'Drano Bombs' Plumb Scary

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July 17, 2003 -- Cops are on the lookout for a new street weapons, dubbed "Drano bombs," that have injured nine people since April.

They said youngsters have been shaking plastic bottles filled with water and Drano, which explode a short time later.

Eleven "bombs" were tossed - into a schoolyard and along Jewel Avenue in Queens - during one spree on May 9, cops said.

None of the victims, who included a 3-year-old and a 6-year-old, were seriously injured.

The first two attacks, on a Bronx bus on April 29 and in a Bronx dry cleaner on May 5, were committed by the same two kids.

One of the youths was also arrested in a third incident, in the hallway of a Bronx building on May 7.

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I'm not sure what to make of this.:scrutiny:
 
it seems pretty simple - we must license the use and ownership of water and outlaw bottles immediately
 
If anyone is thinking about trying this or something like it:
A couple of local 18 year olds made something similar, I don't know exactly what they used but they were caught and convicted of "Manufacturing an explosive device"
Wonder what happens now when they go to buy thier first gun and their name goes through the NCIS?
 
Well it looks like some kids still pay attention in high school chemistry class. While we are at it licensing water, Drano, tin foil, and pool acid,... lets go back to the Dark Ages and outlaw knowledge too.
 
you haven't noticed them outlawing knowledge?

heck, most the IP and copyright law of the last 2-3 years basically outlaws "figuring stuff out".
 
Drano, the basic hydrogen generator. Same thing if you use common household lye and tin foil.m We used to fill a baloon with the hydrogen gas given off by same and set them off.

We used to do the same thing with the old aluminum film cans, lye, and a bit of water. Definitely a bit dangerous but it was a lot of fun.

The real fun thing to do is to take a dish detergent bottle with the little top that pulls up to open and pushes down to close. Put dry ice in the bottle, some water, and place the cap on with the top open. Then, when you're ready, slam the top shut and throw the thing as far as you can. BOOM!

The best one for a loud report and little or no danger is to take a 3 foot length of water pipe capped at one end and a touch hole. Fill 'er up with acetylene and touch 'er off. Big bang, no problem. This is the same gas used in the Big Bang cannons which use carbide powder and water to generate the acetylene.

Look for all of the above, which were staples of our youth, to be outlawed in the near future.
 
We used to take the drano and aluminum, put it inside a toilet paper roll in the back of an old toy truck, taped to a coke bottle full of water. We'd shoot the coke bottle with a BB gun, and the toy truck would take off across the blacktop of our culs-de-sac like a flying nocturnal mammal out of hades. Great fun.
 
I grew up in mining country, and carbide (for the miners' lamps) was readily available. An inch of water in a screw-top bottle, add two tablespoons of carbide and screw on the top. set it down and walk away, or throw it if the reaction is vigorous. This produces a pleasing shower of glass.

My only regret is that we didn't think of a way to ignite the gas when the bottle broke. :D
 
The Drano Bomb can pack a pretty good punch. Back when I used to work at a steel mill, we played around with one in the scrap yard.

We took a two liter soda bottle that was wrapped with duct tape and put aluminium foil down in it. We then poored some high acid toilet bowl cleaner in the bottle, put the lid on, and duct taped it.

My coworker then threw it in the freezer part of an old refigerator and closed the door. About a minute later, the thing went off. It sounded like a shotgun. The door to the freezer came off the hinges, and it blew a pretty good sized hole in the back of the refrigerator.
 
As stupid adolescent boys we used to play with crystalized solid iodine and ammonia to make nitrogen triiodide (NI3).

I don't remember the exact formula but you would take the solid iodine, crush it, and then add ammonia, let it sit for awhile and then filter such that you would form a dark violet paste. This you put in the fridge.

As long as it was cold and wet - it was okay, but left to dry and warm up - watch out.

It was sort of a prank, because what you did with the stuff was to put a tiny amount of the wet paste on things like light switchs and door knobs. When the stuff dried, it became unstable.

When the prankster's victim turned on a light or turned the door knob, boom, they would get a sharp little flash, and the really fun part, iodine stains on their fingers. I pulled this stunt on my sisters several times until my parents put a nix on my shenanegans.

Thinking back this was incredibly stupid as nitrogen triiodide in sufficient quantities (we made very small amounts) is a powerful explosive. Fun nevertheless!
 
Another 'improvised explosive device' is the MRE bomb. The necessary ingredients are: 1 bottle w/ lid, MRE heater, and H2O. Slide the heater into the bottle, pour a bit of water inside, screw on lid, shake, and toss. Give it a minute, and BANG! , the neighbors get one heck of a wake up call. A guy did this while I was in Jump School at Ft. Benning. He threw it into the courtyard behind the barracks and the thing had enough force to stick plastic bottle parts into a glass window pane. The MP's and CID were called and he was charged with several offenses under the UCMJ. I definitly would not recommend doing this to anyone, and my putting the plans here is solely for a research purpose and to help stimulate conversation. :D (Gotta cover my 6.) :D

Frank
 
We had been badgering Mom and Dad regarding the space program for some weeks, until finally Mom ground and mixed some sulphur, sugar, charcoal, saltpetre and water into a paste, poured it into the end of a piece of bamboo and left it to dry on the back porch for about three days.

After the three days were up, Dad propped the bamboo against a stump in the front yard, stuffed two matches up into the end with the dried gunk, lit the wood end of the matches, and Voila! - the bamboo pinwheeled down the street with a really neat blue jet coming out one end. ("Ah," said Dad, "Russian design.")

That may not have been our mother's best idea. :D

Under the somewhat ... absent-minded ... guidance of Dear Old Dad, Chris and I spent the next couple of weeks on Nigeria's first (and only) Space Program. By depleting a nearby cane-brake of bamboo, and with the aid of several Noble Volunteers from the house lizard population (and generous use of strapping tape to keep said Noble Volunteers from un-volunteering), Chris and I set out to perfect a launch platform.

Through trial-and-error (much error), we discovered the penultimate lizard-launcher: If you tied one end of a three-foot cord to the hind leg of your astro-lizard, and the other end of the cord to your bamboo, you achieved stability and guidance, since the drag provided by the cord (and lizard) kept the nose of the rocket pointed up.

(Of course, being firmly taped to the nose of a bamboo rocket tends to lead to guidance-wrecking struggles when a Hero of the Swampland succumbs to his baser instincts. Much better for the Hero to be sitting on the ground, wondering: Okay, what have those little bastards come up with - what's burning---WHOAAAaaaaaaaaaa....!)

Anyhoo, one evening we're watching a semi-successful launch and Dad mentions just kind of off-paw, "Interesting stuff, black powder."

Chris and I perked up our ears.

"Of course, the charcoal around here is awful, so your mom is using sugar to boost the fuel value of the carbon, but basically it's the same thing that the Chinese came up with."

Chris and I looked at each other. A new day was born in the fledging Nigerian Space Program.

ICBMs. :D

LawDog
 
On "fun with science" kiddie education days at work, we take a 2 litre coke bottle, stuff a little CO2 inside, and add some water... Then screw the cap on, toss it in the trash (after commenting that it didn't work), and toss a buncha peanuts or shredder paper on top. Then we talk about something else. A little later, there's stuff EVERYWHERE!
 
Damn, bad dad, I thought I was the only one who did that. Stuff left a heck of a purple stain on the aluminum deck plates in the detachment radio room... :evil: :D
 
At work I consider myself either "Cruise Director" or "Minister of Morale, depending on my mood. Its my job, unpaid of course, to provide entertainment to keep the fellow slaves from revolting and killing my slack-jawed employer. This entails a healthy course of pranks, ambushes and general lunacy. I had been playing with dry ice bombs for awhile at home and decided to show off my terrorist skills to the fellow peons at work. I decided that I needed to make the experience more "Dramatic". I purchased a huge watermelon and assembled my bomb ingredients to the wondering looks of my guys. My boss was gone for the day(or so I thought). I cored out the watermelon to the size of a 2-liter pop bottle and handed pieces of the juicy center around. I then wrapped wire around the 2-liter pop bottle to stregthen the plastic skin, so that there would be a bigger boom. Added 2 handfuls of dry ice, a cup of water and capped that sucker. We slid the bottle up into the watermelon, quickly set it down and I got everyone back. And then we waited. And waited. Nothing happening. Just when I think that my bomb is a dud, I realize that the watermelon rind is expanding! I knew that it was gonna blow at any second. "What the hell are ya doing"? Oh crap, it was my boss! He had returned to the shop a few minutes earlier and had just walked up behind the group. "Its a science experiment", I said(while wetting my britches). I am sure you can figure out the rest. He took a couple of steps towards the bloated watermelon to see what was so interesting and it exploded. A huge bang echoed of the tin roof of the outside shop shed and the worthy watermelon victim was vaporized in a splash of red juice and green rind. Pieces of it hurled 40 or more feet away. My boss just stands there, looking at where the watermelon "used" to be. In a very low voice he said "You better clean this mess up and quick too... and hand me a towel". He turned around and his face was covered with juice, watermelon skin and seeds! Not only his face, but his shirt and his pants were splattered with the sticky crap. As he walked past me to go inside I figured he would tell me to get my gear and get out because I was fired. No such luck. With a smirk on his red face, He told me I better get down on my knees and retrieve every single seed, and every filthy piece of watermelon for disposal. It literally took me hours. Needless to say, I have learned my lesson about watermelon-dry ice bombs.... Now I am thinking about honeydews!

Michael in Sandy, Or
 
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You want spectacular and cheap? Here it is.

Every year, on the Fourth of July, I buy a pack of 0000 steel wool. Add one steel coat hanger and a match and you’re good to go.

Straighten the coat hanger and bend about the last 5 inches of one end at 90 degrees. Form a 2 inch loop in the other end.

Take one of the 0000 pads and insert it into the loop and twist it so that it is gripped tightly. Do this at one end of the pad about 1 inch in. You don’t want it to slip off.

Stand in a large area, or the middle of the street or a parking lot, where there is no chance of an accidental fire. Light the end of the 0000 that is away from the attached end and then start swinging the wire by the bent end so that it spins in front of you. A huge wall of orange sparks 40 feet in radius, yes, I said RADIUS, will be the result. As you spin the wire, walk backward so the shower of sparks does not come down on your head. Even if it does, it is not that uncomfortable but it does singe your hair. The main thing is to know that the flaming ball of 0000 doesn’t come loose and come down on you as that WILL hurt.

Always a crowd pleaser.
 
This past week, someone dropped one of these Drano bombs in the garbage bin at a local mall, and it went off just when someone emptied their tray in the bin; he's still got his eyes, but has chemical burns all over his face. :mad: Be careful out there, guys.
 
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