cplmac Posted September 3, 2006 Posted September 3, 2006 My brother was going through his 150 year old barn the other day and came across a very old canvas bag. Circular about 6 inches in diameter and 16 inches deep. He brought it over asking if I had any idea what it was. There were no readily visible markings on the bag but you could tell it was old and coated in preserving oil. We opened up a little compartment in the bottom of the bag and low and behold there were about a half dozen original railroad torpedoes! Very cool find. I think he is going to donate it to the local railroad museum. Just thought I would share with an audience that could appreciate some antique pyro.
shadopyro Posted September 3, 2006 Posted September 3, 2006 Railroad torpedos? what exaclty are those? am i right in thinking that they are related to those old impact crackers like globe torpedos?If they are then id only donate some, the rest i use myself! -very nteresting find!
cplmac Posted September 4, 2006 Author Posted September 4, 2006 Railroad torpedoes are about the size of a matchbox with a couple of lead straps. Railroad workers used to use them to signal trains to stop. You take the two lead straps and bend them over the rail to hold the torpedo on the rail. When the train runs it over it makes a report loud enough to be heard over the engine. I'm gonna try and get a picture of the torpedoes and the bag my brother found them in and post it up. You can tell they are very old. Some of the writing on the torpedoes themselves are still legible.
maximusg Posted September 4, 2006 Posted September 4, 2006 ohhh sounds fascinating. Be very careful with those things though explosives + age = danger
rocket Posted September 4, 2006 Posted September 4, 2006 Also being impact sensitive is even worse. Don’t accidentally stand on one
shadopyro Posted September 4, 2006 Posted September 4, 2006 Wonder what the compposition is inside, wouldnt be surprised at all if it was an azide or something if they are that old. If it is a primary then maybe they've decayed enough to be safe? Either way i'll be waiting for those photos!
optimus Posted September 4, 2006 Posted September 4, 2006 Whatever you do, don't wander into the museum with the torpedos still live!
cplmac Posted September 4, 2006 Author Posted September 4, 2006 I'm not really sure how to make them dead other than setting them off. I'm gonna see if I can get those pictures here in the next day or so.
cplmac Posted September 19, 2006 Author Posted September 19, 2006 (edited) As promised a little later than I had hoped. Here are the pictures. I don't know exactly how old these are, but they are pretty old. They look at least 40-50 years old, but that's an amateur opinion. [Edit] converted to links. The images as usual wern't showing up. I guess, kodakgallery doesn't like direct linking. [edit 2] Hmmmmm, the links arn't working.http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n294/cplmac2/DSC08664.jpghttp://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n294/cplmac2/DSC08662.jpghttp://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n294/cplmac2/DSC08660.jpg Edited September 20, 2006 by cplmac
cplmac Posted September 19, 2006 Author Posted September 19, 2006 What photo site works for sure? I can switch it over. And the only mixes I could find for the torpedoes were:Potassium Chlorate 60%Antimony Sulfide 350 mesh or finer 30%German Black 10% The other is Nelson's torpedo mix, which was patented in 1867 :Potassium Chlorate 34%Red Phosphorous 33%Sulfur 16.5%Calcium Carbonate 16.5% I cannot recommend strongly enough to not attempt making these mixes. You should never mix a chlorate with any kind of sulfur.
_DB_ Posted September 19, 2006 Posted September 19, 2006 Photo Bucket is a good photo and video hosting site, or you could just use the APC filehost.
TheSidewinder Posted September 19, 2006 Posted September 19, 2006 Well... dark break or "dark flash" is chlorate, sulfur, and antimony trisulfide. Yes, it's sensitive, but common sense handling covers it. That formula is used to break crossettes when you want absolutely NO additional light produced from the crossette's break charge. But it is *NOT* something a newbie should play with. M
pyrochris Posted September 19, 2006 Posted September 19, 2006 pictures seem to be dead links, you hasve the working links?
teknix Posted September 19, 2006 Posted September 19, 2006 Yeah I wouldn't give them to the museam live because as soon as they find that out they will call in the local bomb squad to dispose of those things. They arn't going to put a live pyrotechnic device on display.
pa_pyro Posted September 19, 2006 Posted September 19, 2006 The links are fine(nice pics) you need to right click and press save as.
pyrochris Posted September 20, 2006 Posted September 20, 2006 The links are fine(nice pics) you need to right click and press save as. did that, pictures are corrupted.
cplmac Posted September 20, 2006 Author Posted September 20, 2006 I just reposted them with photobucket. Hopefully this works.
shadopyro Posted September 20, 2006 Posted September 20, 2006 Well if it is the chlorate composition, then i'd try putting it into hot water or something to dissolve the potassium chlorate... though that may have the undesired effect of damaging the casing.
h0lx Posted September 23, 2006 Posted September 23, 2006 How about shake them so the comp is on one side and then carefully cut an opening to the other side with a razor and slowliy pouring the compo out?
pyrochris Posted September 24, 2006 Posted September 24, 2006 How about shake them so the comp is on one side and then carefully cut an opening to the other side with a razor and slowliy pouring the compo out? lol, i dont think shaking 50 year old chlorate mix is such a good idea. I wouldnt even shake new mix let alone damp old mix lol.
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