A Rural Tale (but True)

[Watertender]

When you put Mil Sup 30-06s that you got from your neighbor friend in the burn barrel. They make a LOT OF NOISE and blow burring stuff onto the grass that is now on fire. Time to call the FD. This really does not make your Mom HAPPY along with thinking the bullets would enter the house. One of those wait until your Dad gets home moments. I was 9 at the time and didn't think I would see 10

When my grandpa was in school pre WW1 they used to toss .22 shorts in the coal stove to make them go off and startle the teacher. It was never caught onto until one of his friends got the bright idea to throw a 45-70 Gatling gun round that his uncle gave him from the Spanish American War in the Philippines. It blew the lids and stovepipe off the stove.... Grandpa said that there was a trip to the woodshed for the miscreant and quite a stern warning for everyone else. Fortunately it didn't catch the schoolhouse on fire.

 

[jims]

I was at a fireman's arson class once, interesting info about gasoline as an accelerant and troubles.

 

[Jeepnik]

I was at a fireman's arson class once, interesting info about gasoline as an accelerant and troubles.

I used to teach those classes. I particularly liked the demonstration showing how gasoline vapors would flow down a trough and when they hit a candle it would flaxh back up. Had a newby assisting one day and he forgot to move the containeer of gasoline away from the setup. Darned near burned the quonset hut down. I'm pretty sure he was like a gunshy dog and never went near fire again.

 

[southernbuck101]

Close as I can get to it......what a hoot! I'm in!

Does Someone want to educate me on how they did this?
Asking for a friend.

 

[GLASSMAN]

Yep.
I did the same thing with a large leaf pile many years ago, with white lantern gas.
Had a pile burn down, piled it up again, hit it with a SMALL amount of fuel, had to go get more matches, then vaporized the pile when the vapors ignited.
That big pile was just GONE.
So were most of my eyelashes.
Young and dumb, and somehow I still survived all these years.

 

[3manfan]

Does Someone want to educate me on how they did this?
Asking for a friend.

Rumor is that a calcium carbide & water mixture will produce a flammable gas - in this case, acetylene.

 

[MHtractorguy]

I have a story, but I need to confer with the kid who spent 6 weeks in the hospital, before I type it here.
It involves gas and limbs left in the yard after a hurricane.

 

[Wyandot Jim]

Rumor is that a calcium carbide & water mixture will produce a flammable gas - in this case, acetylene.

Yep Take a big can with a tight fitting lid and punch a whole in the side at the top add carbide and some water wait a few seconds then light the torch hole. KABOOM home made carbide cannon.
Well that works so well lets use a 55 gal. drum and a lot of carbide. Problem is we should have moved the drum out of the garage so the lid didn't put a hole in the roof.

You can also fill up your lunch sack with Oxy-Acetylene tie it closed and put it on the ground at the welder's table. When he starts back to welding the sparks will ignite the sack and you have a big boom and a pissed of welder.

 

[ned]

Holy Cow…what stories from the survivors…..wonder how big this forum would be otherwise.
I did learn the surprising, to me at 10, effects of a bucket of sawdust thrown on a bonfire…I scared myself so much my father didn’t even bother to kick my butt.

 

[JiminMaine]

Yep Take a big can with a tight fitting lid and punch a whole in the side at the top add carbide and some water wait a few seconds then light the torch hole. KABOOM home made carbide cannon.
Well that works so well lets use a 55 gal. drum and a lot of carbide. Problem is we should have moved the drum out of the garage so the lid didn't put a hole in the roof.

You can also fill up your lunch sack with Oxy-Acetylene tie it closed and put it on the ground at the welder's table. When he starts back to welding the sparks will ignite the sack and you have a big boom and a pissed of welder.

When I was a teenager I worked on a dairy farm. The house was on one side of the road and a pasture on the other side. There were two teenage sons of the farmer and his brother who like to make things go BOOM! The old man used to sit on the porch and watch them have fun after chores were done.

They had one of these old 40 quart milk cans partly buried at about a 45 degree angle in the bank across the road, with a touch-hole on the upper side. The would toss a handful of carbide in it, splash some water on it and then pound the cover on the can. When the can started to get hot they would hold a burning stick on the touch-hole. BOOM, the cover would go sailing 100-150 out in the pasture. It was all fun until that 3 pound cover smacked into the side of one of the cows and knocked her over. She quit giving milk, the farmer was a little P.O. and shut that down real quick.

 

[MHtractorguy]

We had a problem with students smoking in the bathrooms in High school. Northern Ohio was cold and there actually was a student smoking area outside. Admin threatened to make it a no smoking campus if the smoking continued in the bathrooms. Carbide crystals in the toilet bowls were pretty effective.