The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

FredB wrote:Note that titanium is not alone in geing a flammable metal.
Set fire to a clump of steel wool and see if you can put it out! Better still, if you have access to a really hot flame, try it with aluminium---and you definitely will not be able to put this out.
A powdered mixture of iron and aluminium swarf was used to surround the ends of railway lines and, when ignited, would weld them together.
Fred

Is that not thermite?

That reminds me, over 40 odd years ago, dad was given some magnesium alloy to make some clamps, when finished there were a couple of offcuts approx 3/4" x 1/2" x 1/4".

I took one to school with me and asked chemistry teacher who we called Beaker if he could see if it would burn. He was a bit sceptical that it was magnesium but set it up held in his big bunsen burner and left heating for a good while, but decided after around 15 mins that nothing was going to happen and was just about to give up, when an almighty white light erupted, with this Beaker panicked and chucked now burning brightly block in a sink and cleared the room, i cant remember how long it burnt for but the sink was bolluxed and it took ages to clear the room of the acrid white smoke.

Could you imagine if you did that now, they'd clear the school, cordon of the streets for 1/4 mile and call the bomb squad.

shugie wrote:

FredB wrote:Note that titanium is not alone in geing a flammable metal.
Set fire to a clump of steel wool and see if you can put it out! Better still, if you have access to a really hot flame, try it with aluminium---and you definitely will not be able to put this out.
A powdered mixture of iron and aluminium swarf was used to surround the ends of railway lines and, when ignited, would weld them together.
Fred

Is that not thermite?

Yep! One of the hottest burning substances in use. I've seen it used to cut a car in half but putting a line of it across the top of the car and letting it burn all the way through.

kevinww wrote: Could you imagine if you did that now, they'd clear the school, cordon of the streets for 1/4 mile and call the bomb squad.

In the school I work at we make thermite (we just call it thermic reaction) and use aluminium as a fuse.

BTW: Thermite is iron oxide and aluminium

Mattnall wrote:

kevinww wrote: Could you imagine if you did that now, they'd clear the school, cordon of the streets for 1/4 mile and call the bomb squad.

In the school I work at we make thermite (we just call it thermic reaction) and use aluminium as a fuse.

BTW: Thermite is iron oxide and aluminium

When I was at secondary school my form room was the chemistry lab and the walk in cupboard where the chemicals etc were stored was always locked......but one lunchtime the door was open!.After swiping as much magnesium strip as we could find a couple of lads starting tossing a large brown glass jar of "something" to each other, one of them launched it my way, I ducked and it landed in a large Belfast sink that was bolted to the wall.........well it didn't stay bolted to the wall for long as there was an almighty bang and a cloud of smoke and the sink ended up on the floor in pieces!!!.As a result we were banned from the room at lunchtimes for the remaining two years.

snayperskaya wrote:
When I was at secondary school my form room was the chemistry lab and the walk in cupboard where the chemicals etc were stored was always locked......but one lunchtime the door was open!.After swiping as much magnesium strip as we could find a couple of lads starting tossing a large brown glass jar of "something" to each other, one of them launched it my way, I ducked and it landed in a large Belfast sink that was bolted to the wall.........well it didn't stay bolted to the wall for long as there was an almighty bang and a cloud of smoke and the sink ended up on the floor in pieces!!!.As a result we were banned from the room at lunchtimes for the remaining two years.

I am guessing the "brown jar of something" was Sodium or something similar that reacted with the water in the sink....

Sounds like Darwin was asleep at the wheel that day

There was a rumour at my school that a boy once made nitro-glycerine in the lab.

TRG-22 wrote:Sounds like Darwin was asleep at the wheel that day

There was a rumour at my school that a boy once made nitro-glycerine in the lab.

Darwin was asleep quite a few times during my younger years!......thankfully!!!

TRG-22 wrote:Sounds like Darwin was asleep at the wheel that day

There was a rumour at my school that a boy once made nitro-glycerine in the lab.

Quite possible, it is a fairly simple reaction. Although you have to have very pure sulphuric acid and a very expensive form of nitric acid known as "white-fuming". Unlikely the school would have had those but using the normal stuff you would get something pretty close to nitroglycerine. It just wouldn't be quite as powerful as the chain reaction would be interrupted by impurities.

When I studied A level chemistry we went through the manufacturing process to make cocaine. We didn't start with Coca leaves so we didn't end up with cocaine but an identical process. I did wonder at the time why they were teaching a group od 17/18 year olds this.

Many years ago I was talking to a QA chap at work about the production of Nitro Glycerine in the days when pamphlets such as Hi-Low Boom or similar were readily available. We were both more intrigued by the process than having any interest in making the stuff or so I thought... A couple of weeks later the Goods-In rang to say a delivery for myself had arrived. It was two bottles of fuming Nitric.

I denied all knowledge of it and made a hasty exit.