Re: Exploding pagers

In article <h7iuejtoht3du4gpc2kp2tl6tliukg6qsj@4ax.com>,
cd@notformail.com says...

 

I know little of explosives, but were I asked to make something
suitable, I'd drill a hole in some high-explosive, fill it with
gunpowder, embed a filament in the gunpowder and encase the whole thing
in steel.
>
Would that work?

 
Nope. Gunpowder is insufficiently brisant for this purpose. Nowhere
near in fact.
 

>
So what would happen?

 
Nothing.
 
 

Modern gun powder is interisting in the way it 'goes off'.  If put in
open air it will burn slow.  If you put a round in the fire or frying
pan on the stove and heat it up it will sort of explode but with little
force.  The bullet part will hardly move and the brass case would not
penetrate a cardboard box that you put over it.  Now take the same round
, say a handgun round and put it in a gun and stop up the barrel and it
will explode and disable the gun and if the gun is held in the hand it
will mostlikely damage your hand. The more pressure it is under, the
faster it burns.  It never explodes but just burns faster and the
generated gas is what does the damage.


The old time black powder is different, it burns at the same rate all
the time.  Put a teaspoon full and put a match to it and it all seems to
go off at the same time.It is what is called a low explosive. There are
high explosives that only a small amout will cause lots of damage.