Oldest messages at bottom; newest at top. from: Russell Sage russosago@mac.com to: "Frederick N. Chase" date: Mon, Jun 18, 2012 at 4:24 PM subject: Re: Homemade Gunpowder I think she mentioned something about what a trouble maker Phil Moening was. I didn't get into a lot of trouble. I think by the time she came home I had cleared out most of the smoke in my room and I tried to just underplay the whole episode. from: PETERS CARL L clpeters2@sbcglobal.net to: "Frederick N. Chase" date: Sat, Jun 2, 2012 at 9:19 PM subject: Re: Homemade Gunpowder I went to the gun show yesterday here in Indy, now that we are on the subject of explosives, and bought 20lbs of h2 targets, that's ten packs of a granular chemical, which you mix with another, when you are ready to shoot the target. It makes a hell of an explosion, with lots of smoke and noise, great fire works. I wondered why the government would allow the sale of such a substance, but on inquiry, learned, that a blasting cap will not detonate it. The only way it will explode, is if it is struck by a high powered rifle bullet, such as a .223 or larger caliber. I remember we bought our black gun powder ingredients at Labroco's drug store, powered charcoal, sulfur and salt peter. There was the time I decided the ingredients needed to be mixed in water and then dried, to get better consistency. I got impatient, however, and put the wet ingredients on the bottom of a pie pan in our kitchen and heated the pan with a candle. you know what happened. I'll have to say, my mother was very tolerant. About 6 years ago while at my log home, I had been loading a civil war era Remington cap a ball revolver replica, using a powder measure. I had a clay pigeon, its black, siting on the end table, which I used as an ash tray, when I smoked an occasional cigar. As I loaded I would scrape the excess grains from the power measure into the clay pigeon as I loaded each chamber of the revolver. The black powder was as black as the clay pigeon ash tray. I forgot about it, and that evening lit up a cigar, and I'll leave it to your imagination what happened, when I knocked the ashes off into the clay pigeon as I was watching TV. Dumb. From: Frederick N. Chase To: Russell Sage Cc: Carl Peters Sent: Sat, June 2, 2012 6:37:47 PM Subject: Re: Homemade Gunpowder I remember a whole set of new furniture appeared in your room one year. Including bunk beds. Then I remember coming into your room one time (maybe after I'd been in Michigan) and if I recall, your desk and stuff was in a reorganized location. Over at the bathroom wall maybe. I remember being very impressed with that hole in the desk and wondering what your mom had said when she first saw it. from: Russell Sage russosago@mac.com to: "Frederick N. Chase" cc: Carl Peters date: Sun, Mar 27, 2011 at 9:11 PM subject: Re: Homemade Gunpowder I can see how that happened. One time Phil Moening (I think it was Phil and not one of you two) and I mixed up some home made gun powder in a jar on my old desk. We had a long pipe cleaner fuse that had been soaked in some solution, I don't remember what it was, but to test it we laid it over the top of the open bell jar that had the gun powder in the bottom and then lit the fuse.....I don't know what we were thinking, I guess nothing, but when the fuse lit up it then fell into the jar and the whole thing ignited, didn't exactly explode but it made a large thump. My bedroom filled with smoke and we burned a big black crater in my desk top. Luckily we didn't lose our eyebrows or anything else..........Just another one of those close calls growing up that could have ended up serious......funny to talk about now however...... Rusty from: Frederick N. Chase fchase@gmail.com to: Carl Peters , Russell Sage date: Sun, Mar 27, 2011 at 5:38 PM subject: Homemade Gunpowder That guy coulda used one of your guaranteed extra-long no-go-out fuses, Carl. And maybe not do it in the kitchen, too.