From the past ~ firecrackers

[Bob Wright]

A caller on a local radio show mentioned those "M-80s, round red things with the gree fuse.."

Here is my experience from "back in the day:"

Cherry Bombs: Round, red shell, the outside sort of gritty. Stiff green fuse. (Gave it kits name)

M-80: Also know as a "Silver Salute" and "Ash Can." Silver cardboard shell, tubular in shape, stiff green fuse.

The green fuses were waterproff and could be used for underwater explosions.

2" Salute: Typical firecracker shape, red paper shell, twisted nitrated paper fuse, not waterproof. Very loud blast ad flash.

There was one that was red carboard about the size of a toilet paper core that was called an aerial salute. It was mounted on a square wooden base.

Aerial salutes were meant to be fired upward, but a carefull dug hole would allow it to shoot the charge to the bottom of the hole. This in soft sand. The blast woould mae a sizeable crater in the sand, and shower you with sand, too.

Those carbide cannons worked well with conventional firecrackers used to propel corkballs or whatever projectile we chose. The barrels were thn steel, but the breech was heavy cast iron so would take some pressure. We never blew one up, as I recall.

And coppr plumbing tubing makes poor pistol barrels, while the actions of cap pistols and paper caps worked well for ignition.

And you know what? Each of us grew up with all of our fingers, eyebrows and other issued parts.

Bob Wright

 

[Mauser9]

Yep recall em all. Of course banned in cesspool Ma. but we got em anyway. Loved those cherry bombs for the explosive blast and we would run laughing our asses off.

 

[Armybrat]

M-80s and Cherry Bombs - the full power loads, not the later downloaded fakes - were our go-to fireworks.
My grandma sold fireworks for the Fourth out of her little cafe in the corner section of my grandpa's big automobile repair garage in Northwest Missouri back in the 1940s & 50s.
When we visited in July while my family was stationed Stateside, Grandma let us 3 boys shoot up all we wanted.
That a big reason why my tinnitus is really ramped up.
Good times.
Grandpa's old garage business - now the town Rotary Club-

as it looks in recent years (he owned & ran it from 1924 until 1958 when he retired).

 

[Colonialgirl]

Cherry Bombs would destroy mail boxes !! You could also put them in a slingshot , pull way back and have someone else light the fuse--- An loud BOOOM !!! high in the air !!

 

[WAYNO]

In my childhood, anything other than sparklers in Oregon were illegal. But we always had some firecrackers anyway. People still had them leftover from the good old days, and ironically, in neighboring Washington state, firecrackers were available there. Some friends would travel to other legal states on vacation, and bring home fireworks, sharing them to the neighborhood at a huge profit.

And we made our own. I still have all my fingers, however burned at times.




.

 

[Goldstar225]

Yep, I remember them well. I had one firecracker with a fast burning fuse go off in my hand (fortunately not a cherry bomb or M80). That's even I won't forget.

Don't forget the shoot outs with roman candles or bottle rockets fired from pieces of pipe. We all survived.

 

[Acorn]

A buddy of mine acquired a bag full of M-200's. Like a M-80 only about twice as long and double the diameter.
We'd stand them up on a slack pile and shoot them with our 22s.

 

[gnappi]

A few times we weighed down ashcans in a cellophane cig box wrapper and set them in the crick and watch the sucker fish fly

I liked bottle rockets and lighting up a mat of firecrackers the best though.

 

[Danjet500]

We would take a black iron pipe of the appropriate size and drive it into the ground, drop in a lit M80 and place a golf ball on top. They would launch quite a distance. We would also light them and then hit them with a tennis racket.

 

[Jeepnik]

Being of a chemical bent even as a kid I made my own (I think my parents regretted getting me a chemistry set and what it started). It took a bit of experimenting with different chemicals but I found one that worked really well.

In the fifties a kid could still buy "harmless" chemicals in fairly good sized containers without a sideways glance.

Two things were a bit harder to make. Fuses that were reliable and a good casing. The fuse problem was solve when I found out you could just by it at the local "feed store". Probably saved my fingers.

The casing issue was solved when a buddy showed up with several cardboard tubes. The tubes were a few inches long ( we cut them down ) and about a 1/2" in diameter. Absolutely perfect! If you had mothers or older sisters you know what the initially housed.

We started small until I in my scientist mode figured an entire tube had to be a good idea. You know, working on the bigger is better theory. The only wise thing done was to a looong fuse.

The resulting detonation almost ended the experimentation. It actually drew a response from both the fire department and county sheriff.

After the ruckus died down things were down sized to "fun size".

Sad thing is for the life of me I can't remember the formula. I recall it used powdered sugar, ferric oxide and some type of potassium (carbonate?). Don't remember the ratio.

 

[eveled]

How about a trash bag full of acetylene?

 

[Jeepnik]

How about a trash bag full of acetylene?

I once worked in a plant that used hydrogen provided by another process. From time to time a bag of hydrogen would go aloft with a down and dirty fuse made from string soaked in diesel/gasoline. Small bags are okay. But the 55 gallon size were a bit much.

 

[87flht]

How about a trash bag full of acetylene?

Oxygen too , and then you had something

 

[blume357]

I can only say it is all in a file up in Washington in the FBI warehouse.

 

[Dan in MI]

My Dad loved using cherry bombs on ground gophers. The gopher went down the hole and CB quickly followed.

 

[Don Lovel]

Back around 1959, a big goofy teenager who stuttered named Truck Murphy taught me how to hold a lit plastic tip white owl cigar in my teeth, pull back my homemade slingshot with a cherry bomb in the pouch, light the fuse with the cigar and shoot it high.
His only safety warning advice to my 7yr old butt
"dodododont ffffff up"
Truck died last year, sad loss
I still have all my fingers and face

 

[Watertender]

The statute of limitations is up on my endeavors with improvised explosives.....

One that I can share is what for want of a better term could be called an M8000.... An enterprising friend of mine and I took a piece of heavy cardboard tube from industrial plastic wrap for the body of the device. We cut wooden plugs for the ends and secured them with glue and roofing nails driven through the cardboard into the wood. We filled it with FFG black powder and put a 2 minute rocket fuse in it as a wick. We put it in the base of a rotten tree and packed it with mud before we lit it off. We ran and hid over 100 feet away and waited. My friend wanted to go look after the 2 minutes was up and I told him not to. He argued that he wanted to look. I argued with him for about 10 minutes and he wouldn't listen. He started walking towards it and was about 25 feet away when it went off with a huge boom!!! I saw him fly backwards and the tree launch up in the air. It came down in rotten chunks all over him which covered him in slime and sort of matched the smell coming from his soon to be discarded underwear. There was a cloud of black powder smoke in the air and both of our ears were ringing like crazy. It was on a rural side road and we didn't hear anything from the authorities about it so I guess the only real damage was his shorts...

 

[Jeepnik]

Ahh the joys of being a kid when we would leave first thing in the morning and not come home til dark. Or later in summer.

Close parental supervision was be home in time for dinner (no one had a watch) or come home when the street lights come on(if you had street lights).

And yet we survived, flourished even. Got a little bent, broke, burned, bruised and bled. But that was considered part of growing up.

I truly feel sorry for today's mollycoddled, over protected kids whose mothers take them to the ER for a paper cut. Worse yet, their fathers want then to have a blankey and warm bath when the get home.

Unless it was gushing or spurting my dad just said "go wash it off and put a bandaid on it. Then come back out here and clean up the mess.

I really miss him!

 

[dreamer]

Cherry Bombs would destroy mail boxes !! You could also put them in a slingshot , pull way back and have someone else light the fuse--- A loud BOOOM !!! high in the air !!

Able to clear tall buildings and land in the square by the nightwatch sleeping in his car, allegedly

 

[Watertender]

Able to clear tall buildings and land in the square by the nightwatch sleeping in his car, allegedly

Or when they were shaking doors in the business district on foot.... Amazing how loud it is under a canopy!! Allegedly...