On 11/18/2011 6:38 PM, Red Green wrote:
wrote in news:i15dc79mc91opnebpnl4m815c5ja7rs02k@
4ax.com:

On Thu, 17 Nov 2011 23:48:28 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

Ah, very sad. I remember getting up to those tricks myself.
The outlets over here were 240 volt. Really make your eyes light up.
Ever tried dropping ice cubes on to molten lead?
Or iodine into ammonia& let the result dry out?
Or bombs with weedkiller and sugar.
The kids today don't have any real fun.

Don't forget match heads. That was probably the most powerful
explosive the average person could get, usually for free in the olden
days. Bars and restaurants used to have big bowls of matches right by
the door.
It was labor intensive to scrape all of that stuff off the stick but
what else did kids have to do in those days?


Match heads! That pops a memory bubble.

Had a 2 ft pc of brass pipe. End cut off with a tubing cutter so it was
flared in on one end. Popped the gizmo out of the end of CO2 cartridges.
PACKED in match heads cut from matchbooks. Wire cutters were the bad-
asses tool for this exercise. Towards it being filled, put in a
firecracker wick. Packed a few more heads in. Drop CO2 cartridge in pipe
wick end first. Stops nicely with wick exposed out back end because it's
flared inwards. Hold pipe in hands, aim and light wick (smart ehhh].
Thing would launch with a boom& flash. Cool at night. Used to aim it
across the river at the marina and listen for the plunk when cartridge
hit. Hear the people on the boats sitting around getting drunk yelling
"Hey you ****in' kids!" Laugh asses off...so they could hear.

This was living...

I had a 1" steel pipe about 8" long. The one end was welded shut and
then had a little hole drilled in it. Insert fuse into hole then pack a
couple inches of match heads, a little wadding, then valve lifters from
the junk yard. Shot a lifter through a 60's vintage car door no
problem. Shot all kinds of stuff until I realized how dangerous it
would be it the pipe blew up, then I held it in place with a big rock
and stood back instead of holding it still with my foot.