Brk: Massive explosion in China. Cause currently unclear.

[ammmorph]

Calcium Carbide...

Used to make calcium carbide "bombs" when I was a kid (just to make noise and fireballs at night). Take a metal paint can and punch a small hole in the bottom. Put a teaspoon full of calcium carbide pieces in the can. Add a tablespoon of water. Hammer on lid quickly and hold finger over the hole on the bottom. When the fizzing sound subsides remove finger and hold lit match or lighter up to hole....BOOM!!!!! It is an epic explosion. Had the metal paint can handle flip up once and the lid ripped the handle off the metal pieces that held it to the can. The lid was almost cut in half..... Man were we stupid kids! Also very lucky. That Calcium Carbide is powerful stuff.

 

[rhino]

Calcium Carbide...

Used to make calcium carbide "bombs" when I was a kid (just to make noise and fireballs at night). Take a metal paint can and punch a small hole in the bottom. Put a teaspoon full of calcium carbide pieces in the can. Add a tablespoon of water. Hammer on lid quickly and hold finger over the hole on the bottom. When the fizzing sound subsides remove finger and hold lit match or lighter up to hole....BOOM!!!!! It is an epic explosion. Had the metal paint can handle flip up once and the lid ripped the handle off the metal pieces that held it to the can. The lid was almost cut in half..... Man were we stupid kids! Also very lucky. That Calcium Carbide is powerful stuff.

I would never do such a thing myself, but I am aware of a young man who filled some garbage bags with a mix of acetylene and oxygen from a welding kit, put the bags in an old VW microbus, then sprayed a line of lighter fluid from the bags to a hiding place, and finally dropped a match on the line of lighter fluid. Had I been present, I might have been impressed by the results.

 

[actaeon277]

I would never do such a thing myself, but I am aware of a young man who filled some garbage bags with a mix of acetylene and oxygen from a welding kit, put the bags in an old VW microbus, then sprayed a line of lighter fluid from the bags to a hiding place, and finally dropped a match on the line of lighter fluid. Had I been present, I might have been impressed by the results.

In case you didn't know it, you just moved up on the list of some alphabet agency.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

I once took all the stuff out of a chemistry set, poured it into a glass bottle with a string hanging out of it, and lit the string on fire with the cig-lighter in my mom's car... then ran like a crazy person and threw it over a fence.

Obviously nothing happened, but I was anticipating an earth-shattering kaboom.

I was probably 8, maybe 9.

Also, obviously, I didn't really know much about chemistry at the time.

 

[T.Lex]

At the risk of turning this conversation political, is there a role for government in regulating these kinds of things?

Serious question. A certain philosophy might say to hold the owners/decisionmakers in the private entities (perhaps including the port authorities) responsible, perhaps even personally, for the damage.

A different philosophy might say that this - keeping certain chemicals in the same vicinity, or requiring warnings of the presence of certain chemicals - is an area where .gov might properly insert itself.

 

[T.Lex]

I once took all the stuff out of a chemistry set, poured it into a glass bottle with a string hanging out of it, and lit the string on fire with the cig-lighter in my mom's car... then ran like a crazy person and threw it over a fence.

Obviously nothing happened, but I was anticipating an earth-shattering kaboom.

I was probably 8, maybe 9.

Also, obviously, I didn't really know much about chemistry at the time.

Wow. I'm more impressed that you remember when cars had cig-lighters.

 

[eldirector]

My old HS Chemistry teachers used to demonstrate electrolysis to break down water into H2 and O2, then pipe both into an overturned bucket, and use a spark to change them back into water. Used a rather large bucket once. Quite the detonation. Scared most of the school. His response: Its just water!

Acetylene filled balloons and bottle rockets. Just sayin'.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Wow. I'm more impressed that you remember when cars had cig-lighters.

Heeey... I turned 30 last week. I'm up there with the rest of you fogies now.

 

[actaeon277]

Heeey... I turned 30 last week. I'm up there with the rest of you fogies now.

30s
Geesh.

 

[eldirector]

30s
Geesh.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Is that Peter and Lois from Family Guy?

 

[eldirector]

Holy ****. You are right.

 

[T.Lex]

I remember when cartoons were only on during Saturday mornings.

 

[rhino]

In case you didn't know it, you just moved up on the list of some alphabet agency.

Hey! I wasn't there! In fact, it happened in California years before I moved there for four years.

Heeey... I turned 30 last week. I'm up there with the rest of you fogies now.

My socks are older than you, whippersnapper!