From: chem2149@waikato.ac.nz
Newsgroups: rec.pyrotechnics
Subject: Re: Real throwdowns - Be careful!
Date: 31 Jul 92 14:26:24 +1200
Organization: University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

<From: cpbeaure@napier.uwaterloo.ca (Chris Beauregard)
<No shit?  It's only .5g of HMTD.  Shouldn't do much to your hand...

<From: billn@hpcvaac.cv.hp.com (bill nelson)
<Hm - that is 500 mg of a primary explosive - which is far more powerful
<than flash powder. How much flash powder goes in a standard firecracker -
<50 mg?  I am not too sure that I would want such a quantity to explode
<in my hands. I don't think that it do much harm - however, I know of no
<quantitative studies where this has been tested. Remember that the old
<fulminate blasting caps often contained less than 5 grams of explosive.

<Now, if it were .5 grains of explosive, then I would not be nearly as
<concerned.

<Are you speaking from experience, Chris? If so, then it is a nice bit of
<knowledge to have. Otherwise, hopefully there are one or two others out
<there who have experienced such an explosion without harm. Arno, Petri?

I have not bothered with this group for awhile now due to the lack
of interesting articles.
Making throw downs with 0.5 grams of primary explosive is bloody stupid
and shows the mentality of many who post here.

Then two people who should know a little better come up with some 
***** stupid comments.

Firstly, Chris, I hope was being sarcastic(sp?) in a big way. The comment
could have been taken both ways to those who know nothing about explosives.
Then Bill, who posts so often on these subjects stuffs things right up.
Bill, if you did have any experience with explosives let me know, you
sure dont show it in your posting.

From my experience with explosives, O.5 grams of primary explosive will 
definitely blow a finger or two completly off. 
It will leave such a mess that the surgen will have to remove more just 
to get to some part he can work with.
If you are holing it in the plam of your hand and the unexpected occured
(a sharp crack) dont expect to have full use of your hand, ever.
Primary explosives have an extremely localised effect when no shrapnel
is involved. They will blow a nasty hole only where close contact is made.
The problem is that anything that is in contact will produce shrapnel
and increase the damage.

0.001 of a gram of primary explosive (eg Pb(N3)2) will rip a small hole
in your skin and will take several weeks to heal. I will do some
experiments on cardboard to find the minimum amount needed that will not
cause a hole, if people are interested.

A funny story about throw downs.(only funny afterwards when the person
was OK)

My friend had some old throw downs from China, they where a chlorate/P
formulation. Any way, they where brightly coloured spheres and looked
just like sweets. His flatmate (19 years old) picked one off the bench
and stuck it in his mouth. One bite, "BANG" and his mouth opened wide.
A puff of smoke and sand came flying out along with bits of the casing.
We quickly saw he was OK, and he spat out the rest of the sand.
We all started laughing, we laughed so much that it hurt.

They are banned due to the fact they look like sweets and even kids
have had the same thing happen to them.



Dr Martin L. Van Tiel     Ph.D. Chem