What a bunch of amateurs. I'm a professional mischief maker, I probably
spent three quarters of my intellectual powers as a youth researching,
experimenting and refining various and sundry methods of blowing stuff up or
sending it high into the air (this was reflected in my grades).
Carbide (as in prince albert cans and carbide cannons) makes acetylene
gas--no mystery there. It's much more effective as an explosive when mixed
with oxygen instead of air. Which makes the welding rig in all of our
garages the capable source of much mayhem. I was present (in the role of
tutor) when a friend filled a three foot beachball with the stuff and blew
the neighbors porch right off the house (an errant wind and too long a fuse,
not an intentional act). Don't try this at home kids--a good size beachball
will make a sound that surpasses anything you'll ever hear with fireworks or
dynamite. Cops will come for miles and miles.
M80's, silver salutes, cherry bombs, etc all make great propellants for a
homemade mortar consisting of a buried length of chain link fence tubing, a
can of tomato paste, and several of the explosives listed above. light, drop
can, run like hell.
I was arrested at age 12 for wounding a flock of teenagers who insisted on
standing (vs. hiding behind the rocks as I was) when I fired a three foot,
zinc and sulphur fueled rocket with a nozzle design that was, shall we say,
on the aggressive side of acceptable formulas. The cops picked me up several
hours later at home--I got to ride in a car with no doorhandles. I had to
report to the fire marshal once a week for two years.
I taught some friends how to build a bazooka (pipe, empty CO2 cartridges
with the neck sawn off to make a 1/3 area nozzle, filled with sugar and
Sodium Nitrate) and we used them to knock down an abandoned brick building
on an island in Boston Harbor.
I devised the demonic double balloon--an outer balloon filled with silver
paint and an inner balloon of acetylene/oxygen. You can turn a lot of people
blue on one side in no time with one of those.
I could go on, but the statute of limitations or personal revenge for
juvenile criminal mischief of this magnitude might extend past 30 years.
I'm all better now.
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