Re: Remember "Bit-Slice" Chips ?

On Thu, 12 Dec 2024, rbowman wrote:

On Wed, 11 Dec 2024 17:20:37 +0100, D wrote:
>

What I did not test was to buy some alcohol to purify the gun powder. I
also had bad quality coal as well, so that's something I would change
til next time.

>
Sourcing the potassium nitrate and sulfur was no problem in the '50s but
trying to grind down charcoal was a miserable task. During one of the
times in grade school chemistry class when I wasn't daydreaming I learned
the formula for sucrose was C12H22O11.  Hmmm, that looks like a lot of
carbon and stuff that should turn into water vapor. Rocket candy was born!
>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_candy
>
It was many years later I found out about it. It wasn't much of an
explosive but back then dry gas came in about a 12 ounce can with a
conical top that necked down to a screw cap. Filling one of those and
lighting it lead to a very satisfactory fountain of flame. I never thought
to try launching a rocket with it.

Ah... childhood memories! This was the easiest thing in the world to produce! Once I managed to stop a subway line with it. I think I was around 12 or 13, and we were playing with this stuff under a bridge that had a subway line.
The subway came, created a draft that sucked all the smoke into the tunnel, and they thought there was a fire and stopped the subway. 10 minutes later the police arrived, discovered us (we didn't run) and said "boys will be boys" and let us go.
I thought the police actually thought it was funny and were reminded of their own childhood (although of course they didn't show any of this).
Ahh, those were better, more innocent times!