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Ken S. Tucker · Guest

In Public School I decided to try to build a carbon
carbon arc lamp using 2 pencils, and it worked.
1st I screwed in to the pencils the leads, and
that worked but the wood started to smoulder.
Later I removed the graphite and wire wrapped
around the naked leads, that worked too.
My Old Boy got a little testy when I blew a few
fuses per day (in the 60>s they were 25 cents a
piece), so he advised a series resistance, like
a heater or light bulb. BINGO!

Fortunately no permanent retinal damage.
Ken

John Larkin · Guest

On Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:01:10 -0700 (PDT), "Ken S. Tucker"
<dynamics@vianet.on.ca> wrote:

[quote]In Public School I decided to try to build a carbon
carbon arc lamp using 2 pencils, and it worked.
1st I screwed in to the pencils the leads, and
that worked but the wood started to smoulder.
Later I removed the graphite and wire wrapped
around the naked leads, that worked too.
My Old Boy got a little testy when I blew a few
fuses per day (in the 60>s they were 25 cents a
piece), so he advised a series resistance, like
a heater or light bulb. BINGO!

Fortunately no permanent retinal damage.
Ken
[/quote]
Lots of playing with high voltages... TV power transformers, neon sign
transformers, big oil caps, flashtubes.

A buddy and I were prowling an empty house and found a shopping bag
full of shotgun shells. We spent the summer peeling them open, and
using the powder for insane things.

I once made a Kerr cell using nitrobenzene, and got the stuff all over
me. I later read a Nero Wolfe mystery where a small dish of the stuff
was placed to spill on someone and killed them.

Huge lead exposure, of course.

John

Phil Hobbs · Guest

Ken S. Tucker wrote:
[quote]In Public School I decided to try to build a carbon
carbon arc lamp using 2 pencils, and it worked.
1st I screwed in to the pencils the leads, and
that worked but the wood started to smoulder.
Later I removed the graphite and wire wrapped
around the naked leads, that worked too.
My Old Boy got a little testy when I blew a few
fuses per day (in the 60>s they were 25 cents a
piece), so he advised a series resistance, like
a heater or light bulb. BINGO!

Fortunately no permanent retinal damage.
Ken
[/quote]
I did that with the carbon rods from 2 D cells in an old mustard tin,
running off 120V with a teakettle in series for a ballast. In the
kitchen. WITH my parents in the room. They were pretty cool about that
stuff. Man, that sucker was _bright_.

I had two rooms in the attic full of old surplus radio gear and the guts
of tube TVs. My frustration at age 13 or so at not being able to design
stuff that actually worked properly was the main thing that got me
really working at learning electronic design. One of these days I>ll be
done, but not yet. ;)

Cheers,

Phil Hobbs

Jim Thompson · Guest

On Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:36:29 -0700, John Larkin
<jjlarkin@highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote:

[quote]On Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:01:10 -0700 (PDT), "Ken S. Tucker"
dynamics@vianet.on.ca> wrote:

In Public School I decided to try to build a carbon
carbon arc lamp using 2 pencils, and it worked.
1st I screwed in to the pencils the leads, and
that worked but the wood started to smoulder.
Later I removed the graphite and wire wrapped
around the naked leads, that worked too.
My Old Boy got a little testy when I blew a few
fuses per day (in the 60>s they were 25 cents a
piece), so he advised a series resistance, like
a heater or light bulb. BINGO!

Fortunately no permanent retinal damage.
Ken

Lots of playing with high voltages... TV power transformers, neon sign
transformers, big oil caps, flashtubes.

A buddy and I were prowling an empty house and found a shopping bag
full of shotgun shells. We spent the summer peeling them open, and
using the powder for insane things.

I once made a Kerr cell using nitrobenzene, and got the stuff all over
me. I later read a Nero Wolfe mystery where a small dish of the stuff
was placed to spill on someone and killed them.

Huge lead exposure, of course.

John

[/quote]
I made bombs with my chemistry set, "bang" and smoke...

Smoked out (emptied) a restaurant across the alley from my junior high
school ;-)

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC>s and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

Liberals are so cute. Stupid as bricks, but cute.

TT_Man · Guest

[quote]

I made bombs with my chemistry set, "bang" and smoke...

Smoked out (emptied) a restaurant across the alley from my junior high
school ;-)

I made bombs too- steel tubes + 2 chemicals. I was 16 at the time.[/quote]
Eventually I did myself serious injury and spent 3 weeks in hospital and 6
months recovering. God said it was my lucky day so he let me live.

Joerg · Guest

Ken S. Tucker wrote:
[quote]In Public School I decided to try to build a carbon
carbon arc lamp using 2 pencils, and it worked.
1st I screwed in to the pencils the leads, and
that worked but the wood started to smoulder.
Later I removed the graphite and wire wrapped
around the naked leads, that worked too.
My Old Boy got a little testy when I blew a few
fuses per day (in the 60>s they were 25 cents a
piece), so he advised a series resistance, like
a heater or light bulb. BINGO!

Fortunately no permanent retinal damage.
Ken
[/quote]

Probably the most stupid thing we did was mount a small motorcycle
engine onto a tiny RC boat. Basically the whole boat consisted of
engine. Took off like a rocket and sped out of RC range in a jiffy,
crashed into the other end of the lake.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

Jim Yanik · Guest

Jim Thompson <To-Email-Use-The-Envelope-Icon@My-Web-Site.com> wrote in
news:9ugs841e0afa1138mqpdmodd2lbiqkvg41@4ax.com:

[quote]
On Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:36:29 -0700, John Larkin
jjlarkin@highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote:

On Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:01:10 -0700 (PDT), "Ken S. Tucker"
dynamics@vianet.on.ca> wrote:

In Public School I decided to try to build a carbon
carbon arc lamp using 2 pencils, and it worked.
1st I screwed in to the pencils the leads, and
that worked but the wood started to smoulder.
Later I removed the graphite and wire wrapped
around the naked leads, that worked too.
My Old Boy got a little testy when I blew a few
fuses per day (in the 60>s they were 25 cents a
piece), so he advised a series resistance, like
a heater or light bulb. BINGO!

Fortunately no permanent retinal damage.
Ken

Lots of playing with high voltages... TV power transformers, neon sign
transformers, big oil caps, flashtubes.

A buddy and I were prowling an empty house and found a shopping bag
full of shotgun shells. We spent the summer peeling them open, and
using the powder for insane things.

I once made a Kerr cell using nitrobenzene, and got the stuff all over
me. I later read a Nero Wolfe mystery where a small dish of the stuff
was placed to spill on someone and killed them.

Huge lead exposure, of course.

John

I made bombs with my chemistry set, "bang" and smoke...

Smoked out (emptied) a restaurant across the alley from my junior high
school ;-)

...Jim Thompson
[/quote]
I decided to make a Jacob>s ladder,using a 12V auto ignition coil...

Sunday morning at the breakfast table,have two copper wires screwed onto a
board,arranged as the 'ladder',connected to the coil secondary,have an
extension cord running past my mom who>s reading the Sunday paper,NO idea
of what I>m doing....
connected 120VAC across the coil primary(the 12v primary...),BIG snap and
flash,giant spark,room goes dark.

Mom leapt about two feet in the air,screaming at me,scared nearly to death.
Blew a fuse in the mains panel,cutting off power to half the kitchen.
It was awhile before I learned why it didn>t work as planned.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net

Jim Thompson · Guest

On Mon, 28 Jul 2008 23:31:46 +0100, "TT_Man" <Someone@ntlworld.com>
wrote:

[quote]

I made bombs with my chemistry set, "bang" and smoke...

Smoked out (emptied) a restaurant across the alley from my junior high
school ;-)

I made bombs too- steel tubes + 2 chemicals. I was 16 at the time.
Eventually I did myself serious injury and spent 3 weeks in hospital and 6
months recovering. God said it was my lucky day so he let me live.

[/quote]
I once was heating a test tube containing a concoction of sulfur,
powered magnesium, and (IIRC) potassium nitrate over a Bunsen
burner... never mind the comments... I was like 10 years old.

It began to glow oddly. I jumped back and turned to run up the
basement stairs... ka-boom... my back was filled with glass fragments.

It always amazes me that males make it to 20 years old ;-)

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC>s and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

Liberals are so cute. Stupid as bricks, but cute.

Martin Griffith · Guest

On Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:01:10 -0700 (PDT), in sci.electronics.design
"Ken S. Tucker" <dynamics@vianet.on.ca> wrote:

[quote]In Public School I decided to try to build a carbon
carbon arc lamp using 2 pencils, and it worked.
1st I screwed in to the pencils the leads, and
that worked but the wood started to smoulder.
Later I removed the graphite and wire wrapped
around the naked leads, that worked too.
My Old Boy got a little testy when I blew a few
fuses per day (in the 60>s they were 25 cents a
piece), so he advised a series resistance, like
a heater or light bulb. BINGO!

Fortunately no permanent retinal damage.
Ken
Does the Gym mistress count?[/quote]

martin

John Popelish · Guest

Mixed red lead and red phosphorus. Never got to grind it
with the pestle. When it went off with an echoing bang that
cracked the mortar, it embedded lead and phosphorus in my
finger and brought a search party through the high school.

They never figured it out.

--
Regards,

John Popelish

NG Neer · Guest

[quote]
I did that with the carbon rods from 2 D cells in an old mustard tin,
[/quote]

I also made one of those "Arc furances" using the carbon from 2 D
cells. I managed to somehow drill two opposing holes in a ceramic
flowerpot, and stuck the rods into it. I used two big bolts in a jar
of saltwater as a rheostat (easy to adjust, just reach in and move the
bolts farther or closer together).

I had the whole thing wired with some really thin cheap extension cord
wire. after running for a minute or two it would trip the 20 amp
breaker, the extension cord wire was hot enough to smolder the
insulation by then. All this without wearing gloves or safety glasses,
standing barefoot on a cement floor. Its quite I wonder I didn>t
electrocute or blind myself.

Jim Thompson · Guest

On 28 Jul 2008 22:47:18 GMT, Jim Yanik <jyanik@abuse.gov> wrote:

[quote]Jim Thompson <To-Email-Use-The-Envelope-Icon@My-Web-Site.com> wrote in
news:9ugs841e0afa1138mqpdmodd2lbiqkvg41@4ax.com:

On Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:36:29 -0700, John Larkin
jjlarkin@highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote:

On Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:01:10 -0700 (PDT), "Ken S. Tucker"
dynamics@vianet.on.ca> wrote:

In Public School I decided to try to build a carbon
carbon arc lamp using 2 pencils, and it worked.
1st I screwed in to the pencils the leads, and
that worked but the wood started to smoulder.
Later I removed the graphite and wire wrapped
around the naked leads, that worked too.
My Old Boy got a little testy when I blew a few
fuses per day (in the 60>s they were 25 cents a
piece), so he advised a series resistance, like
a heater or light bulb. BINGO!

Fortunately no permanent retinal damage.
Ken

Lots of playing with high voltages... TV power transformers, neon sign
transformers, big oil caps, flashtubes.

A buddy and I were prowling an empty house and found a shopping bag
full of shotgun shells. We spent the summer peeling them open, and
using the powder for insane things.

I once made a Kerr cell using nitrobenzene, and got the stuff all over
me. I later read a Nero Wolfe mystery where a small dish of the stuff
was placed to spill on someone and killed them.

Huge lead exposure, of course.

John

I made bombs with my chemistry set, "bang" and smoke...

Smoked out (emptied) a restaurant across the alley from my junior high
school ;-)

...Jim Thompson

I decided to make a Jacob>s ladder,using a 12V auto ignition coil...

Sunday morning at the breakfast table,have two copper wires screwed onto a
board,arranged as the 'ladder',connected to the coil secondary,have an
extension cord running past my mom who>s reading the Sunday paper,NO idea
of what I>m doing....
connected 120VAC across the coil primary(the 12v primary...),BIG snap and
flash,giant spark,room goes dark.

Mom leapt about two feet in the air,screaming at me,scared nearly to death.
Blew a fuse in the mains panel,cutting off power to half the kitchen.
It was awhile before I learned why it didn>t work as planned.
[/quote]
I made a Jacob>s ladder also. But being raised in a radio/TV repair
shop made it easy to get HV ;-)

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC>s and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | |
| Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

Liberals are so cute. Stupid as bricks, but cute.

richard · Guest

Jim Thompson wrote:
[quote]On Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:36:29 -0700, John Larkin
jjlarkin@highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote:

On Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:01:10 -0700 (PDT), "Ken S. Tucker"
dynamics@vianet.on.ca> wrote:

In Public School I decided to try to build a carbon
carbon arc lamp using 2 pencils, and it worked.
1st I screwed in to the pencils the leads, and
that worked but the wood started to smoulder.
Later I removed the graphite and wire wrapped
around the naked leads, that worked too.
My Old Boy got a little testy when I blew a few
fuses per day (in the 60>s they were 25 cents a
piece), so he advised a series resistance, like
a heater or light bulb. BINGO!

Fortunately no permanent retinal damage.
Ken

Lots of playing with high voltages... TV power transformers, neon sign
transformers, big oil caps, flashtubes.

A buddy and I were prowling an empty house and found a shopping bag
full of shotgun shells. We spent the summer peeling them open, and
using the powder for insane things.

I once made a Kerr cell using nitrobenzene, and got the stuff all over
me. I later read a Nero Wolfe mystery where a small dish of the stuff
was placed to spill on someone and killed them.

Huge lead exposure, of course.

John

I made bombs with my chemistry set, "bang" and smoke...

Smoked out (emptied) a restaurant across the alley from my junior high
school ;-)

[/quote]
I filled my boarding school with hydrogen sulphide :-)

Got caned, but it was worth it.

Did the arc lamp thing too - with a water filled kilner jar and two plates to limit the current (230V). It would boil in no time.

Rich Grise · Guest

On Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:21:44 -0400, John Popelish wrote:

[quote]
Mixed red lead and red phosphorus. Never got to grind it with the pestle.
When it went off with an echoing bang that cracked the mortar, it
embedded lead and phosphorus in my finger and brought a search party
through the high school.

They never figured it out.
[/quote]
Trying to dissolve a lump of sulphur in about a thimbleful of CS2 in
a test tube. It wasn>t dissolving fast enough for me, so I decided to
warm it up over the bunsen burner.

When the CS2 flashed, the whole world turned blue. I wasn>t burned
noticeably presumably because the flash was so quick, but the SO2
was pretty obnoxious to breathe.

CHeers!
Rich

John Larkin · Guest

On 28 Jul 2008 22:47:18 GMT, Jim Yanik <jyanik@abuse.gov> wrote:

[quote]Jim Thompson <To-Email-Use-The-Envelope-Icon@My-Web-Site.com> wrote in
news:9ugs841e0afa1138mqpdmodd2lbiqkvg41@4ax.com:

On Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:36:29 -0700, John Larkin
jjlarkin@highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com> wrote:

On Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:01:10 -0700 (PDT), "Ken S. Tucker"
dynamics@vianet.on.ca> wrote:

In Public School I decided to try to build a carbon
carbon arc lamp using 2 pencils, and it worked.
1st I screwed in to the pencils the leads, and
that worked but the wood started to smoulder.
Later I removed the graphite and wire wrapped
around the naked leads, that worked too.
My Old Boy got a little testy when I blew a few
fuses per day (in the 60>s they were 25 cents a
piece), so he advised a series resistance, like
a heater or light bulb. BINGO!

Fortunately no permanent retinal damage.
Ken

Lots of playing with high voltages... TV power transformers, neon sign
transformers, big oil caps, flashtubes.

A buddy and I were prowling an empty house and found a shopping bag
full of shotgun shells. We spent the summer peeling them open, and
using the powder for insane things.

I once made a Kerr cell using nitrobenzene, and got the stuff all over
me. I later read a Nero Wolfe mystery where a small dish of the stuff
was placed to spill on someone and killed them.

Huge lead exposure, of course.

John

I made bombs with my chemistry set, "bang" and smoke...

Smoked out (emptied) a restaurant across the alley from my junior high
school ;-)

...Jim Thompson

I decided to make a Jacob>s ladder,using a 12V auto ignition coil...

Sunday morning at the breakfast table,have two copper wires screwed onto a
board,arranged as the 'ladder',connected to the coil secondary,have an
extension cord running past my mom who>s reading the Sunday paper,NO idea
of what I>m doing....
connected 120VAC across the coil primary(the 12v primary...),BIG snap and
flash,giant spark,room goes dark.

Mom leapt about two feet in the air,screaming at me,scared nearly to death.
Blew a fuse in the mains panel,cutting off power to half the kitchen.
It was awhile before I learned why it didn>t work as planned.
[/quote]
I got a car ignition coil from a junkyard, one of the old oil-filled
metal can types. I charged a few uF of oil cap to about 600 volts and
dumped it into the coil with a surplus thyratron. The spark crawled up
out of the insulator and hit the low-voltage terminals. Next step was
to make a tube out of paper and electrical tape, extend the hv wire
up, and fill the tube with motor oil. I eventually got 4" sparks.

I use to make huge banks of motley electrolytic caps, charge them up,
and short. Bang. A 4-turn coil of #12 wire would magnetize anything to
saturation.

Surplus runway landing-light xenon flashtubes used to be cheap. So
were big oil caps. The tubes fire themselves at 7 or 8 KV, no trigger
needed.

I used to play with propane a lot too, both as a cryogenic cooler and
as an explosive. Nitrogen tri-iodide was fun too.

I knew a guy who was into nitroglycerine. He made small batches and
blew them up in empty lots. The batches got bigger. One day he made a
quart, and then realized what he did, panicked, and called the fire
department.

John


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