TexasCHLforum.com

wife just sent me an email:
seems to be some kids going around making home made Acid bombs, and putting them in mailboxes or on door steps. All have caused damage, so far nobody hurt. Be damn careful as this is highly dangerous.

As I see it, this is criminal mischief, arson, and attempted murder all rolled into one!

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/w ... bb9bc.html

WFAA-TV Staff

PLANO — Plano police are investigating a dangerous prank involving an "acid bomb."

Police spokesman Rick McDonald said the device consists of a plastic bottle containing ingredients which expand—then explode.

Witnesses said someone placed an acid bomb on the front porch of a house near Custer Road and Hedgcoxe Drive earlier this month, then fled.

No one answered the door when it detonated on July 7. Police said while this appears to be a case of teen mischief, it nevertheless was capable of causing serious injuries.

McDonald said similar devices have been found in fields, parking lots and mailboxes. He advised that anyone seeing a suspected acid bomb notify local police and use extreme caution in the vicinity.

whoa, acid, man.... the colors....

Plano..... ghetto.

until it goes off in somebody's face... or kid get's hurt...

Just a note - the 'acid' in this case is usually vinegar, or vinegar based, not, hydrochloric/sulfuric/flouric acids. while yes, the acid may burn you if it gets in yours eyes, you are more in danger from flying shrapnel from the bottle.

http://pdf.plano.gov/pcn/releases/2007/pr071607b.pdf

I don't think it would be wise to try and figure out if its:
1) backing soda
2) acid
3) chlorine
4) gasoline

the intent to injure and cause damage is there regardless of the contents..

Oh, I agree - I wouldn't want to be anywhere near one when it goes off, but there was a discussion on another board about the same incident, and there was a lot of confusion as to what the materials were, so I thought that I would chime in.

Yeah, We used to make chlorine bombs all the time back home in the fields. Never on someone's doorstep though... It can cause damage to a house and it's occupants. See below...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jlxUz7x2FA4

http://youtube.com/watch?v=OxAzRKD9_2M& ... ed&search=

Sicne we are on the subject, this one is particularly interesting...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=YCSECkxvEcM& ... ed&search=

My coach in high school taught us how to make chlorine gas bombs. He used to make them when he was in school (college, CORPS) as pranks. Theres no boom just chlorine gas, which is deadly in high enough concentrations.

I consider it an indictment of public education that anyone can graduate Tenth Grade without knowing how to make a real bomb. It's just chemistry.

By the age of 8, I was making "volcanoes" using vinegar (a weak solution of acetic acid) and baking soda. Thanks, Cub Scouts!

Certainly before the age of 10, I was using the same mixture to produce CO2 to snuff candles and matches, and exploring how some gases were heavier than air (a little vinegar and baking soda in a tall glass, let it fizz, then tip the glass to let the CO2 "pour" out onto the flame...)

In the aftermath of the OKC Murrah Building bombing, many talking heads and other professional panickers expressed shock that such common materials could be combined to make a bomb, and why wasn't the federal government outlawing them?

Dad and I were equally aghast: You mean there are people who don't know that diesel, ammonium nitrate, and a quarter stick of dynamite are collectively known as "stump remover"?

The folks at Ducks Unlimited certainly know, because ANFO was used to blast craters (duck ponds) throughout the flyway.

Kevin

KBCraig wrote:I consider it an indictment of public education that anyone can graduate Tenth Grade without knowing how to make a real bomb. It's just chemistry.

By the age of 8, I was making "volcanoes" using vinegar (a weak solution of acetic acid) and baking soda. Thanks, Cub Scouts!

Certainly before the age of 10, I was using the same mixture to produce CO2 to snuff candles and matches, and exploring how some gases were heavier than air (a little vinegar and baking soda in a tall glass, let it fizz, then tip the glass to let the CO2 "pour" out onto the flame...)

In the aftermath of the OKC Murrah Building bombing, many talking heads and other professional panickers expressed shock that such common materials could be combined to make a bomb, and why wasn't the federal government outlawing them?

Dad and I were equally aghast: You mean there are people who don't know that diesel, ammonium nitrate, and a quarter stick of dynamite are collectively known as "stump remover"?

The folks at Ducks Unlimited certainly know, because ANFO was used to blast craters (duck ponds) throughout the flyway.

Kevin

I agree, and somewhere in my collection I have a chemistry book from the nineteen teens, that even has the fomula for Nitroglycerin, plus a very mild warning that it is dangerous.

I was experimenting with Potassium Nitrate and confectioners sugar flares and bombs before I was a teen, eventually even formulating my own black powder, which was not quite as good as the factory stuff.

KBCraig wrote:I consider it an indictment of public education that anyone can graduate Tenth Grade without knowing how to make a real bomb. It's just chemistry.

I was in early grammar school when I knew the meaning of the proportions "75 - 15 - 10."

I had LOTS of fun making nitrogen tri-iodide starting around 6th grade. Never succeeded in making nitro . . . which is probably just as well.

Then there are a few incidents that I still won't put in writing today.

Maybe it's genetic . . . my father had a scar on his index finger related to an incident in high school involving white phosphorus and carbon disulfide . . .

How I got through my childhood with all my parts still attached and intact and without ever singeing off my eyebrows is still a source of amazement to me . . . but they say the Almighty protects fools and children, and I certainly qualified on both counts.

Ok, its off-topic but you can generate hydrogen (to fill balloons and so forth) by mixing HCl (buy at grocery store for use in pool, or at hardware for cleaning brick [muriatic acid]) and aluminum (foil). Tear the foil into small pieces, put in a Coke bottle, pour in the HCl and stretch the ballon over the top. Or put in a plug with a piece of glass tubing through it, necked down to a nozzle, and you have a neat blue-flame hydrogen torch. 2HCl + Al = AlCl2 + H2 - the aluminum chloride is sloppy to get rid of.

My 7th grade science teacher was named Miss Wyle. She may still be alive and if she is, she would be gratified to know the profound effect she had on my life / career.

If you poke a hydrgen-filled balloon with one of those long stick matches (lit, of course), - you get a neat blue fire ball (no noise though).

Same effect can be had with a little water and some dry ice pellets. Put a little of each in a P.E.T.E. soda bottle and screw on the lid. The bottle will expand in size approx 3x before........


lots of BOOM and a little soft shrapnel....probably pretty dangerous up close, but Mr. Darwin always told me to stand back when I was blowing something up

Humanphibian wrote:Same effect can be had with a little water and some dry ice pellets. Put a little of each in a P.E.T.E. soda bottle and screw on the lid. The bottle will expand in size approx 3x before........


lots of BOOM and a little soft shrapnel....probably pretty dangerous up close, but Mr. Darwin always told me to stand back when I was blowing something up

I showed a buddy of mine how to make these once.. He did it about 30 miles down the beach, and forgot my #1 rule! After closing the cap, never ever pick it back up and stay away from it.
He thought it wasn't sealed good, picked it back up, and it started creaking. Before he could throw it back down, it went off, and sliced the heck out of the webbing of his thumb. The sand covering the bottle also peppered him pretty good. It was a long 35 miles down the beach to the hospital for him!

We had tried to go fishing with these, but not enough ummmph!