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2003-10-26 India-Pakistan
Police seize 14,000 kilograms of explosive material in India
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Posted by Fred Pruitt 2003-10-26 12:24|| || Front Page|| [11129 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 "Police suspect the explosive material may have been meant to cause unspecified attacks..."
Uh, ya think? Good catch, Injuns.

Subhash Chandra? Al Seyassah? These are almost as good as Abul Caca.
Posted by .com 2003-10-26 12:34:41 PM||   2003-10-26 12:34:41 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 It doesn't strike me that calcium carbide would be a very good explosive. Unless it could be mixed with a suitable oxidizer (e.g. ammonium nitrate) then it would be oxygen-starved and would just burn fiercely. I think maybe this is an exaggeration.

Calcium carbide can be used as part of a synthesis process for producing explosives, but it isn't really an explosive itself, as such. Despite the comment above, it wouldn't actually produce a boom -- just lots of really bright flames that would be damned hard to extinguish until it had naturally burned itself out.
Posted by Steven Den Beste  2003-10-26 4:10:59 PM|| [http://denbeste.nu]  2003-10-26 4:10:59 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 

Re: Steven Den Beste's post: I was thinking they might have been planning something along the lines of using the resulting acetylene gas in a FAE, but I have no idea how feasible that would be. I wonder where they found 14 or so metric tons of the stuff, too.

(As an aside to Fred, would it be possible to change the link setup so when you clicked on the link to "Uttar Pradesh" it would show a small map with its location in India?)

Posted by Phil Fraering 2003-10-26 5:10:26 PM|| [http://newsfromthefridge.typepad.com]  2003-10-26 5:10:26 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 When we were kids, we were calcium carbide scientists, heh heh, and miner's lamp nuts, and gopher hole sappers. Generate some acetylene with calcium carbide and water, let it spread and boom. Rough on the gophers.
Posted by Alaska Paul 2003-10-26 5:55:20 PM||   2003-10-26 5:55:20 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 AP -- easier to make Nitrogen TriIodide (from ammonia & iodine). Not only were the raw materials easier to find (central MI didn't have many mines), but when you got dinged up, there wasn't any iodine left to paint the wounds! A very satisfying bang!

(Hang on, someone's knocking at the door...)
Posted by snellenr  2003-10-26 8:52:40 PM||   2003-10-26 8:52:40 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 Snellenr---we made NI3 in school in 8th grade science elective. Put little dabs all over everything in algebra class. 30 minutes into class the wet NI3 precipitate dried out. When disturbed it went off with a BANG and a puff of purple smoke. The class was in an uproar. The subsitute teacher was almost deaf. She did not have a clue. We never got in trouble, but we never did it again. Thank God we all lived through those days. Knew how to make it, but never actually made nitroglycerin. We knew that"soup" was just to dangerous!
Posted by Alaska Paul 2003-10-26 9:25:34 PM||   2003-10-26 9:25:34 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 You can put some calcium carbide into a capped piece of thin aluminum pipe angled toward the ground, pour water into it, and wait a couple of minutes. When the pipe gets hot, bring a match close to the end of the pipe. Makes for a very satisfying "whoosh", the pipe ricochets off the ground, and sails about 30 yards. Scared the %&^%*&^%* out of a bunch of Boy Scouts from New Orleans doing that one summer.

I've also had one or two pieces of pipe explode. NOT conducive to longevity, but somehow I survived.
Posted by Old Patriot  2003-10-26 9:44:54 PM|| [http://users.codenet.net/mweather/default.htm]  2003-10-26 9:44:54 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 Well, I guess this is one way to turn a lot of FBI agents into Rantburg fans!
Posted by PBMcL 2003-10-26 10:25:51 PM||   2003-10-26 10:25:51 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 Warning! The above descriptions of explosive preparations and detonations should be left to professionals. Do not try these experiments at home You may not be as lucky as we were.
Posted by Alaska Paul 2003-10-26 11:09:03 PM||   2003-10-26 11:09:03 PM|| Front Page Top

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