Pipe Bomb
Some mates and I made a pipe bomb/mortar once and got arrested. I mixed up my own black powder using my Dad's extensive list of chemicals that he kept in the garage (he was an industrial chemist.) We then took said powder to a local sandstone quarry which overlooked the village.

We found an old bit of steel pipe that was sealed at one end, filled the open end with the powder and buried it deep in the sandstone (open end up).

I then proceeded (rather stupidly with hindsight) to hammer a small pebble in the open end to seal it all up. Now having a sealed metal pipe buried in the ground we had no way of igniting it so we built a fire around it. We all sat back expecting not much to happen. The mix of black powder was completely random and the seal on the pipe was a bit suss.

After a while, sparks began shooting out of the end of the pipe (I had also put a good dose of iron filings in the powder.) Now these weren't sparkler type sparks, we're talking a good 7-8 feet in length. Woo-hoo! Our jubilations were short lived as an enormous boom ripped through the quarry temporarily deafening us and leaving a 10 foot wide crater in the sandstone. We legged it. Later on we found out that the pebble in the end of the pipe had smashed through the window of a pub about 1/4 mile away below the quarry and almost killed the barmaid.

We were arrested in school the next morning 'cause someone snitched. Bastards! Good fun though. My Dad gave me a right bollocking.
(doowaz, Tue 2 Mar 2004, 20:48, Reply)