Did anyone else almost nonchalantly die as a kid?

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  • Boojum
    6 years ago | pl

    Kids are stupid by definition. It's amazing so many make it to adulthood.

    Probably the dumbest thing I did as a kid was make nitroglycerin when I was 13. I was smart enough to make only a tiny quantity, but it was still a very stupid thing to attempt.

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    • BlackCatsAreAwesome
      6 years ago | pl

      You had access to fuming nitric acid? Or did you use concentrated sulphuric acid with 68% nitric acid?

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      • Boojum
        6 years ago | pl

        Difficult to remember the details, since it was a very long time ago. From what I know now, I'm sure it wasn't fuming HNO3.

        Chems were stolen from a Seventh Day Adventist school where they once clearly had a teacher who was interested in chemistry, and then they just got left in the back of some cupboard.

        I confess that I did exaggerate a bit above. More correct to say that I _attempted_ to make nitroglycerine using the recipe in some old book of my father's. It didn't actually explode, but I do remember getting very nervous when the mixture got extremely hot and started giving off some nasty fumes.

        Perhaps if I'd had access to more accurate measurement apparatus and slightly better chems, I'd be typing this with stumps.

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