Lobster wrote:

Now... in this post 9/11 age that we live in, where the hell would I go
to buy saltpetre?!? What's it's legitimate use, other than zapping
treestumps?


I believe it is used in some sorts of vegetable pickling. As chlorates
are still used as weed killers and Nitrates as fertilisers, sulphur for
a variety of things and charcoal (which can be ground finely in a food
processor) for barbecue use is also available, creating an explosive is
not a great challenge for a murderous zealot. Gunpowder, however is a
deflagrant as opposed to a high explosive, so needs some sort of
containment. The speed of sound in HE is less than the propagation speed
so containment is redundant. With deflagrants, the opposite is the case.
It is of course, far more efficient to break into a quarry and steal
some rolls of HE and a box of detonators. Do not try this at home, or
you might just find yourself in the surrounding counties.

John Schmitt