More Ways to Blow Things Up

pitabutter writes "Since the /. crowd seems to appreciate the exciting combination of amateur chemistry and fearlessness (what is it about intelligence and the desire to blow things up?), Sam Barros' site would be worth a look. Rail guns, high voltage, electromagnetic experiements-all there and with videos to boot. Unable to confirm if Sam still has appendages intact........"

Comments

If you like this, try this, too....

[mickwd]

George Goble's home page.

Re:If you like this, try this, too....

[ruprechtjones]

http://ghg.ecn.purdue.edu/~ghg/morebbq/index.html

what the hell are those pressurized tanks in the bkgd? Are they really lighting LOX only 4 meters away from that much explosive material?

Balls, bravery, stupidity... a jedi craves not these things...

What about amasci and keely-net?

[orangesquid]

Bill Beaty's Amateur Science Pages are a great place for this kind of thing, too... Although his site is a little more aimed at electronics, but there's plenty of physics-related (read: explosive) stuff too :)

Anarchist's Cookbook

[march]

It used to be that one needed to secretly get a copy of William Powell's Anarchist's Cookbook ("The best way to build your team's moral is to raid an arms depot").... Now, all this stuff is online. Alas...

But, it sure is fun! (So I've heard. Yeah, that's the ticket!) :-)

Survival Research Labs

[Bowling Moses]

This blowing things up reminds me of the Survival Research Labs. Big pseudo-military machines running about and causing destruction and mayhem, like the Pitching Machine? I'd love to see any machine that can huck 2x4's at 120 mph. Anyone been lucky enough to see a show?

Re:Go Edison...

[Ryan Stortz]

That's a little wrong. Used AC power to electricute animals and on the first electric chair. The reason was that Edison the creator of DC, wanted to show how harmfull his competetor's (Westinghouse) AC power was.

Edison thought that once people saw how dangerous it was, they'd use his DC power. AC eventually won out because it was able to be sent down powerlines.

Ahem, I have noticed a few errors . . .

[GMontag]

From this crackpot's website:

The discovery of electricity came hand-in-hand with the realization that it could be use to harm and kill living things. In 1945, with the
invention of the Leyden Jar (the first type of capacitor ever developed, invented in the University of Leiden, Netherlands),

Sorry, Ben Franklin used those jars in Philly way back before france was a county in Germany.

high power
electrical discharges became a possibility, and with them came numerous salon shows where these discharges would be used to
electrocute birds, rats and other small animals. Thomas Edison used AC power to electrocute cats, dogs, a horse, and even a 3-ton
elephant. He also created the first electric chair, which ran on DC power and almost set the person to be executed on fire
(nowadays they are AC).

Yes, Edison used DC, his competitors (I think they are called General Electric now but I may be mistaken) used AC and the story is backwards!

The AC guys made the DC electric chairs to show how "dangerous" DC was and they "showed" how "safe" AC was by it not killing people!

As our knowledge of electricity expanded so did the uses to which this most versatile form of power has
been put to.

yea, that might be right.

The Electrocuting Water Cannon

[Alien54]

Well, there's always the Electrocuting Water Cannon.

As noted in the Village Voice:

The innovative savvy of American electrical engineers always astounds. If something terrible can be built in the name of security, they never shirk. Who else would be brilliant enough to come up with a water gun that carries molar-rattling electrical shocks?

The aqueous electrocutor sprays a "high-pressure saline solution with additives" mixed in to maximize range in putting down that troublesome rabble. "[Debilitating] but not lethal shocks" move through the water jet, according to Jaycor's online brochure. The company hints the voltage can be turned up "to deliver potent electrical shocks to equipment as well as individuals."

This stuff is starting to scare me. And the basic idea is simple enough that it could be a do it yourself in your own garage type of project for either the profoundly brilliant or profoundly stupid

Re:Go Edison...

[attobyte]

Wasn't Nikola Tesla that came up with AC? Westinghouse just funded him or something? Tesla worked with Edison for a while until Tesla told him AC was better.

Atto

Sam Barros? Bah! That's kids stuff compared to....

[Dolemite_the_Wiz]

...Survival Research Labratories (Their motto: "Producing The Most Dangerous Shows on Earth.")

Here's a tesla coil for you!! (Standing 20 Feet Tall)

With shows like:

A CALCULATED FORECAST OF ULTIMATE DOOM: Sickening Episodes of Widespread Devastation Accompanied by Sensations of Pleasurable Excitement

...and...

A Carnival of Misplaced Devotion: Calculated to Arouse Resentment for the Principles of Order

...and, of course...

The Best of SRL!!!

Pretty friggin cool 'eh?

Dolemite

Nye Thermodynamics - DIY Jet Turbines!

[swordboy]

Nye Thermodynamics

Nothing like the sound of the afterburner kicking in. I want to make a jet ski hovercraft out of these one day...