge <rusty...@foobar.girolle.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> unobtainium and aquarium.
>
> byzantium and delerium.

You can go on, but don't go further than tedium.

[Tim+]

RustyHinge <rusty...@foobar.girolle.co.uk> wrote:
> On 30/11/2021 18:46, Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:
>> On Tue, 30 Nov 2021 18:12:48 +0000
>> RustyHinge <rusty...@foobar.girolle.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>>> unobtainium and aquarium.
>>
>> byzantium and delerium.
>
> You can go on, but don't go further than tedium.
>

And there might be many others but they haven’t been discarvared.

[Tone]

On 30/11/2021 16:42, Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:
> On Tue, 30 Nov 2021 14:34:00 +0000
> Mike Fleming <mi...@tauzero.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> Sekiden gnus? I remember having one.
>
> Not a name I know so I fwse'd - seems it's a make not a model they
> made a lot of gnus most of which seem to be able to fire something and be
> some variant on an airgnu. There were air powered and cap powered spud
> gnus, only the air powered ones seem to remain.
>

I unforgets being given one of those small toy field gnus that fired
matchsticks. It only lasted half of Christmas Day. It was surprisingly
powerful. Maybe I was unwise to aim it at me dad's ear'ole. It was a
good shot, but it was my ear that was ringing afterwards.

Tone

[chr...@privacy.net]

On 30/11/2021 15:09, Peter wrote:

I remember my school chemistry teacher telling us that potassium was
originally spelt potashium but when its discover gave his first lecture,
everyone thought he was pi$$ed and so the name was changed.
I have no knowledge of the truth of this.
Chris

[Nicholas D. Richards]

In article <XnsADF29A26EC...@144.76.35.252>, Peter
<mys...@prune.org.uk> on Tue, 30 Nov 2021 at 15:09:15 awoke Nicholas

from his slumbers and wrote

Would not have made much difference to the Irwell in those days. Always
covered in sulphurous froth.

I have not been there in 20 years; what is it like now, anyone?
--
0sterc@tcher -

"Oů sont les neiges d'antan?"

[Thomas Prufer]

On Tue, 30 Nov 2021 16:42:29 +0000, Ahem A Rivet's Shot <ste...@eircom.net>
wrote:

>On Tue, 30 Nov 2021 14:34:00 +0000
>Mike Fleming <mi...@tauzero.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> Sekiden gnus? I remember having one.
>
> Not a name I know so I fwse'd - seems it's a make not a model they
>made a lot of gnus most of which seem to be able to fire something and be
>some variant on an airgnu. There were air powered and cap powered spud
>gnus, only the air powered ones seem to remain.

The one I have is

https://www.amazon.com/Schylling-PG-Potato-Gun/dp/B0006GK8H8

and is sufficiently lame to appease the parent in me.


Thomas Prufer

[Peter]

"Nicholas D. Richards" <nich...@salmiron.com> wrote in

news:TNJbbSAn...@salmiron.com:

In the '50s it was covered in detergent froth, but legislation requiring
all detergents to be biodegradable was brought in in the'60s and that
helped with the frothing but still left the river polluted with other
wastes. We used to refer to it as the Inkwell.
But nowadays it is not at all bad: I haven't been back since the days of
my yoof but there's a series of ubend videos by Martin Zero on the rivers
of Manchester: here's one of his Irwell ones:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4ElbJ0CaSU



--
Peter
-----

[Thomas Prufer]

On Tue, 30 Nov 2021 10:59:29 +0000, Nick Odell <ni...@themusicworkshop.plus.com>
wrote:

>Oh. THAT University of Munich

There is the Technical University of Munich, which does proper and manly stuff
like Engineering and Physics (and incidentally Brewing). The there's the
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität which dabbles in the Humanities, at least the
members and alumni of the above assume they are doing Something over there.
(They do have a few doctors and hospitals and vets and biologists and such.)
Also the University of the Armed Forces. Then the University of Applied
Sciences, a bit infra dig, but definitely above a slew of many smaller
institutions -- universities, colleges, etc.

>Not the one that inexplicably disappeared in a puff of organic, vegan
>and enviromentally-friendly smoke one day and nobody was quite sure
>why?

See above:-)

Must be fun to twist atoms together to form molecules like a wound-up spring,
ready to go pop when provoked.


Thomas Prufer

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On Wed, 1 Dec 2021 09:59:40 +0000
Tone <em...@address.com> wrote:

> Maybe I was unwise to aim it at me dad's ear'ole. It was a
> good shot, but it was my ear that was ringing afterwards.

You learned an important lesson about target selection that day. My
batmobile fired matchsticks - sort of, a bit like an average ten year old
tosses a caber.

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On Wed, 01 Dec 2021 13:15:16 +0100
Thomas Prufer <prufer...@mnet-online.de.invalid> wrote:

> The one I have is
>
> https://www.amazon.com/Schylling-PG-Potato-Gun/dp/B0006GK8H8
>
> and is sufficiently lame to appease the parent in me.

That certainly looks a lot tamer than the (probably die-cast) thing
I had. It looked like a small single shot pistol and broke open to reveal a
metal cartridge which pulled out (I never found spares for sale though). The
cartridge had a triangular spud digging hole on the front and cap plate on
the back linked by a small central hole. A few paper caps and it would sting
through clothes at ten feet.

[Ahem A Rivet's Shot]

On Wed, 1 Dec 2021 13:52:58 +0000

Ahem A Rivet's Shot <ste...@eircom.net> wrote:

> That certainly looks a lot tamer than the (probably die-cast)
> thing I had. It looked like a small single shot pistol and broke open to

I should add that I scoured every shop and catalogue I could find
in search of a revolver version - there wasn't one.

[Thomas Prufer]

On Wed, 1 Dec 2021 13:52:58 +0000, Ahem A Rivet's Shot <ste...@eircom.net>
wrote:

About like a small spring "airsoft" set of gnus I have. Might sting a bit.
Kidses got protective glasses, recognizably by Smith&Wesson, via a surplus shop,
and didn't hurt themselves enough to complain. I asked if I could use them to
shoo off aerial rats -- "good luck hitting anything that small over ten-fifteen
feet" was the answer.


Thomas Prufer

[Richard Robinson]

There used to be shedmoots in the Mark Addy (pub), alongside the river.
It wasn't frothy, but I'd hate to drink it.

"She sat by the banks of the dirty grey river
And tried for a fish with a worm on a pin
There was nothing but fever and ghosts in the water"


Also the irksome Mirk.

[Peter]

Richard Robinson <rich...@privacy.net> wrote in
news:BJCdnS-ir6_TCzr8...@brightview.co.uk:

>
> Also the irksome Mirk.
>

And the Medlock and Tib, eventually the mirky Mersey, and one or two
others, like Boggart Hole Brook.

Mostly they are underground: there's an plughole in the Rochdale canal,
right in the centre of the city, that drains into the Tib 15 feet below.

--
Peter
-----

[RustyHinge]

Were you a Zetnut? I've been to one of those Mark Addy moots.