Plan B Forum

I don’t know but I suspect these guys were trying to make nitroglycerin. I understand it is not that much harder to make than soap, but soap is not likely to kill you, one can’t say the same for nitro. The hardest thing about making this explosive would be getting a hold of the concentrated nitric acid. For additional information I refer to Raboto ( chemist ) or I recon you checkout your old copy of The Anarchist Cookbook.


Homemade Explosive Detonates; Kills Pearl River Man
By: John Walton
Updated: February 11, 2013 One Pearl River man was killed and another was hospitalized Sunday night after a homemade explosive device they were constructing detonated.

At around 7:30 p.m. last night, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's office received a loud noise complaint from a resident in the 39000 block of St. Paul's Dr. in the Pearl River area. The caller reported hearing loud noises coming from a nearby residence. As the responding deputy was approaching the residence in his vehicle, he reported hearing a loud explosion. Upon arrival, the deputy found a 19 year old man lying dead on the ground outside the residence near the device. A 17 year old was inside the house and was injured. Acadian Ambulance was immediately called to the scene and the 17 year old was transported to an area hospital. His condition is unknown at this time.

Technicians with the Sheriff's office Hazardous Device Unit (bomb squad) conducted a thorough search of the area and examined the device itself to ensure there was no remaining threat. The exact composition of the explosive materials has not yet been determined.

The incident is still under investigation by the Sheriff's office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

Nitrglycerin is not all that hard to maek, but without proper stablization it might not be of any use in an "explosive device". They may well have been making the more easily handled black powder (or bought some sort of powder used in shooting) and loading/tamping it into the device when it went off (it would not "detonate", but then that word is odten improperly used for any explosion).

Personally, when I read a story like this, where a "home made explosive device" has blown up on the bomb maker, I don't usually shed a lot of tears....

There aren't a whole lot of good reasons for making "home made explosive devices"....

Big RR wrote:Nitrglycerin is not all that hard to maek, but without proper stablization it might not be of any use in an "explosive device". They may well have been making the more easily handled black powder (or bought some sort of powder used in shooting) and loading/tamping it into the device when it went off (it would not "detonate", but then that word is odten improperly used for any explosion).

Yes it could have been have been gunpowder, but gunpowder is boring apples and oranges and I prefer more interesting pineapples. And all one needs to safely work with gunpowder is little common sense. Surely they knew not to use steel tools and to lubricate friction points in order to prevent sparks.
Have you ever read about how the Chinese alchemist made their discoveries? They would mix chemicals, seal them in containers sometimes for decades before they opened and studied them. That is what I consider patience.

Lord Jim wrote:Personally, when I read a story like this, where a "home made explosive device" has blown up on the bomb maker, I don't usually shed a lot of tears....

There aren't a whole lot of good reasons for making "home made explosive devices"....

How about fireworks?

Celebrating their demise with fireworks would be apt.

The story does not give us much to go on to come to a conclusion concerning their motivation. It might have been innocent, perhaps not too smart but possibly innocent.

liberty wrote:

Lord Jim wrote:Personally, when I read a story like this, where a "home made explosive device" has blown up on the bomb maker, I don't usually shed a lot of tears....

There aren't a whole lot of good reasons for making "home made explosive devices"....

How about fireworks?

Creating home made fireworks is a good reason to mix chemicals that can explode & kill you?

I hope you don't actually believe that.

Concentrated nitric acid (typically 70%) is very dangerous. There are 40 pages in "Bretherick's Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards" devoted solely to it. It is even more dangerous because there can be a very long activation period before anything bad happens.



I keep a copy of both volumes at my desk.

It reacts spontaneously with a large variety of organic substrates to produce highly explosive materials including ethanol and acetic acid as well as glycerin. Adding nitro groups to aromatics is also called "activating" them like "trinitrotoluene" TNT.



Nitro groups are 'activating' for aromatics because they withdraw electron density from the ring structure. And when there are THREE of them they are even more activating. The finished product is relatively safe to handle but lack of care in purification can be serious.

Explosives are very dangerous. No joke. Don't play with them.

yrs,
rubato

Joe Guy wrote:

liberty wrote:

Lord Jim wrote:Personally, when I read a story like this, where a "home made explosive device" has blown up on the bomb maker, I don't usually shed a lot of tears....

There aren't a whole lot of good reasons for making "home made explosive devices"....

How about fireworks?

Creating home made fireworks is a good reason to mix chemicals that can explode & kill you?

I hope you don't actually believe that.

Joe, I didn’t say that it was good reason only that it is a possibility. If it turns out that you were right in your suspicions and they were building a pipe bomb I will publicly admit you were right.

I can't argue that Liberty, I used to make fireworks in high school; never got hurt, but I could easily have been.

FWIW, I also tried to make nitroglyerin once, adding the glycerin dropwise to a chilled nitrating acid mix, but started to get scared when I saw the "scales" forming in the mix and threw it away.

Upon arrival, the deputy found a 19 year old man lying dead on the ground outside the residence near the device. A 17 year old was inside the house and was injured.

Teenage boys being stupid. It is unfortunately part of their nature.

Sue U wrote:

Upon arrival, the deputy found a 19 year old man lying dead on the ground outside the residence near the device. A 17 year old was inside the house and was injured.

Teenage boys being stupid. It is unfortunately part of their nature.

Not all, I had more fun as a teen-age lad with cars, both inside and out.

We used to rip apart "caps" to gather what we thought was gunpowder (I guess it was some kind of gunpowder). And we would go around the neighborhood the morning after 4th of July and get whatever "duds" we could find and unroll the item and save whatever explosive material we could. Pack it all into a rolled up piece of newspaper and light it up. Sometimes a BANG, sometimes a fizzle. Either way we had fun.

Sue U wrote:

Upon arrival, the deputy found a 19 year old man lying dead on the ground outside the residence near the device. A 17 year old was inside the house and was injured.

Teenage boys being stupid. It is unfortunately part of their nature.

I think I agree with Sue; we do dumb things when young, but fortunately most of us survive and mature.

You can only be young once but you can be immature your whole life.

We used to nick railway detonator caps, and blow those up. Utter madness when I now think of it.

It is a good a thing that adolescence is limited in time span or none us would survive.

I have fond memories of my brother shooting gasoline soaked flaming tennis balls from a homemade grenade launcher or attaching his smoke bombs to the back of my Bigwheel. Considering he was in grade school at the time, you can imagine what growing up with him was like. So far, he's only lost the tip of his finger and his eyebrows a few times. Not bad.

Hi PMSP, welcome back.