Moved from D1 forum

[LavCat]

It's actually the salts of picric acid that are highly unstable (although still more stable than nitroglycerin, or than lead, silver, or mercury fulminate (IIRC)).

I would never use any of them in fireworks.

--Pete

Myself, I used a mixture of powdered sucrose, powdered magnesium, sodium peroxide, potassium chlorate, calcium carbide, iodine, and a very small amount of oxidane.

Had one friend whose specialty was mercury fulminate, and another who was into nitroglycerin (as I recall he said his father's company manufactured it). Then again, I had friend who tragically just tried gasoline. Reminds me of another friend whose professor, Louis Fieser, invented napalm. Though I think we've been through this thread before.

Changing the subject only slightly, my grandson recently sent up his first rocket! Unfortunately we never were able to find it. Sad as this was, it led to a lovely conversation with one of my retired coworkers: I had never known she was into such things.

In researching Fieser's wartime work I was amused (in a solemn way) to learn of Project X-Ray, which is said to have incinerated an American airbase in New Mexico. One of the participants in X-Ray was the actor Tim Holt, though the description of the airbase immolation reminds me more of Police Academy than of Tim Holt movies. I particularly liked the bit about the "general's car".

I've been working my way through the series and last night watched Police Academy 3. I have Police Academy 4 in my disc drive, but ran out of time before the sun came up. Films 1&2 stand on their own, but 3 really requires having watched the preceding ones. Turns out 4 is only available in "Fullscreen", which is neither true nor funny.

But back to Tim Holt and the bats, I have long been interested in watching The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. We have the DVD and I placed a hold on it. This film is iconic, if only for the stinkin' badges. Which should be enough to get this thread moved to the WoW forums in my opinion.