Re: 'Tis the Season to be Noisy.

[Bernard Cleyet <anngeorg@PACBELL.NET>]

 I've already reported my experiments with C2=H2???   small can ~ soup
partially buried in sand box, top removed and an inch of water, a few pebbles
of calcium carbide, then cover with a larger can open end buried (inch) in the
sand light the acetylene with a match attached to 6' bamboo pole at the hole
near top (punched with nail); 10 m hell at least 30!

Youthful exploit at Cowper and University ~ 1946 Palo Alto.

bc

Marlyn Jakub wrote:

> Hi Brian,
>
> > From my youthful 4th of July days comes a similar trick with a more
> spectacular flight of the can.
>
> For a can use a soup-type "tincan" with one end cut out and the other end
> having a small circular hole punched in the center where the ~5cm long
> firecracker is tightly inserted and held. Before inserting the cracker, the
> can is submerged into a container of water (water depth almost 10cm)...open
> end down so that water fills 2/3 the can interior, leaving enough air so
> that the firecracker will not become wet when inserted into the top small
> hole. Insert the cracker until mainly the wick appears above the outside of
> the can.
>
> Light the wick, being careful not to place one's head in the vertical path
> of the can, as the can will fly over 10 meters skyward from the explosion.
> Yes, the can could damage objects in its flight path, however, the can
> should be less likely to turn into flying metal fragments than the
> extra-thin aluminum coke can.
>
> Marlyn Jakub
>
> At 1:31 PM -0500 7/1/01, brian whatcott wrote:
>
> > My younger son, fresh out of high school, is trying his entrepreneurial
> > wings by managing a fireworks stand. (Hereabouts, these are necessarily
> > outside the city limits, and the daytime ambient is into the nineties).
> >
> > He reports that boredom is the major preoccupation, so he brightened when
> > some youthful customers showed him the trick du jour.
> >
> > He demonstrated it for me: take a coke can one third full of water,
> > and place in it, a lit "depth charge". [This is a waterproof black cat
> > style banger of 5 X 0.5 cm L X D]
> >
> > The can takes off to an altitude of 2 or 3 meters. There is a little
> > spray of liquid too. How does this work, would you say?
> >
> > Obligatory Caution:
> > Note, this trick is dangerous, and can be disfiguring, if one
> > does not "retire after lighting the touch paper".