I _really_ wouldn't make those these days (My Dad made them when I was a kid). Apart from a few recipes that just aren't impressive enough to be worth it, they really are nastily carcinogenic.
That takes me back! We used to shoot rockets at each other from whatever bit of tube we could find. Bangers in rotten apples made great (& messy) hand grenades - especially threepenny bangers.
We made us own fun in them days.................
They were better in jellyfish caught down at the Strand or the = Esplanade. =20 =20
We were lucky we could buy Airbombs!!
Why would you put sausages into apples, and how did you get them to explode?
Ah, the innocnence of modern youth. B-)
Dave Fawthrop said the following on 15/02/07 08:34:
I just remembered a mate of mine who was a bit of a nutter. His grandfather had the usual workbench in the garage, so clamped a length of fishing rod in the vice, filled the end with weedkiller and sugar, bent the end around and put a small pile of the same on the bench and lit it. Someone had decided to shut the garage doors which were made out of that sheet asbestos and the brass fitting made a neat hole in the door.
Then again, he used to throw railway fog warning mines at brick walls and pick up the ones that were dented and threw them back at the wall. We didn't know such things existed until a police officer came to our school and described them with drawing on a blackboard to us as some other kids had knicked a consignment earlier.
Richard.
I remember you could buy those on a card of indoor fireworks. The black-green smoke and the stink was enough to put you off.
For a short while I did go into the chemist and asked for some of the chemicals that appeared in the books but I got bored with being told "no!" Well, would you sell stuff to a schoolboy ?
For those who haven't grown up yet!
Richard.
Alas I wasn't brung up in the Medway Towns, I'm an east London lad.
|!> |!> There was a great kids book in the local library that mentioned that |!> |!> hydrogen peroxide mixed with manganese dioxide was what powered some WWII |!> |!> torpedoes. There was also a small projectile launcher experiment using |!> |!> the two same materials on the same page. |!> |!> |!Isn't getting kids to experiment with explosive materials somewhat |!> |!irresponsible, even in those days? |!> |!> I never lost a friend to explosive experiments, or putting bangers into |!> bottles, or shooting rockets at each other |! |!I just remembered a mate of mine who was a bit of a nutter.
Darwinian evolution. Gets rid of the nutters before they can have children
|!His |!grandfather had the usual workbench in the garage, so clamped a length |!of fishing rod in the vice, filled the end with weedkiller and sugar, |!bent the end around and put a small pile of the same on the bench and |!lit it. Someone had decided to shut the garage doors which were made |!out of that sheet asbestos and the brass fitting made a neat hole in the |!door. |! |!Then again, he used to throw railway fog warning mines at brick walls |!and pick up the ones that were dented and threw them back at the wall. |!We didn't know such things existed until a police officer came to our |!school and described them with drawing on a blackboard to us as some |!other kids had knicked a consignment earlier.
We used to have a police man come round and show those little metal things that went on the track and exploded as the train went over them . The school was by a railway , why they couldn't just look after the bloody things properly got to me even in the infants!!
The very same things! Had two lead straps to hold them onto the rail. Of course we wouldn't have known that until the kind police officer came to our school to draw them for us on the blackboard.
Damn! We should have tried a game of cricket with them.
Richard.
That was back in the days when HE and detonators were kept in a padlocked shed in quarries, with no watchman at night and nobody there weekends.
If only Alan Rickman had known that. It would have saved him a lot of bother.
-- Halmyre
We never found any but some lads put old pennies on the line to see what happened.
I read that as "some people put old ladies on the line to see what happened"
Owain
"Richard Brooks"
donald haarmann said the following on 16/02/07 22:38:
[great stories snipped]
There must have been a couple of different types as the early ones I met were tin plate with a mercury fulminate bulb or so a documentary on explosives explained, well we never did find much after, but the ones I saw a few years back felt a bit heavier.
It seems all the fun things were dangerous. After seeing a schools documentary about dyes which showed a small segment about the Red Arrows aerobatic display team once using Aniline dye before changing over to oils for making their smoke I thought my brother might like to try it for his radio controlled model aircraft. The stuff wasn't readily available so it never happened but I've just read up on the effects it has.
Richard.
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