» Dumb things you've done

Igniting 4 pounds of gunpowder in my bedroom.
I used to mix my own gunpowder for fireworks and general explosives, all very simple to do and you can get the ingredients from a garden centre. I had various mortice and pestles for grinding the charcoal and mixing in the salt petre and sulphur and according to the different percentages of each thing, you get a different kind of reaction. I had just finished mixing a 4 pound batch of it and put a teaspoons worth in my brass testing bowl and lit it. It was quite slow burning but I think I had added too much sulphur as it plasticised as it burnt and jumped around in the bowl like a fiery daemon.
Exciting as this was my excitement increased tenfold when a small blob shot out of the bowl and landed in my 4 pound mix. The reaction was slow at first as the powder burnt but as more of it ignited it became a burning crucible from hell and I had to fling myself across the room to avoid being blasted with molten sulphur that was flying out the bowl like a volcano. A massive 'FOOMF' happened and a fucking great mushroom cloud blew out of the bowl and showered everything in the room with molten burning plastic. I have never before or since simultaneously hysterically laughed and shit myself.
(Fri 21st Dec 2007, 12:17, More)