>
> > I saw that particular mix being detonated at one of Col Shaw's lectures.
> > He set it off by touching it with a long (about 2m I think) steel rod with the
> > end warmed in a spirit flame. The detonation was VERY loud and the steel
> > rod developed a 30deg bend about half way along.
> You sure it was that mixture? The usual one I have seen that done with
> is gun cotton or cotton wool soaked in LOX. John Salthouse from
Yes, I'm sure. Certainly about the phosphorus in carbon disulphide part of the mixture. I can't be sure what the oxidiser was. It might have been a small pile of sodium chlorate or something similar. I definitely didn't confuse it with cotton wool soaked in liquid oxygen because he did that too. A lump of burning cotton wool landed right in front of me and charred the wood of the lecture theatre bench. The liquid oxygen was made on site as you described by cooling oxygen in a U-tube immersed in liquid nitrogen.
The loudest bang, however, was from a super-heated steam explosion. His timing was superb. The lecture started with a sealed glass tube containing water being placed over the flame of a spirit burner. He then carried on with other things and managed to pause at just the right moment for the tube to explode with a very loud bang, knocking over the safety screens.
John