Re: Remember "Bit-Slice" Chips ?

On Thu, 12 Dec 2024, Rich wrote:

D <nospam@example.net> wrote:

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On Thu, 12 Dec 2024, rbowman wrote:
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On Wed, 11 Dec 2024 17:20:37 +0100, D wrote:
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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.

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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!
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_candy
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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.

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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.
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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.
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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).
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Ahh, those were better, more innocent times!

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Yes indeed.  Today some kids doing the identical activity would pull in
the local police, the FBI, the TSA, and likely several other
three-letter-agencies and the kids would be put on several terrorist in
the making watchlists and be haunted by that label for the rest of
their lives.

Sadly I believe you are correct. =( And that attitude is killing freedom and society.