Something new to me..

[naturallite7]

Hello. I am a fairly new member. So far I have enjoyed reading lots of neat stuff. I did a search for this,but I didn't come back with anything. Here's my story. I have to attend a "safety class" once a month where I work. We have some paramedics to come in and teach the classes, on ocassions. The last class had a paramedic that we see ofton. He told us a story about his nephew showing him a home made bomb. The 13-14 year old took a water bottle ( regular 10- 12 oz) put some aluminum foil inside (how much he didn't say), added some bath room cleaner called "the works". Threw the bottle out in the yard, and boom! It impressed him. I was just wondering, is there information about this here? I hate to go and quiz the paramedic and throw up red flags at work about my intrest in this home made water bottle. Thanks in advance.

[Jacks Complete]

This is a very kewl "bomb" - it's just a simple reaction between the aluminium foil and the strongly alkali bleach cleaner (most likely) or strongly acidic cleaner (less likely).

All that happens is that it reacts and forms a gas, probably chlorine, which increases the internal pressure until the bottle ruptures. Bang.

If you have a look around the site, you will find far better.

[bipolar]

I think this is the old kewl "Hydrogen Bomb". Hydrochloric Acid(from Draino) diluted with water with pieces of aluminium foil generates hydrogen gas and explodes the bottle.

You can also do this to fill a baloon with hydrogen.

[knowledgehungry]

I have actually recently been thinking of such devices, while they are extraordinarily crude they are potentially useful to a terrorist or other such person up to no good.

The advantages:
a) Cheap and untraceable, anyone and everyone can make one, even those who have zero knowledge of chemistry, physics, internet.
b) Easily hidden in plain sight, a bottle of soda left on a train will draw no attention to itself.
c) Very nasty side effects apart from the explosion, use excess Hydrochloric and you have many people blinded, and suffering from the effects of inhaling it.

Disadvantages:
a) Limited ability to time device.
b) On site preparation required.
c) Explosive damage will be almost non-existent in relation to size of device.
d) Rogue Science members will call you k3wl.

The most promising use for such a device is for crowd dispersion. A couple of these going off in a crowd of hippies burning flags will send them off pretty quickly, even without using HCl.

[Ekilo]

This is sort of the same idea as what is known in the military as the "MRE Bomb" There are three ways, that I know of, to have a little fun with your buddies.

Method 1.
-Soda bottle, 20oz
-MRE heater
-Water
All you have to do is cut open an MRE heater and add the contents into the container. Mix in a little water and close the cap. Throw the "bomb" into your buddies fighting hole.

Method 2.
-Same items as above but add a couple of the little bottles of Tabasco sauce
Before mixing make sure you punch a small hole in the bottle cap. Add less water and then add the Tabasco sauce to the mix. Close cap and throw the "Bomb". What this makes is a gas (pepper) grenade.

Method 3.
-Same as above but substitute urine for water.
What you end up with is a very foul smelling "weapon". If you have ever urinated into a fire then you almost know the smell. Add Tabasco sauce to the mix and you get the picture.

For all of these it takes a little experimentation to find the perfect ratio of ingredients.

[Bert]

naturallite7-

do a search on "MacGyver bombs".


Knowledgehungry-

Do hippies gather in crowds and burn flags? Seen a lot of hippies, don't recall ever seeing a crowd of 'em all doing that. They ususaly seem to be playing frisbee, doing hula hoops, or dancing badly to jam bands, stuff like that.

Maybe they get more feisty and pyro up if they're deprived of their wacky tabacky and birkenstocks?


BTW, As far as I can recall:

Hypochlorite (comet, bleach, pool chlorinator, etc.) + acid or base (Ammonia, toilet bowl cleaner, drain opener, lye, etc.)= Chlorine released

Aluminum foil + acid or base = Hydrogen released

I spent many happy hours in junior high school heating large jugs of Aluminum foil shreds, washing soda and water, filling larger and larger balloons with Hydrogen... Deliberately bursting the reaction vessel with gas pressure never occured to me, it was WAY louder and more fun to attach a black cat firecracker with a long piece of visco on it to them. Yes, we pre filled them partialy with air, later we graduated to Oxygen. Wonder how I lived to grow older sometimes.