The tale about the High School Chemistry Lab explosion brought to mind a story of John when he was in High School.

First, a few details to spice things up. John is very lucky to have survived several explosives related adventures. His brother has a missing forefinger on his left hand from his exploits. The doctors in his case stitched up things so well that until one looks to see his left middle finger is the first one after his thumb, you just don’t know it.

John and some friends got some explosives from his Dad, who was licensed to used them in construction. They knew of a cave in the bend of a river, high up above the water. Their idea was to use contact powder, made by soaking Copper Sulfate in Ammonia, to coat a target. Behind the target was a good deal of dynamite. Whether it was the contact powder which detonated the box of dynamite or their rifle shot is hard to say. I’m going with the rifle shot hitting that much nitro in clay at high velocity.

OK, the idea was to fire at the target and see if the dynamite would explode. They forgot about the acoustics – the curve of the river bend and the rock, which would concentrate the sound of the explosion right at them.

When they got back to the house, his Dad found out what was up and per John, the ringing in his ears was so bad he easily faced his Dad ripping him a new one, which is why his Dad resorted to spanking his mid-teens son.

Another of his adventures was discovering how acetylene would make a large bang. This was found out using a bread bag full of it and then igniting it. They wanted a bigger bang so used a very large beach ball. As I understand it, the stuff is very unstable when mixed with oxygen and the beach ball exploding with them at close range could have been fatal. Don’t hold me to it. What the did was put an M80 detonator in the nozzle, light it and then run like hell. Supposedly the shock was so strong it knocked them on their asses and they sat stunned until they heard fire sirens coming their way.

A prize winner was trying to make nitro and then spilling it in the basement of their house before it cured enough to become dangerous. They transported it in a cooler to a wooded area, put it on a stump and ran off. It was windy out and per John, eventually the cooler was knocked hard enough to where the contents exploded.

But the similar story was when he made contact powder in a large aquarium in the chemistry lab assistant’s area, and forgot about it, leaving it to cure over a weekend. He came in Monday, opened the door and just threw his books in the direction of the tank. Realizing where they were headed, they were too far out of reach for him to grab them. He tried to get out the door and close it in time. He didn’t. Just as he was pulling the door shut, the explosion happened.

The door hit him in the ass, pinned the rear part of his shoe soles under the door and ripped them nearly off the leather completely, needless to say propelling him onto his face.

Why to I believe him? Because he put together a roadster using an aluminum beer keg as a gas tank and rolled it during the time we were at Norton. He was on crutches, seriously injured for the first time in his life. I figured if he could do that and roll it in San Bernardino trying to get away from the Sheriff, he was indeed capable of the other stuff. Not to mention the evidence on his brother’s left hand.

Submitted on 10/25/2011

Submitted by: Mike Durthaler
Reference: Personal Account

Copyright © 2011 DarwinAwards.com

Candi said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
Oh my goodness. He's certainly trying, isn't he! Thanks Mike, and be sure to let us know (with references) if he makes a full DA!

Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
He certainly is trying. Hopefully he wont take anybody with him when he eventually succeeds... In case you're curious as to just how violent an acetylene explosion can be take a look at this submission from a few years back. The linked article contains a photo that gives an excellent example: darwinawards.com/slush/200602/pending20060206-144948.html

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