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From: nessus@nsc.UUCP (Kchula-Rrit)
Newsgroups: net.rec
Subject: Re: Blowing things up
Message-ID: <2612@nsc.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 19-Apr-85 19:25:31 EST
Article-I.D.: nsc.2612
Posted: Fri Apr 19 19:25:31 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 21-Apr-85 04:32:32 EST
Distribution: na
Organization: The Patriarchy of Kzin, Kzin
Lines: 32

The "rocket through my parents' picture window" reminded me of something that
my friends and I did when I was a teenager--

     When I was in 11th grade chemistry class, a kid came up to me and said,
"You want to know make rocket fuel?  Take potassium nitrate and sugar, mix
them, and cook the mixture.  The result is rocket fuel."  The kid was very
evasive when questioned further.  Being interested in chemistry at the time,
a {pyromaniac} friend and I decided to try it out.  We used equal amounts of
potassium nitrate and sugar, since we weren't given any proportions.  We mixed
the two (granulated) together in a large Pyrex(tm) test tube and set the tube
in a support stand over an alcohol lamp.  My friend stirred the mixture with
a glass rod, and we saw the mix start to melt and run together.  Approx 2
seconds after my friend removed his hand from the mouth of the test tube there
was this LOUD hisssss and a ball of black ashes hurled itself from the test
tube and disintigrated on the ceiling.  The room also filled with VERY dense
gray smoke.  A few days later I casually mentioned this incident to another
friend who was into chemistry at the time, and, not thinking that he would try
it, didn't tell him about the smoke and flames.  The next day, he told me
about his "experiment".  He did the same things we did, and got the same
results with two differences.  1)His set-up made a "perfectly tear drop-shaped
flame about 6-12 inches long.  2)His mother threw him out of the house while
she aired it out.  After that, we used the mixture "un-cooked" as a smoke bomb.
    My sister-in-law freaked out when I showed her "how fill a room with smoke
in 10 seconds".

                          Ah, to be young and fearless--

                          Kchula-Rrit

"Chemistry is the art of making chemicals to put in those bottles you've been
 collecting so you can make more chemicals to put in the bottles that you will
 collect tomorrow so you can make more chemicals..."