Iv'e lit sone magnesium ribbon before, but a bar? Must have taken some doing to set it of. Once it's going, though... One of my colleagues at the radio station told me about an outdoor party she went to in the desert where someone had the bright idea of heaving a magnesium engine block into the obligatory bonfire. It took a while to get going, and lasted a while when it finally did.
My grandfather spent 40 years as a chemist at Mobay. According to him, they use to take the steel drums that chemicals were shipped in and seal them up full of the leftover dry ice from shippments and place them in the field next to the river. After a few hours, kaboooomm. Point of note, don't place dry ice in a sealed container.
Rt 2 is about the crappiest road to travel on. Like driving anywhere in northern Ohio, you have to get an alignment job done on your vehicle afterwards. Rt 7 on the Ohio side of the river is a better ride, just you can only cross at St Marys, New Martinsville, Moundsville or Wheeling. Much of my family grew up in Paden City. Not much there, basically a speed trap now, but I remember there use to be a glass and marble factory. My cousins and I use to pick up the scrap marbles they piled up down next to the river and with sling shots, go hunting for squirls, birds, and whatever varmets were around. Very effective ammo.
After making this trip about 25 times, I have discovered that the route with the least speed traps and busted roadway is RT2 from I-77 to St. Marys then RT7 to New Martinsville, then Rt 2 to Moundsville. RT2 is under (re)construction just north of the Bayer plant now. Only one lane is open, so I will take a different way home.
That might explain the barrel full of marbles that I found in the basement here. They seemed to fit fine in a small caliber paintball gun that I found nearby, so most of them are now scattered throughout the countryside.
We played with that stuff at work too. Dry ice (CO2) + 2 liter Coke bottle = very loud BOOM. Back when we had manufacturing in the plant where I work we had liquid Nitrogen to play with. It instantly fractures a 2 liter bottle, but a Nalgene bottle will hold it for about 10 minutes then BOOM. It blew the side off of a large plastic trash can.
As in 3-phase fused on a very sweaty skin.
Makes especially really nice scattered white spots around the heart area after a couple of days at the beach.
A real pro terminates himself on the first go, i reckon ?
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Well, as a teenager growing up, didn't have access to such materials, good ol' black powder is always fun to play with and very predictable (disclaimer note, there are many different types of powder concoctions, some of which contain flint and other materials that can ignite with force, ie packing with hammer and punch). Lack of knowledge and understanding of this can result in lack of digits, limbs or death.
But of this subject I plead 'the Fifth' and don't wish to incriminate myself.
My latest chemical work: organic vacuumess tube
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
oh man. Any one ever see any sodium metal. it looks like a rusty rock, and lead looking in the middle when you cut it.
I was working as a student aide for the science teacher, doing inventory and one day he gave me keys to the cabinet. It was in a glass jar, full of kerosene, and the little meteor looking sodium metal rocks were in there. I borrowed a couple, few of them.
They worked extremely well as a visual aid, down by the river, on a teenage hallucinogenic adventure.
It reacts violently with water, so when you throw a piece, it makes a cool wizzing sound, as it arcs across the water. Then when it gets smaller, it explodes, and then more small pieces keep wizzing, till it arc's into nothing.
I almost caught the lawn on fire, when i dropped a smallish piece, and the grass had a wet spot.
All and all it was fun, and I never touched it with my hands or lost an eye.
I was working as a student aide for the science teacher, doing inventory and one day he gave me keys to the cabinet. It was in a glass jar, full of kerosene, and the little meteor looking sodium metal rocks were in there. I borrowed a couple, few of them.
They worked extremely well as a visual aid, down by the river, on a teenage hallucinogenic adventure.
It reacts violently with water, so when you throw a piece, it makes a cool wizzing sound, as it arcs across the water. Then when it gets smaller, it explodes, and then more small pieces keep wizzing, till it arc's into nothing.
I almost caught the lawn on fire, when i dropped a smallish piece, and the grass had a wet spot.
All and all it was fun, and I never touched it with my hands or lost an eye.
Memory's a bit vague but was it iodine crystals and ammonia to make "touch" powder?
Apart from the risk of small explosions while spreading it out to dry it made for an interesting Sunday morning when sprinkled around the church forecourt.
Probably my teenage swansong with organised religion!
Apart from the risk of small explosions while spreading it out to dry it made for an interesting Sunday morning when sprinkled around the church forecourt.
Probably my teenage swansong with organised religion!
Scott - OW! I was working at Pritchett Lounge at MIT, a sort of greasy hangout deal that served burgers and fries and grilled whatnots to the students (who, as anyone will attest, will eat/drink anything). Some sort of sense of taste seems to kick in after graduation/attainment of solvency.
Anyway, I was a freshman working there, and it fell to me to filter the fryer grease. It was still hot, and I managed to splash some on my hands. I wrapped wet towels around said hands and trudged across campus (pretty much all the way) to the infirmary. It was a winter night, and the towels froze around my hands (probably a good thing). The nurse on duty rubbed some sort of salve on my hands (wince!) and regaled me as she did so with a story about someone who tried to make donuts in his dorm room with an electric frying pan. Somehow, he managed to spill the grease on his arms - he was wearing a jacket, and it soaked up all the grease and.... Oh, boy. At least I got away with some fairly deep first-degree burns. Still, not the sort of story you want to hear while some stiff salve is being worked into some tender burns. Maybe she was trying to impress on me how lucky I was to be getting away with some piddling first-degree burns.
Anyway, I was a freshman working there, and it fell to me to filter the fryer grease. It was still hot, and I managed to splash some on my hands. I wrapped wet towels around said hands and trudged across campus (pretty much all the way) to the infirmary. It was a winter night, and the towels froze around my hands (probably a good thing). The nurse on duty rubbed some sort of salve on my hands (wince!) and regaled me as she did so with a story about someone who tried to make donuts in his dorm room with an electric frying pan. Somehow, he managed to spill the grease on his arms - he was wearing a jacket, and it soaked up all the grease and.... Oh, boy. At least I got away with some fairly deep first-degree burns. Still, not the sort of story you want to hear while some stiff salve is being worked into some tender burns. Maybe she was trying to impress on me how lucky I was to be getting away with some piddling first-degree burns.
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