🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <209@picuxa.UUCP> gp@picuxa.UUCP (Greg Pasquariello X1190) writes:
>When I was in college, I used to make a pretty simple explosive using
>ammonium hydroxide, and iodine (I think it was ammonium tri-iodide).
>Anyway, when the resulting powder was dried, it made quite a good
>explosive that was EXTREMELY sensitive to jarring (it made a great
>flytrap).  What I was wondering was, does anyone know if that is the
>same substance used in the commercially available "snappers".  They
>are small bundles of some powder that "snap" when they are thrown against
>something.

I remember when I was a kid (in my pyro phase) getting silver looking things
called "torpedoes" that had little loose BBs inside them that exploded when you
threw them at something.  I believe that both these and the party poppers (that
spew confetti when you yank the string) use silver or mercury fulminate. My
favorite homebrew was lead azide which is trivial to make (that is what was in
those famous bullets designed for sky marshals, also used in the Reagan
assassination attempt). Your iodine stuff is really called nitrogen (tri)
iodide. It is too sensitive to be anything but a laboratory curiosity, but is
well suited for sadistic practical jokes (it works great if you put it under
toilet seats).

Bob Wallis

UUCP {turtlevax,pyramid,cae780,apple,wyse}!weitek!wallis

> In article <209@picuxa.UUCP> gp@picuxa.UUCP (Greg Pasquariello X1190) writes:
> >When I was in college, I used to make a pretty simple explosive using
> >ammonium hydroxide, and iodine (I think it was ammonium tri-iodide).
                                                  *******************
     ...stuff deleted...
>Your iodine stuff is really called nitrogen (tri) iodide.
                                    *********************
> Bob Wallis



     No, it IS called ammonium tri-iodide.
-- 
Jay-El

In article <2631@weitek.UUCP>, wallis@weitek.UUCP (Bob Wallis) writes:
> In article <209@picuxa.UUCP> gp@picuxa.UUCP (Greg Pasquariello X1190) writes:
> >When I was in college, I used to make a pretty simple explosive using
> >ammonium hydroxide, and iodine (I think it was ammonium tri-iodide).

> well suited for sadistic practical jokes (it works great if you put it under
> toilet seats).

then again there was a student at new mexico tech. who almost was   
thrown out of school for injecting the mixture into a dormatory
door lock...the unsuspecting victim later inserted his key and well...



"Why do you wear a hand-grenade around your neck?"
....cogent!uop!robert  
		      OR   .....seismo!lll-crg!ucdavis!uop!robert
...."pull the pin, and see whats on the other side"

In article <531@nonvon.UUCP> apn@nonvon.UUCP (root) writes:

>...
>ammonium tri-iodide is basically held together by H-H bonding and as the
>water ( or other polar aprotic solvent ) evaporates away it becomes
>unstable. BTW, ammonium tri-iodide is not at all the correct name, but
>it *is* the common one.  It still is my favorite..... nothing quite like
>purple clouds of smoke with accompanying crackles. 

There is no known crystal structure of Ammonium tri-iodide / Nitrogen
tri-iodide as it is too unstable. The one thing that is known is the
stoichiometry: it is one Nitrogen to three Iodides. N1, I3.
Therefore it probably is not Ammonium tri-iodide in the sense that an
ammonium ion is involved, unless the hydrogen stoichiometry was left out
because it could not be determined.

Disclaimer: After consulting a few of my colleagues and my Professor, this
was the consensus agreement.

-----
Scott Presnell 						Organic Chemistry
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology  (ETH-Zentrum)
CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
uucp:seismo!mcvax!cernvax!ethz!srp (srp@ethz.uucp); bitnet:Benner@CZHETH5A

In article <2631@weitek.UUCP> wallis@weitek.UUCP (Bob Wallis) writes:

>My favorite homebrew was lead azide which is trivial to make...

I just looked up lead azide:  bubble N2O through a solution of Na metal
in liquid NH3 to get sodium azide, react this with a lead salt to get
lead azide.  This is trivial?
-- 
		Doug Collinge
		School of Music, University of Victoria,
		PO Box 1700, Victoria, B.C.,
		Canada,  V8W 2Y2  
		collinge@uvunix.BITNET
		decvax!uw-beaver!uvicctr!collinge
		ubc-vision!uvicctr!collinge

In article <265@uvicctr.UUCP> collinge@uvicctr.UUCP (Doug Collinge) writes:
>In article <2631@weitek.UUCP> wallis@weitek.UUCP (Bob Wallis) writes:
>
>>My favorite homebrew was lead azide which is trivial to make...
>
>I just looked up lead azide:  bubble N2O through a solution of Na metal
>in liquid NH3 to get sodium azide, react this with a lead salt to get
>lead azide.  This is trivial?
>-- 
>		Doug Collinge

It is only trivial if you can get sodium azide, which is fairly common.  You
mix solutions of sodium azide and lead nitrate, and the lead azide percipitates
out as a white chalky powder. If you try this, don't make too much, I've read
that if you succeed in making the wrong type of crystals, it can be very
unstable. The stuff is quite spectacular, unlike most explosives, this stuff
NEVER burns quietly, it only detonates (it has to be very dry).

Regarding the nitrogen/ammonium (tri) iodide issue, I thought that it's formula
was NI3 2(NH3), and not just NI3. At any rate it is definitely considered a
halide of NITROGEN (nitrogen cloride and bromide are also explosive), and not
of AMMONIA (which should be quite stable).  I agree that ammonimum iodide is
the wrong name for it.

Bob Wallis

UUCP {turtlevax,pyramid,cae780,apple,wyse}!weitek!wallis

In article <265@uvicctr.UUCP> you write:

>I just looked up lead azide:  bubble N2O through a solution of Na metal
>in liquid NH3 to get sodium azide, react this with a lead salt to get
>lead azide.  This is trivial?

Not too bad (for a chemist). Sodium azide is pretty common, I use it all the
time to keep those pesky bugs (bacteria) from growing in my buffers. But
let's not post rough experimental descriptions on a "public" system.
Someone may actually try this without the proper materials or supervision.
(i.e. throwing the Na metal into NH4OH house cleaner, which happens to say
"ammonia" on it, instead of real liquid NH3).

Regards,

Scott Presnell 						Organic Chemistry
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology  (ETH-Zentrum)
CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
uucp:seismo!mcvax!cernvax!ethz!srp (srp@ethz.uucp); bitnet:Benner@CZHETH5A

Summary:bugs in buffers


In article <128@bernina.UUCP> srp@bernina.UUCP (Scott Presnell) writes:
>In article <265@uvicctr.UUCP> you write:
>>lead azide.  This is trivial?

>Not too bad (for a chemist). Sodium azide is pretty common, I use it all the
>time to keep those pesky bugs (bacteria) from growing in my buffers. But

BUGS in your BUFFERS? And you use Sodium Azide? I just
 edit them out, ha ha ha ...

(just another emacs zombie ...)

-- 
greg	                      Since I now handle mail and news from inside
             	              emacs, 90% of my time is spent there ...
                              so I have my .login put me in emacs immediately.
...seismo!princeton!mind!greg          MODIFY my BUFFERS! YOW! 

In article <990@mind.UUCP>, greg@mind.UUCP (Greg Nowak) writes:
> BUGS in your BUFFERS? And you use Sodium Azide? I just
>  edit them out, ha ha ha ...

that was THE worst joke i have ever heard on this net !!!