Beirut mystery explosion

[renault12ts]

Get me the ingredients, and I could knock you up a very basic pipe bomb tomorrow.

A box of matches and a couple of large bolts.

 

[renault12ts]

2.7 Tons of Ammunium Nitrate, according to a recent report.... and the blast was heard in Cyprus, 150 miles away.

2750 tonnes!!

 

[John]

Reminds me of a "bomb" me and a friend created in the early 90s.

We got a tennis ball and cut it open.

Then, we proceeded to fill it with the gunpowder from 20 fireworks (I forget which ones but they were loud when let of singularly).

We also cut the heads off 2 boxes of matches and slid in the strike sections of the matchboxes around the outside of the inside of tennis ball.

Had we lit one by accident whilst inserting those... makes me cringe to think about it now.

But it didn't fortunately for us.

Then we wrapped 2 reels of sticky tape round the outside.

Then took it somewhere out of the way and threw it hard down on the ground.

Surprisingly it took 3 attempts of throwing it hard on the ground but when it went... J*** F***.

I forget how long my ears were ringing for afterwards but I would say it was a success!

 

[Deleted member 6183]

As a very young child I would make these things:

2 short bolts, one nut and a few match heads.

Screw one bolt into the nut by one turn, fill the cavity with as many match heads as would fit, carefully screw the other bolt onto the nut.

Throw up in the air and wait for the bang.

 

[renault12ts]

As a very young child I would make these things:

2 short bolts, one nut and a few match heads.

Screw one bolt into the nut by one turn, fill the cavity with as many match heads as would fit, carefully screw the other bolt onto the nut.

Throw up in the air and wait for the bang.

We did that. I remember one going off whilst the assembler was still screwing the parts together. No ill effects...but a surprised look on his mug!

 

[Steveml63]

Hi,
We once made some ammonium triiodide at school.
We did too funny things with it,
When still wet it’s stable - but explodes on contact once dry.
We went into the classroom that we were going to be in after lunch and put little pieces of it on the floor around the teachers desk.
When we came back to class after lunch - we watched the teacher walking around his desk - with no effects.
After about 20 minutes it dried and then as he got up to write something on the blackboard - we heard the small bangs as he walked on the now dried mixture!
We all laughed - he was not at all amused and gave the whole class detention.
My friend had some left in a small test tube and took some home in the front pocket of his blazer - along with his bus pass.
Once he put his hand in his top pocket to retrieve his bus pass - it went bang and damaged the bus pass and his blazer pocket!
Its a wonder sometimes that we survived school and our early years without getting hurt or arrested for terrorism offences!
Cheers
Steve

 

[whitenemesis]

Ammonium triiodide.... Dried on filter paper and left on the window sill, watch the flies land on it. Will it, won't it .,..

 

[GeeJayW]

2750 tonnes!!

Yep..... #14

 

[poormansporsche]

When I was about 10 some random worker at my house gave me a tea chest (remember them ?) full of paper "caps". For 6 months there was constant banging and explosions at my school. When they finally worked out who was supplying said caps my parents and I were hauled in front of the headmaster. Took a right rollicking but outside my dad went so son how much did you make ? 100 odd quid,

"Good lad"

 

[pmcgsmurf]

Quite strange all these stories of what we used to get up to in our early years.

We used to make acetylene bag bombs full of paper strips and would set these off next to parked up boy racer/courting couples in places like the Castle. They made quite a flash and a bang.

For apprentices we would be always frightening them with things like slow charging capacitors that would blow or giving them shocks with EHT.

Seems mad now, we would be locked up or sacked on the spot if we got up to such stuff.

 

[GeeJayW]

Just read somewhere that some welding was going on, caused a fire which then got to some fireworks, which then triggered the Ammonium Nitrate.

This article from the BBC estimates the size of the explosion to be about 10% of the Hiroshima bomb, as mentioned by @markjay in #15.

Beirut explosion: Port officials under house arrest as rescue efforts continue Beirut officials under house arrest after blast

 

[BTB 500]

Quite strange all these stories of what we used to get up to in our early years.

We used to make acetylene bag bombs full of paper strips and would set these off next to parked up boy racer/courting couples in places like the Castle. They made quite a flash and a bang.

For apprentices we would be always frightening them with things like slow charging capacitors that would blow or giving them shocks with EHT.

Seems mad now, we would be locked up or sacked on the spot if we got up to such stuff.

Boys will be boys

I remember as a little kid taking the 'bang' strips out of Christmas crackers and fixing them with drawing pins to booby trap drawers and cupboard doors in my sister's bedroom. They were significantly more potent back then too.

 

[markjay]

...This article from the BBC estimates the size of the explosion to be about 10% of the Hiroshima bomb....

See post #15

 

[GeeJayW]

See post #15

I had seen that, hence my comment. Forgot the nod. Sorted...

 

[mattc]

At school I was in the CCF and so we would go away for weekend camps etc. We were forever throwing blank .303 rounds into camp fires. Usually took about 8 seconds for the thing to heat up and explode. One day I threw a live one in and after 4 seconds casually let out "that's a live one".....everyone legged it and the thing blew the camp fire all over the show.....oh how we laughed.

We would also make margarine bombs. This was approx 1/3rd of a ten man tin of marg put in a fire at an angle. This melts, overflows and then burns and tends to explode a bit if you have kept must if the lid on top of the tin. Hot, burning liquid everywhere, again, how we laughed.

Then we all went and sent two weeks with the Black Watch near Minden one year. We all came back with loads of CS gas pellets and some of the guys had managed to nab some of the gas canisters. We had months of fun using that lot....

 

[John N]

I have no Live Rounds, Empty Cartridge Cases or Pyrotechnics in my Possession, SIR!

 

[mattc]

We had a lot of old boys go into the Army. They were forever supplying us cadets with kit.

We had a Carl Gustav 84mm, multiple LAW 66mm, Brens, GPMG's, Parker Hale sniper rifles...we only had a 25mtr range at school!

 

[Steveml63]

I have no Live Rounds, Empty Cartridge Cases or Pyrotechnics in my Possession, SIR!

Wow - that declaration reminds me of a CCF summer camp near Shrewesbury.
We we’re each given 1/2 lb of PE4, a detonator and some fuse (around 1 minutes burn)
The instructor first set light to some PE4 to demonstrate that you could cook with it.
We then each made a small PE4 explosive by kneading it into a ball, placing the detonator in the middle and then putting the fuse in the centre of the detonator.
We then took it in turns to walk into the quarry like area - put it down, light the fuse and calmly walk back.
We were then all instructed to look towards the explosion - rather than turn our backs - to look out for flying debris coming our way!
At the end - the instructor made us all take an explosives declaration.
”I have no live explosives or accessories in my possession, sir”
Those were the days!!!!

 

[mattc]

The old boys also helped with extra ammo. Including tracer. So we would go to Llansilin range near the school cottage, set up a GPMG for static fire on tripod and let loose at 600 yards...oh how we laughed.

 

[mattc]

Wow - that declaration reminds me of a CCF summer camp near Shrewesbury.
We we’re each given 1/2 lb of PE4, a detonator and some fuse (around 1 minutes burn)
The instructor first set light to some PE4 to demonstrate that you could cook with it.
We then each made a small PE4 explosive by kneading it into a ball, placing the detonator in the middle and then putting the fuse in the centre of the detonator.
We then took it in turns to walk into the quarry like area - put it down, light the fuse and calmly walk back.
We were then all instructed to look towards the explosion - rather than turn our backs - to look out for flying debris coming our way!
At the end - the instructor made us all take an explosives declaration.
”I have no live explosives or accessories in my possession, sir”
Those were the days!!!!

So you went to Nesscliffe too!