This past weekend I got a chance to hang out with an old friend that I hadn't seen for some time.
Eric lives out in the country and has a nice little spread.
Out behind the barn is an old wheelbarrow sitting in the weeds.It was placed there right under a leaky gutter by the above mentioned Hero,Eric.He had a few head of cattle and this watering spot was refreshed with every downpour.
When I viewed this watery resort it was covered with starlings.Hundreds of them on the roof,barn,barbwire,all fighting for a spot in the wheelbarrow.
Eric ,using that famous line,'Watch this', stopped by the barn and retrieved a plastic Gator-ade bottle.Looked to be about a liter.In this bottle he poured maybe a half a cup of The Works,bathroom cleaner.
He and I walked around to the watering hole/barrow.Needless to say the birds flew in all directions.
Eric put something else in the bottle and screwed the lid on real tight and dropped it in the wheelbarrow water.Then taking my upper arm said,"Lets go over here."We walked back over to the corner of the barn and turned to see all these starlings come back to their lil birdbath.
I had heard of this new form of fun but never witnessed it.In the bottle with the bathroom cleaner,Eric had dropped a few little balls of aluminum foil.Well,I ain't no rocket scientist,but I knew that this concoction must boil up some fairly high pressures.That bottle was getting big as a football.Everytime the paper would split and crackle, the birds would flutter around and come right back down around the wheelbarrow.This was better than Viagra.
I had just started to turn my head to say something to Eric when that bottle popped.To say popped is a grave understatement.It was more like the IED's being used in Iraq.What a wonderful effect it had on those poor little birds.Stuff flew everywhere.
We walked down to see the aftermath of this minature tsunami.The weeds were flattened for about five feet in a circle.There was nasty stuff,blood,guts and feathers, smeared on the side of the barn a few feet away.Dead and dying starlings littered the ground.Some were walking around wondering what happened.They got stomped.What fun?
Eric poured what little water that was left out onto the ground and positioned the barrow right back in the same spot.He tolded me not to try this at home.
Yeah,right.

Oh my gosh! This sounds like too much fun! i am going to get lawndart right away and the ingredients (lawndart's undergrad was chemistry). This has HUGE, I tell you HUGE possibilities.
Lois,
excited again

just about like getting a 10 yr old a fird feeder and a BB gun for christmas

It is fun boys, but he weren't shittin', it makes one helluva boom....be forewarned, in every way.

Dan

Pres., TYHC

www.KidsN.ChemistrySets

That is sublime. Curtis Lemay would proud. When I was a (smaller) kid I would put a cup of water and a few small chunks of carbide into a used bleach bottle. Punch a hole in the side with a small phillips head screw driver and push in a fire cracker. The tight hole would seal around the Black Cat cracker. A stolen cigarette would provide the timer. I never killed any animals that way, but I did put one under the flap of my neighborhood bully's tent on a backyard campout. That will clear up a Boone's Farm Strawberry Wine stupor pretty damn fast.
lawndart

Lawn Dart, are you refering to "Curtis Lemay" the non de plume of one of AR's members, or of The Nuke happy Air Force General? The Reason I ask is the member is my moderator on my forum.

Anyhoo the reason this works is the Lye in the Bathroom cleaner reacts with the Aluminum to create Hydrogen. The problem is that sometimes the reaction is too fast, not allowing the bottle time to stretch - the cap simply pops off. I did something similar as a kid with dry ice and soda bottles.

If you want real fun, get yourself a glass jar, a bucket of water(waterbath to keep it from cracking) and a trash bag. setup your concoction, put the glass bottle in the water up to the neck to keep it cool, with the trash bag rubber banded around the glass jar. The idea is to fill the bag with all that yummy H2. Once filled, set it off using cannon fuse.

WARNING! static electricity can easily set it off. When it goes, it will seem like Hiroshima.


Toolmaker