douchebagcity Posted October 15 Posted October 15 im a writer, not a good one, but a writer nontheless. my current short story is about a post apocalyptic world after an alien invasion of what appears to be vampires from antiquity. turns out the few vamps seen back then were just an initial exploratory force that represented a much greater empire of entities that feed on the blood of other sentient life. they have a weakness though... VERY bright lights so i am trying to make a device that any idiot could slap together, i am thinking sugar and potassium chlorate? i want it to be usable with a pull tab that relies solely on mechanical energy because these things emit EMPs that disable electronics so an electric ignition won't work. it has to either be a kinetic or pull tab type. i don't wanna use a 'fuse' because i think it would look cooler in a grenade form because this might actually end up being optioned by netflix if i end up pitching it to them later next year.] if anyone can come up with how i can do it? i'd like to make one of these myself to test how bright they are and actually see it in action so whatta i do? you will get credited in the book and the show if it actually ends up being picked up!
Darkonez Posted October 15 Posted October 15 End of the world ? No electric ? Nearly every house owns an egg timer.
Mumbles Posted October 15 Posted October 15 Obviously there are a lot of liberties that can be taken in fiction. For it to be somewhat realistic, something described as having a very bright light would almost certainly contain metal powders of some sort. Mg can be obtained from water heaters as the sacrificial anode, camping fire starters, certain racing tire rims, among other sources. Aluminum can be obtained most anywhere (foil, fences, soda cans, support beams, etc). Any of those things can be melted down or ground down in the literary sense. It's not as easy as it sounds in practice. Add oxidizer of choice. Invent pull ignition system. Done. I will say that most of these are going to be on the more sensitive side of compositions for you to experiment with and I wouldn't really recommend it. They will be plenty bright and give off plenty of UV, you can trust us on that. It's the basis of a lot of military flares to give you a frame of reference.
douchebagcity Posted October 15 Author Posted October 15 chat gpt suggests potassium chlorate mixed with sugar and can be set off with a drop of sulfuric acid. i was thinking something like that but am lost as to how to actually DO it
Arthur Posted October 15 Posted October 15 Most chlorate mixes are dangerous in real life. AN absence of production detail could be more appropriate. Invent a device for your purpose and assume that after a vague description that your reader knows and understands, without the full technical detail. A good fiction needn't contain pages of science and technology, but does need to involve the imagination. It's not what you read but how you read it, and how it makes you feel. A good non-fiction (text book style) needs to have full and complete information, but you are writing fiction.
ThrownBiscuit Posted October 16 Posted October 16 For your story, you could have the pull tab be sandpaper with a pyrotechnic fuse with strike-anywhere match head mixture stuck on it. I think that would be enough detail to be interesting in a story without too much that could get people in too much trouble.
Darkonez Posted October 19 Posted October 19 Just a thought but every film I’ve watched doing lock picking is shown massively incorrect and would never work but it’s somewhat close to the real thing and to a novice looks about right. The same with scenes that have bomb being made they imply the use of fertilizer and other broad terms but never the full breakdown. I believe this to be due to legal issues and anyone who was to use your script as a manual would hold you liable for prosecution. Imagine some dumb early teen following your list then loosing fingers or hurting their bully. Maybe details are the thing to avoid.
FlaMtnBkr Posted October 19 Posted October 19 K chlorate and sugar will only burn. Add the right dye and it's basically a colored smoke. Add wax or an excess of sugar and it would be an 'ok' white smoke. As mentioned, brightness comes from metals with an oxidizer. However, that's essentially flash powder -aka- a bomb. Your story sounds like a fun twist but it doesn't need to really work, just sound like it would to the average person. Pyro can be very dangerous and a person that used to post here got severe burns from a magnesium fire where he wasn't burned by heat but the extremely intense UV light that was created. Basically an instantaneous skin cooking sunburn. It's not something to play with or improvise unless you actually know what you're doing. And even then accidents happen as with the above magnesium fire that happened to an actual professional that not only made fireworks but developed new ones for various companies including Disney World. An extremely intelligent man with an incredible range of knowledge and still something unexpected happened and even with all his safety protocols he got bit. And it happens all the time to people that don't know what they're doing so it's best to leave most of it to the imagination. However, if you really want to learn that's a different story and I'm sure everyone would help point you down the right path.
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