Research Question

[Trinique_Fire]

One of my ideas for one of my NaNo shorts came to me last night...while I was sleeping. I have to ask a few questions though, because as we know, our dreams are not very accurate but in fact, muddled.

Could a certain type of bomb or maybe an M-80 provide just enough power to blast a hole out of a large oil drum? Is there a such thing as a waterproof bomb? I need details.



Thanks

Also, what are police procedures if they get a tip about a terrorist act, i.e. blowing a place up? One of the ladies in my story is a detective, but I think her timing was a bit off. In the story, the targeted place is a club. It's not a huge place, it's small, but big enough, if you get what I'm saying. It's fashioned on the inside to look like someone's house, to give a feel for those "parents are out of town" high school parties. The outside is a regular building.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

How large is the oil drum?

Water proof bomb = Yes.

 

[Trinique_Fire]

http://www.barrelsupply.com/images/Barrels007.jpg

http://www.trendir.com/archives/bristol-and-bath-scale-bathroom-collection.jpg

http://www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com/bigmap/manhattan/randalls-wards/randallsisland/39cans.jpg

 

[cantdog]

Bomb threat calls (or tips or what have you) result, if deemed worthy of being taken seriously, in fire and police being dispatched to the scene, with a view to evacuation. They then get everyone out of the building, and a search is conducted, if need be. There is always a bomb squad, and they will be the ones to act if a suspicious site or object is discovered.

 

[TxRad]

No an M-80 doesn't have the power to punch a hole in an oil drum.... most explosives placed in a drum like that either empty or water filled would most likely rupture the drum moreso than punch a hole....

Cherry bombs and M-80 both have fuses that remain lit under water... Personal experience... Most bombs as a whole don't care for water if they are electronically fired but all can be waterproofed.....

If a bomb threat is called in then the place in question is cleared and a safe area surrounding it is setup... then the bomb squad gets the job of checking the place out... from roof to cellar.... can we say stress and jangled nerves.....

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Ah, 55 gallon drums. M80 = maybe but doubtful. It may blow the top off, but put a hole in the side, probably not.

Some plastic explosive, just a little dab will do ya, would be effective. But then you would need a detonator and a timing device.

 

[cantdog]

These days, there is nearly always a trained explosive sniffing dog. These dogs, here, are not fed, but must detect explosives every time before receiving food, which is a cool tidbit.

 

[Trinique_Fire]

Bomb threat calls (or tips or what have you) result, if deemed worthy of being taken seriously, in fire and police being dispatched to the scene, with a view to evacuation. They then get everyone out of the building, and a search is conducted, if need be. There is always a bomb squad, and they will be the ones to act if a suspicious site or object is discovered.

The bombs aren't what's being reported. The character's father is crazy, and ultimately what he does is fill these barrels with gasoline, place bombs in THEM and then FOOM! Now that I think about it, there's no actual report about arson or bomb threats regarding the father. What the daughter reports back to a friend of hers who works with the police is that her father was talking about "blowing some shit up" but not knowing where. Without saying anything to her friend, this cop goes and talks to some of the people that the other girl's dad was talking to, or spouting his plan in front of and gets what they heard. It ends up at a head when the girl with the crazy father takes her girlfriend to a holiday party at this club.

 

[cantdog]

Cutting a hole in a drum is a matter of tamping well. Tamping is packing around a charge to direct its force. A charge to cut a brace, chop down a post, or do some similar job, if it's tamped competently, can be smaller than the size you would need if the charge were simply set in place.

 

[TxRad]

The bombs aren't what's being reported. The character's father is crazy, and ultimately what he does is fill these barrels with gasoline, place bombs in THEM and then FOOM! Now that I think about it, there's no actual report about arson or bomb threats regarding the father. What the daughter reports back to a friend of hers who works with the police is that her father was talking about "blowing some shit up" but not knowing where. Without saying anything to her friend, this cop goes and talks to some of the people that the other girl's dad was talking to, or spouting his plan in front of and gets what they heard. It ends up at a head when the girl with the crazy father takes her girlfriend to a holiday party at this club.

That would make one nice explosive device and on ehell of an incendiary bomb.... add liquid soap to the mix and you have napalm... it also makes the gasoline a little easier to handle from the standpoint of fumes....

 

[Trinique_Fire]

Okay, I think I've got some of this straight (hopefully-- I'm a little LD and not a textbook learner). I'll worship you for hours if you can break it down in laymens....

 

[cantdog]

I don't think you'd need a hole. Gasoline is a fair explosive itself, but it needs to mix its vapors with air in the right proportion to take off, even if a spark or flame is supplied. That might make the old man's 'set' a bit smelly. But if you can stick it down low in an enclosure, maybe no one will smell it. The old guy can set it to a delay, there are hundreds of simple delay sets, and it will do a more thorough job of burning the place from the bottom of the structure, too. If arson is the intent, an explosion will call the firemen right at the beginning of the fun, and they will likely contain the fire damage (and recover the evidence easier). Arson should start quietly, in a cellar, beneath stairs or in the void space in the walls, where it can really get involved before it's reported. That way you really get a good hit of damage on the building.

 

[TxRad]

Okay, I think I've got some of this straight (hopefully-- I'm a little LD and not a textbook learner). I'll worship you for hours if you can break it down in laymens....

Okay, which part and how deep do you want to go.....

<<<<<< Madbomber in past life.....

 

[Trinique_Fire]

Okay, which part and how deep do you want to go.....

<<<<<< Madbomber in past life.....

The set up, how this gasoline bomb/fire thing would work....

LOL this is a story I really have my heart set on. The theme of my NaNo shorts is Emotions and is in fact called Emotional Experience. I hope I can make this work!

<<<<<<Not Jesse L. Martin in a past life.

 

[Weird Harold]

The bombs aren't what's being reported. The character's father is crazy, and ultimately what he does is fill these barrels with gasoline, place bombs in THEM and then FOOM!

A fifty-five gallon drum full of gasoline doesn't explode very well -- gasoline has to vaporize and mix with air before it can explode; a full drum of gasoline doesn't have any room left inside for the gas to vaporize or for air to mix with it if it does vaporize.

Submerging a "bomb" inside the gasoline wouldn't be the best way to ignite that kind of device either -- it would spread the gasoline around but wouldn't necessarily ignite it; sort of like the "strange science" demonstration of putting match out in liguid gasoline.

If I had a fifty-five gallon drum, some gasoline, and an M-80 and wanted to build a bomb I'd:

1: fill the drum about one third full.

2: cap it and pressurize it with about ten to fifteen PSI of air pressure -- or pure oxygen if I could get a hold of some.

3: Glue the M-80 to the fill cap or some other weak spot and bury it in about three inches of modeling clay or strap it down with a sandbag over it.

When the M-80 is set off, the modeling clay or sandbag directs most of the explosion into the drum, rupturing it and igniting the fuel air mixture inside to send pieces of the drum in all directions at high velocity.

 

[Trinique_Fire]

Okay, just to clarify:

My idea is not to stick a bomb in a barrel of gasoline and hope for the best. No. I asked about a device small enough to punch a hole in the metal barrels because I want that stuff leaking out while everyone is at this holiday party, getting drunk. THEN the fire is lit. Maybe a small bomb wasn't the best idea. But I want the father to NOT be around when all this goes down, so the gasoline in barrels has to be set up so that it leaks on its own around this club. Perhaps the father is there for a few minutes, to splash some here or there, but I don't want him around when it all happens.

 

[Trinique_Fire]

A fifty-five gallon drum full of gasoline doesn't explode very well -- gasoline has to vaporize and mix with air before it can explode; a full drum of gasoline doesn't have any room left inside for the gas to vaporize or for air to mix with it if it does vaporize.

Submerging a "bomb" inside the gasoline wouldn't be the best way to ignite that kind of device either -- it would spread the gasoline around but wouldn't necessarily ignite it; sort of like the "strange science" demonstration of putting match out in liguid gasoline.

If I had a fifty-five gallon drum, some gasoline, and an M-80 and wanted to build a bomb I'd:

1: fill the drum about one third full.

2: cap it and pressurize it with about ten to fifteen PSI of air pressure -- or pure oxygen if I could get a hold of some.

3: Glue the M-80 to the fill cap or some other weak spot and bury it in about three inches of modeling clay or strap it down with a sandbag over it.

When the M-80 is set off, the modeling clay or sandbag directs most of the explosion into the drum, rupturing it and igniting the fuel air mixture inside to send pieces of the drum in all directions at high velocity.

You know waaaaay too much about this.

 

[oggbashan]

All you need is a pre-drilled hole in the drums sealed with chewing gum.

Place the drums, remove the chewing gum so that the gasoline starts to flow and place a timed ignition source to light the air/gasoline mix.

Should blow the club to pieces.

Og

 

[Trinique_Fire]

All you need is a pre-drilled hole in the drums sealed with chewing gum.

Place the drums, remove the chewing gum so that the gasoline starts to flow and place a timed ignition source to light the air/gasoline mix.

Should blow the club to pieces.

Og

I understand everything except the part about the timed ignition source. Please explain.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

There's an Irish song called, My Old Man's a Provo. One line in that song goes:

My Old Man's got me worried.
I think he's going soft.
There's half a ton of fertilizer
Stored up in our loft.

Are you gonna be a farmer, dad,
I asked him just for fun.
He said don't be in idiot,
or a coffee grinder's son.

Wonder what he had in mind?

 

[oggbashan]

I understand everything except the part about the timed ignition source. Please explain.

Something electronic or mechanical that produces a spark or flame after a set period of time. Crudest is a lit candle that lights something else when it has burnt long enough.

Og

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Something electronic or mechanical that produces a spark or flame after a set period of time. Crudest is a lit candle that lights something else when it has burnt long enough.

Og

Programable home thermostats work really well, Og. And don't ask me how I know that

 

[Trinique_Fire]

Programable home thermostats work really well, Og. And don't ask me how I know that

So how would one make the thermostat or candle thing work. Sorry, still not getting that part really.

 

[oggbashan]

Fertiliser

One of the friends of my youth wanted - don't ask why - to reproduce the mushroom cloud of a nuclear bomb on the hills to the south of London.

From reading a news report in The Times about an army exercise on Salisbury Plain he found that detergent and dirty engine oil would produce the characteristic mushroom cloud if an explosive was set off in the middle of the mixture. The Army used about 50 gallons of oil and 200 pounds of detergent.

He acquired 250 gallons of oil and two tonnes of detergent. The fertiliser and other ingredients for the explosive weighed a further two tonnes. He had assembled everything and transported it all to the favoured site when one of his friends decided that this wasn't a good idea. The friend tipped off the Police. It took four days before the area was safe for the public.

If he had exploded his device, the mushroom cloud would have equated to a 50-kilotonne bomb.

Og

 

[oggbashan]

So how would one make the thermostat or candle thing work. Sorry, still not getting that part really.

If you buy an electric timer that plugs into an ordinary electric socket and then plug an electric fire into that - you have an ignition source when the timer switches on. You don't actually need the fire - just connect the wires together so that they short out when the power is switched on.

Og