W/o reading the commentary, I can clear up some question about the “quarter stick of Dynamite” baloney.
Dynamite in a 4 oz quantity, held in the hands would not only blow off both hands, forearms and probably most of the tissue on the head/face and torso, but also probably blow out all the windows in the house and damage everyone inside to varying degrees based on proximity to the blast.
However, a large firecracker certainly would damage your fingers and hand etc, but other than incidental frag/blast effects, leave you otherwise surviving.
How do I know? I spent more than a decade as a combat engineer either employing or supervising the employment of military explosives from Dynamite, TNT and the rest of the of the deflagration family of chemical compounds.
The cap would do what is described by itself.
This was a firecracker, perhaps a large one.
Exactly right. Plus, dynamite doesn’t come primed, you have to crimp a cap to some fuse and push a hole into the stick and insert it. It doesn’t come with the fuse sticking out of it. This is a firework.
-USMC Combat Engineer