gws
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Posts: 969
Location: NW New Mexico
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Post by gws on Jul 14, 2014 22:37:54 GMT -5
Remember the common sight of a hero or villain running away from a target pouring a trail of the Back Powder that he's going to light? And you probably noticed how dutifully the powder went sssssssssssss towards the target after lighting it, giving the lighter of the fuse plenty of time to get behind a rock? Or even more amazing the trail was kicked away and the plot thwarted? Remember the movie "Swiss Family Robinson"? Ha ha. We've been taught that smokeless powder is not an explosive, it burns in a controlled manner, while black powder is an explosive, it just goes kablam.....sure it follows the little trail, but before you have time to look up it's already given you a bad day.....maybe even the worst of your life. True story follows: My sister's boy weeded his back and had a big pile of weeds neck high! He decided to burn them in place and first tried to light them up with a match. Well, we all know how that goes after a rain storm.....the weeds are wet and they don't burn so well. So it just happened that this bright boy was building a black powder rife, and so had a few cans of black powder. He went out and started pouring this powder all over the weed pile, and finished it off with an eight foot long powder trail..........yup he lit it. Boom! Came running into the house and yelled at his wife to call an ambulance......while he tried to climb into his freezer. Well he was lucky, only 2nd degree burns over his front upper trunk, arms face and he eliminated the need for a barber for a while!!! The doctors said he was brilliant to climb in the freezer immediately to stop tissue damage from continuing. BTW, he lost interest in the black powder hobby, wonder why?  |
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Post by krwada on Jul 14, 2014 23:26:05 GMT -5
That actually reminds me of a funny story out at the farm.... Any of you who grew up on a farm knows that there are many ways to create mayhem and mischief out on a farm.
Anyhow, my two older brothers and I were clearing a bunch of dried tumbleweeds out on the property. We had made this really big pile of tumbleweeds. At that point, I thought we would just put some newspaper at the bottom of the pile, and just light the thing up. But no! Both of my older brothers decided that it would be a good idea to pour gasoline on that pile. Anyhow, they doused that thing completely... I backed way away, and my brothers called me 'scardy cat' or something to that effect. Anyhow. while my older brother was making a torch out of newspaper, (so you could light the torch and toss it into the gasoline soaked tumbleweeds), My oldest brother was kneeling next to that pile, and was busy striking a match next to the pile ... and ... KABOOM! A big roiling mushroom cloud of gasoline and tumbleweeds!
My oldest brother clutched his face and stumbled away from that roaring inferno. He lost all his hair on his head and face, and managed to just get away with severe 2nd degree burns over his face and arms.
Talk about stupid as stupid does ... I guess, it was good that I was scared!
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bob
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I'm too old to be nice but never too old to learn!
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Location: Northern California
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Post by bob on Jul 15, 2014 0:05:35 GMT -5
One of my off duty(fire department) businesses was a firewood/pulp wood logging venture and I hired fellow firemen to work with me. This venture was at the west end of the small city of San Rafael. One day we had a brush pile to get rid it was about 15' X 20' and 2'thick,well one of my firemen friends had a 5 gallon can of old gasoline which he wanted to get rid of. He climed up on the pile and proceeded to pour all the gas on the brush, this took some time to accomplish after which I suggested a "fuse"of sorts with a half gallon of gas. All this takes time and the fumes are building in the brush pile, he lit the fuse and stepped back to watch the inferno, well it exploded lifting the pile off the ground, kncocked him over backwards(he may have stumbled in suprise) and all the local residents of the area came running out to see what rattled their windows. Fortunately I had a burn permit and the local fire department knew we were going to burn so all they did was answer a bunch of phone calls. No one was injured so we had one heck of a good laugh. Stupid is as Stupid does!
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et1
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Posts: 120
Location: Ontario Canada
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Post by et1 on Jul 15, 2014 5:00:58 GMT -5
GWS
You’re absolutely right about Hollywood sensationalism leaving false impressions.
When the bad guy gets shot he’s thrown back a ways as if hit by an explosion. I don’t think so!!!
Or when a stock pile of rifle ammunition is set on fire you are supposed to get an explosion. Definitely not, at least with smokeless powder. This alone has generated fear in many that don’t understand the principle of powder burn rates and the need for containment to build pressure which in turn accelerates the burn rate to an explosive level.
Then there is the other side of the coin of misleading information that could create a safety issue as mentioned. The other media that can be misleading is the internet of today. Get a kick out of the commercial where a blond states, “ If it isn’t true they can’t post it on the internet”.
Ed
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et1
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Location: Ontario Canada
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Post by et1 on Aug 7, 2014 14:49:52 GMT -5
Just a follow up on the comment about Hollywood displaying loaded ammo exploding when on fire.
Ed
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gws
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Posts: 969
Location: NW New Mexico
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Post by gws on Aug 7, 2014 18:13:59 GMT -5
Good video for the skiddish masses........and even antigunners! So how would it all have played out if black powder was used instead of smokeless powder BOOM! Big BOOM.....and bigga boom! That was my original point. Wonder where the black powder Saami firefighter video is?? |
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dangun
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I love the smell of burnt gun powder.
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Location: SW Florida
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Post by dangun on Aug 8, 2014 5:58:08 GMT -5
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7mmmountaineer
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Time to face it I am a workaholic............
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Post by 7mmmountaineer on Aug 8, 2014 8:40:34 GMT -5
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gws
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Posts: 969
Location: NW New Mexico
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Post by gws on Aug 8, 2014 10:43:32 GMT -5
Memory of ammo explosions may be fresh in the minds of veterans during war time, but having little information about what was in those explosions, created the myths of modern sporting ammo being extremely dangerous. The explosions they may have seen or heard were most likely from the TNT used in the exploding shells of mortars, mines, and artillery.
Then there are the horrendous deadly explosions and fires experienced in fireworks production and/or storage facilities, where they still use explosive black powder (and other highly explosive components) freely. Notice in the video they explicitly remove military ammunition from the testing.....not because their small arms ammo is any more dangerous, but because of the explosive shells used and stored along with them.
I got to know a guy who was trained in high explosive manufacture for industrial uses. I was privileged to be with him as he demonstrated the process. It was in Vicksburg Miss., and we traveled to a location where testing was done. His product used cordite used in Naval shells. Reminded me of smokeless powder.....the "grains" being shaped like IMR 4340, but each kernal was a 1/2" diamter log maybe 1-1/2" long....white in color. He poured a measure into a blue plastic cylinder with end caps similar to PVC only the material was thinner. Then he poured some kind of liquid into the cylinder filling the spaces. That material dried to a jell in about 10 minutes (this is all by memory...40 years ago), then he applied some of the jell to the inside of the top cap, pressed it down onto the cylinder closing it, (top cap had an open tube in it where a blasting cap went.
Then we went to the "pond" where he inserted an electric blasting cap in it and threw it to the center of the pond. We retired to a bunker, and he turned a knob.......the geyser was a 100 ft tall or more. Very exciting! After the blast we went back to the pond looking for blue plastic remains of the cylinder....we found none. He said that was a successful test of the concept. Find blue pieces meant an unsuccessful test. Interesting experience. (I'm sure this is oversimplified....like I said it was 40 years ago...and I only got an hour's experience)
I would not want to be near a factory with those components stored......nor a firefighter called to a fire there.
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My daughter came from Missouri, my son and grand son, my wife and I had a nice dinner of grilled "porter house" pork chops, corn on the cobb, my son, G'son and I share 10/5. G'son is 4 minutes early though @ 10/4.
Pooh I hope you find to right house . 
