Shallow end of the gene pool
 

This is from our local paper:

A 38-year-old Pike Creek Valley, Del. man attempted to dispose of gunpowder by tossing it into his lighted fireplace. He survived.

It makes one wonder how he has survived to such a ripe old age!

Steve,

Way OT but:

My favorite website for this is

http://www.darwinawards.com/

Unlike the e-mails we receive, at least he confirms the gene pool kills!

Mark

Steve it really depends on how much he threw in and what type. Gunpowder is not explosive if it is not contained. Yes, it burns fairly rapidly when ignited but not as fast as you might think. If it were shotgun powder it burns less rapidly than rifle powder.

In Vietnam I was a grunt Mortar Gunner in a weapons platoon. You may or may not know this but a mortar round has bags of powder attached and depending on how far you want it to go, you either leave them all on or take some off. At the end of a fire mission you might have several pounds of powder laying there. We commonly and frequently burned them in a sump to no ill effect.

Now if this gentleman who has not lost all of his stupidity threw in five pounds of the stuff I am sure there was quite the flare up! Most would have gone up the chimney though wouldn't it? Jerry Burney

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Originally posted by lugerholsterrepair:
<strong>Most would have gone up the chimney though wouldn't it?</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Figure out the volume of gas expansion of an amount of burning powder, the speed of combustion; compare to the volume of the fireplace and the speed of exhaustion through the chimney (which is essentially convective, not pressure).

I would guess that the gout of flame and smoke out of the front of the fireplace was...startling.

--Dwight

My daughetr reports that some guy in the Phoenix area shot away the base of a saguaro until it fell over on him. A typical saguaro weights a ton or more. And all those looong spines!!

He comment was, "Natural selection."