2 ms·
> yes, my childhood was weird and I got access to lye. I used to make gunpowder. Sulphur and potassium nitrate at the local pharmacy and charcoal from the BBQ.
by dghughes 5y ago
> yes, my childhood was weird and I got access to lye.
I used to make gunpowder. Sulphur and potassium nitrate at the local pharmacy and charcoal from the BBQ. I wasn't very successful because it all has to be ground really fine without killing yourself. I just lit it never made anything with it more for the science than anything.
The Radioactive Boy Scout was ten years later but if I had been aware of him and of Americium (I probably was) I bet I would have tried that too. I was a nerdy kid on my own but a 75% range (C) student in school.
Weird is good but it seems to be frowned upon these days. Too often it's seen as dangerous to even just ask about certain things.
- LargoLasskhyfv 5y agoHrhrhr. I did pipe-bombs with it with which I've torn down brick walls of abandoned buildings which where already rotten. Water bombs also, with electrical ignition via very thin wires and flashbulbs. I don't get the 'without killing yourself' though. Black powder isn't like the potassium chlorate you have when messing around with fertilizer. You can grind every constituent of it all day like you want. And then mix the grinds together. Maybe avoid static electricity. But that's what cotton clothing is for, isn't it?
- fuzzfactor 5y agoLye, aka the industrial commodity Caustic Soda. I advise people to stop young, by the time I grew up it was shiploads. Nobody's fault but mine.