They worked, not as intended.
We smoked the house also, and spent some time in the emergency ward. We handn't healed from that one when we tried to make a liquid fuel ramjet. That was the biggest bunsen burner in town.
We had fun, learned a lot, and were pretty capable of making most anything by the time we were in high school.
It was so fun launching those rockets! He's 5 years older than me, I followed my big brother everywhere!