Today's dangerous toys pale to those of past

Chicago Sun Times ^ | November 26, 2003 | MARK BROWN SUN

[Orangedog]

My father had a Tesla coil that actually worked. I never got shocked by it.

Then you weren't playing with it right! :P

[AnAmericanMother]

Just so long as you were far, far away by the time the ammonium tri-iodide dried . . . and didn't use TOO much . . . :-D

[Damagro]

Ever have one of those wood burning pens? how long did it take to figure out it would work on door frames and baseboards lol

[Fresh Wind]

Has anyone ever wondered what would happen if you stole some butyric acid from the chemistry lab and inserted it into the ventilation system of the school cafeteria?

[forsnax5]

Blowguns. Someone in "our gang" of 12-year-olds (circa 1954) learned how to make blowguns from electrical conduit pipe.

Actually, that part was easy -- just obtain a 3-foot section of pipe, file any burrs off the ends, and apply a couple of turns of adhesive tape (didn't have duct tape back then) to protect your lips.

The secret was the darts. The darts were made from pages cut out of discarded Life, Colliers, or the Saturday Evening Post magazines. It took a bit of practice, but you could roll a half-page strip to a point, seal the tip with spit, then tear off the resulting cone at just the right point to fit flush in the end of the pipe.

The resulting dart would be 6 to 8 inches long, and would fly a hundred feet or more, if you were trying for distance. A straight shot from twenty feet or less would bring down a small bird.

Of course, we mostly shot at each other. Our parents never thought of it as a dangerous practice, but we drew blood a couple of times. No one ever lost an eye, though...

[Orangedog]

But the real fun with NI3 is when you use too much! Using too little wouldn't have blown the drawer clean out of the desk.

[Orangedog]

Has anyone ever wondered what would happen if you stole some butyric acid from the chemistry lab and inserted it into the ventilation system of the school cafeteria?

Back in my day, it would be many days of detention if you got caught, but today you would probably be labeled a domestic terrorist.

[AnAmericanMother]

Lycopodium powder is a little safer -

but of course I wouldn't know anything about THAT . . . :-D

[Damagro]

Too cool. I haven't seen candy cigs in many years. Civic nativity scenes are almost as scarce

[Doc On The Bay]

..."and we all Survived!"

If one listens to the "PC-Types," only a lucky few of us lived; a LARGE Number of us Must Have Perished due to defective & dangerous toys. Just check the Obituaries of the time; there MUST HAVE BEEN Thousands of "Victims" of our "unsafe toys!"

Doc

[dalereed]

"We didn't have access to black powder, but we learned that if you bought CO2 cartridges and punctured them to let that nasty CO2 out, you could then fill them with shaved off match heads"

I didn't have access to powder either (except for removing it from bullets) but in the 40s you could buy all the makings for black powder at the drug store. I made firecrackers, one that was 2' tall and 6" in dia. that shook the entire neighborhood. I also took and packed 50 cal. surplus cartrigages with it, crimped the ends around a fuse and set them off on a launch ramp.

Kids just can't have any fun anymone!

[Fresh Wind]

CO2 cartridges made great rockets when filled with matcheads!

[Orangedog]

Neither would the people at this link:

http://chemed.chem.purdue.edu/demos/main_pages/5.14.html

[dalereed]

" resulting dart would be 6 to 8 inches long, and would fly a hundred feet or more, if you were trying for distance. A straight shot from twenty feet or less would bring down a small bird"

Used to do the same thing except I glued the paper darts together and put a straight pin in the nose.

[Orangedog]

didn't have access to powder either (except for removing it from bullets) but in the 40s you could buy all the makings for black powder at the drug store. I made firecrackers, one that was 2' tall and 6" in dia. that shook the entire neighborhood. I also took and packed 50 cal. surplus cartrigages with it, crimped the ends around a fuse and set them off on a launch ramp.

Spent C and D size model rocket engines made excellent casings for improvised firecrackers!

[Cultural Jihad]

The SuperBall was an amazingly good toy. Why don't they have them anymore?

They come out every so often. You can find them on eBay if you search for "wham-o superball."

Here's the manufacturer's home page: http://www.wham-o.com
And here's an enthusiasts's homepage: http://www.superballs.com/

[cyclotic]

Who said we had to stop with the crazy stuff when we grew up? I work for a company that packages a single use solvent wipe in a little glass ampoule. One of our sales guys called me and told me a customer told him that they explode just like an M-80. Within 5 minutes, we were out back trying to light 'em up. Exploded pretty cool too. The boss laughed when we told him it was just in the interest of science

[AnAmericanMother]

Heh heh. The great thing about it is that although there's some danger of fire the powder burns so quickly that it's unlikely to catch anything else on fire. It used to be the standard theatrical fireball medium for appearances of genies, disappearances of wizards, etc.

Of course, I wouldn't be able to say from personal experience that a vegetable duster full blown across an alcohol lamp gives a MUCH more impressive fireball.

Of course not. (Of course it was cheaper then and you could buy it in 3 pound bags instead of those dinky little half pint bottles . . . )

[dalereed]

Right after WW2 you could buy weather baloons at the surplus store. We used to fill them with hydrogen made in a 5 gal water bottle with zinc strips and Hydrocloric acid, attatch a 20' fuse and let them go just after dark. They set off a great explosion at a couple thousand feet!

far enough away I didn't get tagged for the broken windows.

[1rudeboy]

That happened to me as well. I was shooting a pump Crosman at a Barbie doll perched on a cinder block about 15ft away. I must've hit the cinder block, because the .177 pellet came straight back and cracked the lens on my Winchester safety glasses. I still shudder thinking about it . . . I was 17.