"krw" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 21 Jul 2009 07:59:03 +0000 (UTC), "Geoffrey S. Mendelson"
wrote:

Bob Larter wrote:

You're kidding! Why not?

My guess is that someone thinks you can mix ammonia and various household
items to make a bomb,

Ah, but you can! I did it all the time when I was in high school.
Nitrogen triiodide is fun stuff. ;-)

NTI is WICKED stuff ! We used to make it by mixing a very strong household
cleaner called Handy Andy with pure iodine crystals 'borrowed' from the
biology department. For some reason, the ones there were a lot more pure
than any iodine crystals or liquid derivatives available for theft in the
chemistry department ... Once it had been made, and passed through a filter
paper, we used to put it into corked boiling tubes (bigger than half inch
test tubes), and carry it around the school with us in our inside pockets. A
good splat of the stuff on the floor in the corridor, would just about dry
in a lesson period, to the point where it was unstable. At the end of the
lesson, let the teacher leave the class first ... Oh the bang, and that
luvverly cloud of purple smoke rising to the ceiling, and the crackles
underfoot for days afterward when walking down that corridor. The fun of
laughing at the caretaker and his assistant trying to remove the purple
stain blasted into the surface of the tiles ... Then there was the joy of
making delayed fuses for tuppeny bangers by soaking string in .... potassium
nitrate .... was it ? Tape a couple of inches to the top of a banger, then
set light to it and leave it under a seat at the back of the cinema at the
midnight movie. Plenty of time to return to your own seat before it went
off.

Oh happy happy days. What joyous things we learnt in 'real' schools all
those years ago !

Thanks for reminding me of my mis-spent youth. :-))

Arfa