Quote
Originally posted by: DonDiego
Shortly after little DonDiego graduated Elementary School [There was no ceremony, like today. Little DonDiego just went to 7th Grade the next year in a different building on the other end of own.] he became interested in making his own rockets.
There was a company in Colorado, Estes Corp., which sold kits with one-time-use rocket engines to power them. That was cool, but shortly thereafter little DonDiego wanted to make his own rocket engines. So he did some reading and found out just how to do it.
He ordered some chemicals from a mail-order firm, . . . including lamp black (powdered carbon), powdered sulphur, and saltpeter (potassium nitrate), and an organic-compound which served as a binder. This is of course the recipe for gunpowder. DonDiego sent a USPS Money Order and received all the ingredients in the mail a week or so later. No questions, no delay, no inquisition, no cops alerted, no Feds knocking on his door.
Ahh, . . . those were the days. DonDiego made some pretty nifty rockets, . . . and more powerful than what the Estes Corp. would provide back then too. They flew pretty well. And sometimes he made things that didn't fly, . . . but they did make a very loud noise, sorta like a big firecracker. That was cool too.
And sometimes the rockets would carry the "firecrackers" a few thousand feet high were they be expelled and set off at altitude. That was cool too.
Anyway, the chemicals provided hours of fun, and injuries were fairly uncommon and usually not very severe. No property damage except for an occasional, and immediately extinguished, grass fire.
So little DonDiego survived, and matured [at least as much as he was able to], and went on to earn two engineering degrees, and become a rocket scientist.
Hmm, . . . if things were "regulated" then as they are now, DonDiego would've never got to make his own black powder and rockets and firecrackers.
And his interest in rocketry may well have fizzled away. And he might well have become a no-account drifter, or a con-man, or a crooked gambler, or some other sorta neer-do-well, . . . and drunk himself into a stupor, and died from chronic liver disease at a young age, . . . not to mention disappointing his Mother.
Damn Government!
[Oh, . . . for the record, little DonDiego would never have put black powder in a glass bottle as Johnny did; that is very dangerous. One could put an eye out with that. DonDiego explosives were contained in paper-board cylinders or paper wrappers.]
Originally posted by: DonDiego
Quote
Originally posted by: jatki99
Scenario 7:
Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from the Fourth of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle and blows up a red ant bed.
1957 - Ants die.
2013 - ATF, Homeland Security and the FBI are all called. Johnny is charged with domestic terrorism. The FBI investigates his parents - and all siblings are removed from their home and all computers are confiscated.
Shortly after little DonDiego graduated Elementary School [There was no ceremony, like today. Little DonDiego just went to 7th Grade the next year in a different building on the other end of own.] he became interested in making his own rockets.
There was a company in Colorado, Estes Corp., which sold kits with one-time-use rocket engines to power them. That was cool, but shortly thereafter little DonDiego wanted to make his own rocket engines. So he did some reading and found out just how to do it.
He ordered some chemicals from a mail-order firm, . . . including lamp black (powdered carbon), powdered sulphur, and saltpeter (potassium nitrate), and an organic-compound which served as a binder. This is of course the recipe for gunpowder. DonDiego sent a USPS Money Order and received all the ingredients in the mail a week or so later. No questions, no delay, no inquisition, no cops alerted, no Feds knocking on his door.
Ahh, . . . those were the days. DonDiego made some pretty nifty rockets, . . . and more powerful than what the Estes Corp. would provide back then too. They flew pretty well. And sometimes he made things that didn't fly, . . . but they did make a very loud noise, sorta like a big firecracker. That was cool too.
And sometimes the rockets would carry the "firecrackers" a few thousand feet high were they be expelled and set off at altitude. That was cool too.
Anyway, the chemicals provided hours of fun, and injuries were fairly uncommon and usually not very severe. No property damage except for an occasional, and immediately extinguished, grass fire.
So little DonDiego survived, and matured [at least as much as he was able to], and went on to earn two engineering degrees, and become a rocket scientist.
Hmm, . . . if things were "regulated" then as they are now, DonDiego would've never got to make his own black powder and rockets and firecrackers.
And his interest in rocketry may well have fizzled away. And he might well have become a no-account drifter, or a con-man, or a crooked gambler, or some other sorta neer-do-well, . . . and drunk himself into a stupor, and died from chronic liver disease at a young age, . . . not to mention disappointing his Mother.
Damn Government!
[Oh, . . . for the record, little DonDiego would never have put black powder in a glass bottle as Johnny did; that is very dangerous. One could put an eye out with that. DonDiego explosives were contained in paper-board cylinders or paper wrappers.]
I too built and launched Estes rockets. I tried launching multi-stage rockets a few times. For some reason (I was probably doing it wrong) I couldn't get the first stage engine to ignite the second stage engine. Sometimes my single stage rockets wouldn't deploy the little parachutes so the rocket would disappear into the sky in about 3 seconds, never to fly again.
