Archery Experiment

Gunner Asch · 2010-01-26T17:08:31+00:00

One of the best emails Ive had in a very long time...Around age 10 my dad got me one of those little badass compound bowbeginner kits. Of course, the first month I went around our landsticking arrows in anything that could get stuck by an arrow. Did youknow that a 1955 40horse Farmall tractor will take 6 rounds before itgoes down? Tough sumbich.That got boring, so being the 10 yr. old Dukes of Hazzard fan that Iwas, I quickly advanced to taking strips of cut up Tshirt doused inchainsaw gas tied around the end and was sending flaming arrows all overthe place. Keep in mind this was 99.999% humidity swampland so therereally wasn't any fire danger. Ill put it this way- a set of post holediggers and a 3ft. hole and you had yourself a well.One summer afternoon, I was shooting flaming arrows into a large rottenoak stump in our backyard. I looked over under the carport and see ashiny brand new can of starting fluid (ether). The light bulb went off.I grabbed the can and set it on the stump. I thought that it wouldprobably just spray out in a disappointing manner.... lets face it to a10 yr. old mouth-breather like myself, ether really doesn't "sound"flammable. So, I went back into the house and got a 1 pound can ofpyrodex (black powder for muzzle loader rifles).At this point, I set the can of ether on the stump and opened up the canof black powder. My intentions were to sprinkle a little bit around theether can but it all sorta dumped out on me. No biggie... 1lb pyrodexand 16oz ether should make a loud pop, kinda like a firecracker youknow? You know what? F**k that. I'm going back in the house for theother can. Yes, I got a second can of pyrodex and dumped it too. Nowwe're cookin'.I stepped back about 15ft and lit the 2stroke arrow. I drew the nock tomy cheek and took aim. As I released I heard a clunk as the arrowlaunched from my bow. In a slow motion time frame, I turned to see mydad getting out of the truck... OH SHIT he just got home from work. Sohelp me God it took 10...

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Doug White 16 years ago

Ignoramus27891 wrote in news:CsidnehLBduJm_zWnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

snipped-for-privacy@g1g2000yqi.googlegroups.com...

We used to fill taped up dry cleaning bags with methane for list, and then hang and oxy-acetylene bag under it. For fusing, we used cannon fuse & "detheramlizer" fuse. Thsi was like havy cotton cord, that would char at about 1/4" a minute. It was used to retrieve model gliders bu releasing the horizontal tail stabilizer after a period of time.

They would get very high up befoe there was a good flash & boom form the O-A, followed by an orange firebal from the methane. No blown out windows, and we all still have (most) of our hearing.

Do not try this at home, etc.

Doug White

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Doug White 16 years ago

"azotic" wrote in news:EW78n.21094$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe05.iad:

It goes bang, but the energy released isn't nearly on a parr with O-A. We did some careful comparisons when I was a kid, and O-A wins hands down.

Doug White

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RoyJ 16 years ago

Flour mill dust explosions can be very nasty for the same reason. They have a 4 to 8 second response time. Bang wait BANG wait Boom wait BOOM wait Kaboom wait KABOOM wait KABOOM!!!!! no more waiting, nothing left

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Lloyd E. Sponenburgh 16 years ago

Dave__67 fired this volley in news:615d4519-09e0- snipped-for-privacy@m16g2000yqc.googlegroups.com:

Acetylene has a free gas molecular weight of about 26. Hydrogen, 2. Oxygen, 32.

67.2L of gas at 2(H2)+1(O2) ratio weighs 34 grams (3 mole volume) 67.2L of gas at 2(C2H2)+10(O2) ratio weighs 93 grams (3 mole volume)

Sooo... The trash bag full of acetylene/O2 has almost 3 times the mass of the H2/O2 mixture.

Consider what the relative explosive force of three sticks of dynamite would be vs. one.

LLoyd

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Mach1 16 years ago

It's not the mass of the gas doing the damage but the energy of the reaction and the speed with which the reaction occurs.

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Doug White 16 years ago

"Mach1" wrote in news:HrGdnSv2Wd0JvvnWnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@posted.sasktel:

In particular, there is a triple bond in acetylene that stores a LOT of energy. When that let's go, you get a lot more bang for your buck than just connecting a couple hydrogen atoms to an oxygen.

Doug White

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Lloyd E. Sponenburgh 16 years ago

Doug White fired this volley in news:Xns9D105F0F31CFAgwhitealummitedu@69.16.186.7:

That's all fine and good, but it's the amount of mass set moving that conveys an explosion's force to the objects around.

If the acetylene reaction were 1000 times as strong as the H/O reaction, and you had 1/10th the mass in Acetylene mix that you had of Hydrogen mix, you'd get the same net explosive force.

Explosion force is not linear with mass.

LLoyd

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Gunner Asch 16 years ago

I didnt make any claim to the legitimacy or accuracy of the letter..just that it was good.

And while Ive had better luck with Pyrodex than you evidently have had..I still guard my stock of Gearhart Owens black powder very carefully.

Gunner

Whenever a Liberal utters the term "Common Sense approach"....grab your wallet, your ass, and your guns because the sombitch is about to do something damned nasty to all three of them.

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Gunner Asch 16 years ago

Simply fill a 3 liter soda bottle about 2/3 full of water, pour in a few ounces of Drano, add a couple bits of aluminum, foil is best but cuttings work, and shake well. Then attach a good sized balloon to the top of the bottle to be filled by the hydrogen Generator you just manufactured.

When filled, take outside, tie closed with Cotton string....long one...light end of cotton string and release.

Up and away!

Hardly makes a sound but sure is pretty when it blows

Gunner

Whenever a Liberal utters the term "Common Sense approach"....grab your wallet, your ass, and your guns because the sombitch is about to do something damned nasty to all three of them.

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Gunner Asch 16 years ago

Why? An OA rig removes the evidence

Gunner

Whenever a Liberal utters the term "Common Sense approach"....grab your wallet, your ass, and your guns because the sombitch is about to do something damned nasty to all three of them.

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Jim Stewart 16 years ago

I guess because I played around with it a lot when I was a kid. I grew up in coal mining country and it was easy to get. I never managed to hurt myself worse than ringing ears and a cuff from my dad. There's considerably more potential for destruction with an O/A rig.

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Archery Experiment

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