Parsnip Rash - Phytophotodermatitis

[Gilberdyke John]

I don't think I'm quite in the same generation as most of you but we had a fantastic tech teacher who would let us use the tech lab at lunchtime. We used to make blowpipes out of PVC tubing with dowel segments as darts tipped with a bit of sharpened brazing rod (not used on each other). Sadly that teacher retired before we were able to progress to crossbows...

That reminds me, must find my spud guns for my girls to have a play... Caps for cap guns are not as good as they used to be either. Found an old pack and they are significantly louder than the modern ones.

Nitrogen tri iodide made in the chemistry lab anyone?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

we were lucky, my friend and I had a ready supply of gunpowder (both black and Nitro) oh what fun we had up in the woods behind Garn Cottage making explosive and incendiary devices

 

[Sutty]

Nitrogen tri iodide made in the chemistry lab anyone?

Yup - thought I'd collected it all but the next class someone put a burette down on the bench, there was a small bang and a puff of purple, and the burette broke!

 

[Wilco]

Nitrogen tri iodide made in the chemistry lab anyone?

Always wanted to make it but struggle to get hold of the iodine in concentrated enough form...

 

[Wilco]

we were lucky, my friend and I had a ready supply of gunpowder (both black and Nitro) oh what fun we had up in the woods behind Garn Cottage making explosive and incendiary devices

Found a source of potassium chlorate and tried to make a rocket as a teenager. Only succeeded in accidentally making a small pipe bomb...

Polystyrene peanuts in petrol made a good napalm stand in though.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Found a source of potassium chlorate and tried to make a rocket as a teenager. Only succeeded in accidentally making a small pipe bomb...

Polystyrene peanuts in petrol made a good napalm stand in though.

I also found a 50lb can of calcium carbide in the loft of my auntie's stables (they used to have a little shop selling almost anything, and it was used in bicycle and miners lamps) now we used to have great fun with that!!

 

[Wilco]

I also found a 50lb can of calcium carbide in the loft of my auntie's stables (they used to have a little shop selling almost anything, and it was used in bicycle and miners lamps) now we used to have great fun with that!!

If you fancy a trip down memory lane:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Calcium-Ca...eywords=calcium+carbide&qid=1628060789&sr=8-1
Potassium permanganate is fun too.

 

[Sutty]

Potassium permanganate & pour glycerine on it - stand well back

 

[Bumble Bee Slim]

If you fancy a trip down memory lane:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Calcium-Ca...eywords=calcium+carbide&qid=1628060789&sr=8-1
Potassium permanganate is fun

Potassium permanganate & pour glycerine on it - stand well

Potassium permanganate & pour glycerine on it - stand well back

KMnO4+school swimming pool= expulsion for a couple of lads I seem to remember from the distant past ,though I believe this wasn't their only transgression

 

[Amari]

Must try that...

Reading all these posts gives me the disagreeable feeling that I didn't enjoy a misspent youth as much as those above.

All I can offer: wrap mud around the base of a banger, light the blue touch paper, and when it starts to fizz drop it into a pond = a most satisfying underwater thud.

 

[enrico]

Drop an old penny in sulphuric acid for a few minutes. Remove penny and the edges are like a knife. Throw it at the chemistry lab wooden door and it buries itself in to the wood!

 

[Wilco]

Reading all these posts gives me the disagreeable feeling that I didn't enjoy a misspent youth as much as those above.

All I can offer: wrap mud around the base of a banger, light the blue touch paper, and when it starts to fizz drop it into a pond = a most satisfying underwater thud.

Didn't have much of a misspent youth. Making up for it now.

 

[Bumble Bee Slim]

Drop an old penny in sulphuric acid for a few minutes. Remove penny and the edges are like a knife. Throw it at the chemistry lab wooden door and it buries itself in to the wood!

Pennies on the railway line anyone ?

 

[pargyle]

Pennies on the railway line anyone ?

Yes ... I did that ... where I lived in Yorkshire the railway line was at the bottom of our garden .. I used to sit on the railway sleeper fence and watch the steam trains go by ... we soon graduated to putting pennies on the track ... very satisfying result - I still have one somewhere that was flattened by Mallard at Doncaster engine shed .. surprising what 160 tons of steel on steel will do to a Victorian penny.

 

[Amari]

Yes ... I did that ... where I lived in Yorkshire the railway line was at the bottom of our garden .. I used to sit on the railway sleeper fence and watch the steam trains go by ... we soon graduated to putting pennies on the track ... very satisfying result - I still have one somewhere that was flattened by Mallard at Doncaster engine shed .. surprising what 160 tons of steel on steel will do to a Victorian penny.

Steel on bronze?

Somewhere, I have a small boxful of Victorian bun pennies (1860-1894), collected on the bus to and from school (no school buses in those days). The pennies are worn so smooth that it's difficult to see the inscription.

 

[pargyle]

Steel on bronze?

Somewhere, I have a small boxful of Victorian bun pennies (1860-1894), collected on the bus to and from school (no school buses in those days). The pennies are worn so smooth that it's difficult to see the inscription.

Yes .. I have about 400 that I collected in the same fashion .,.. some of the early ones you can only see the date on ... but I have quite a lot of KN and H foundy ones from 1916, 1918 and 1919 that are in fairly good condition. They used to be almost worthless but I haven't checked lately. I never managed to find any of the seven 1933 George V ones that were issued ... worth a retirement sum now if you have one.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Didn't have much of a misspent youth. Making up for it now.

Keeping bees is a misspent old age?

 

[Erichalfbee]

I never managed to find any of the seven 1933 George V ones that were issued ... worth a retirement sum now if you have one.

Yes me neither

 

[Wilco]

Keeping bees is a misspent old age?

I may be curmudgeonly but I'm not that old! As my better half says, I have far too many hobbies...

 

[Karol]

I remember pieces of copper water pipe hammered flat at the end, buried in the ground at an angle, a lit "banger" firework dropped down it followed by a marble - fired it a LONG way! Only surprise is we didn't kill anyone!!

Much the same only we'd use empty Parker pen refills. Fill them with hairspray then crimp the ends. Made for great rocket fuel and when launched and crimped just right got a satisfying jet of flames out the end. Crimp too tight and neighbours were coming out of their houses to see what the noise was. Didn't see those leave the copper mortar .