Dangourous childhood experiments.

[EF80TVVALVE]

i remember my teacher, yes teacher! filling a sink with water and fairy liquid, then, after it was filled, he took the pipe from a bunsen burner and put one end on a gas tap and the other end in the sink. after about 5 minutes he took it out and put a match to the fairy liquid
it created a massive fire ball that rose to the ceiling and spread across the ceiling and managed to go 1/4th of the way down the walls!

[Panrock]

Three things from my mis-spent past come to mind:

1) The Electric Bomb. Passing the short circuit current from the 4v winding of an ex-Murphy A122 mains transformer through a 'Sparklets' bulb taken from my parents' Soda Water dispenser. Said bulb is first concealed inside a carefully constructed 'house' of toy bricks... I take cover...the plunger is pressed... a few seconds of delay follow... there is an almighty BANG with the ripped-asunder Sparklets bulb hurtling off in an unpredicable direction and the toy house blown to smithereens. What fun!!! A convincing demonstration of "Charles's Law" I believe...

2) The Arc Lamp. Take two soft pencils and connect them directly across two 13A sockets in parallel (yes, the teenage me thought that would double the current). Wear sunglasses 'for the ultra-violet' and Mum's rubber kitchen gloves. Switch on at the wall, touch the pencils together and draw them apart slowly until the brilliant arc extinguishes. Both pencils catch fire. Fuse Box fuses blow. Drop pencils in a panic. Drawing Room carpet ruined...

3) The Electric Chair. Construct a VCR97 based 'television' with two aluminium component-bearing panels at right angles (so looking rather like a chair) and fastened together flimsily by a hardboard strip. The design dictates a low-impedance DC potential between them of 2500 volts. Switch on. Adjust position of apparatus by taking hold of both panels at the same time. One is unable to let go.... The whole contraption, with me attached, shudders violently and crashes to the floor, so breaking the circuit.... I have to lie down for a while, fortunately not forever.

Liability Waiver: Don't try any of the above yourself, at home, etc....

[kalee20]

Originally Posted by G8HQP Dave

I'm not sure this thread is a good idea.

I'm not either, although it is entertaining.

Experiments with calcium carbide are great fun, so is gunpowder in small quantities. But wiring a bell push to the primary of a transformer, as opposed to the secondary, while I can see the reasoning it could have seriously injured somebody. And filling a Brasso tin half full with paraffin and putting on the fire, well there is a vast amount of energy there and if I did this today I'd want to calculate the safe distance first.

One of my own favourites is nitrogen tri-iodide, made from iodine crystals in strong ammonia solution. Filter, and allow the residue to dry. It is touch-sensitive, a tiny piece behind the radiator in a maths lesson detonated half way through with a bang and cloud of purple vapour. No injuries and comparatively safe! But don't make up more than a quarter of a gram at a time.

[Brian R Pateman]

Originally Posted by kalee20

I'm not either,....

And neither are the moderating team.

Lighting touch paper and standing back!