Arthur Posted February 13, 2020 Share Posted February 13, 2020 Long ago there used to be little bangers for loading a cigarette with for naughty fun. They were about the size I call a lighter flint probably 2mm DIA by 4mm long probably silver or grey in colour. Do these products still exist? In England? Can they be bought? Maybe this is one place where red lead isn't a good idea does anyone actually know the formula who could disclose it (even by PM). I keep thinking that a single dragons egg would suit purpose, as would a pack of retail ones in the UK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeighborJ Posted February 13, 2020 Share Posted February 13, 2020 (edited) Arthur, I literally just posted a composition in pyrotechnics titled "cheapest dragon eggs" which would work as you describe. It does contain potassium dichromate to aid ignition during critical wind velocity but it can be omitted from the prime and the formula to suit your purposes. I would express concern that any egg formula does produce droplets of molten cu. There would obviously be a danger of eye injury. Edited February 13, 2020 by NeighborJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justvisiting Posted February 13, 2020 Share Posted February 13, 2020 I was told they were made with fulminating silver. They looked like little pieces of wood, impregnated with something that made them white. I made mine with lead azide, which I made myself quite easily. The wood (balsa) didn't work at all. Finally, I made a slurry. I took pieces of cigarette rolling paper, dredged them in the slurry, and rolled them up between my finger and thumb. They are probably twice as loud as the store-bought ones, even a few years later. Every once in a while I put one in a pair of forceps and set it off. As an ex-smoker, I'd say the long-term effects of smoking should be of greater concern than the potential for ingestion of occasional tiny amounts of lead. I think the lead might get lost in the potpourri of chemicals in cigarettes 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylman Posted February 13, 2020 Share Posted February 13, 2020 NeighborJ, When I was a kid I bought a pack of these I inserted one into one of my mom's cigarettes and put the cigarette back into the pack. I waited ever so patiently for her to light the cigarette it scared the crap out of her. I kind of felt bad but it was pretty funny at the time it happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Posted February 14, 2020 Author Share Posted February 14, 2020 Having just had a colleague die quite suddenly from his 60 a day habit smokers are fair game! what's a bit of lead compared to all the smoke. I was thinking of dragons eggs wondering if I still had the materials. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeighborJ Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 Sometimes I take some dragon eggs into work. I drop a few on the floor below my buddys welding table. It doesn't take long for a stray spark to find one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeaMonkey Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 Right, the Cigarette Bangers were Silver Fulminate. It is the samestuff that is used in those little Party Poppers. The ones with thepull-string which shoot out those paper streamers use it. It is easy to isolate and remove if one wishes to, in order to useit for special projects. Carefully. It's a tiny amount but ratherpowerful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richtee Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 Having just had a colleague die quite suddenly from his 60 a day habit smokers are fair game! what's a bit of lead compared to all the smoke. You’d better hope I died right then, because if I din’t I’d kick yer ass 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
memo Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 cig bangers are funny. they have always scared me a bit. to many thing scan go wrong . its all fun until someone loses an eye. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave321 Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 (edited) Arthur,as someone said in a previous post, they use a VERY small amount of Silver Fulminate, either on a small balsa peg, to put in the cigarette, or a small dab on a small triangle of card. some of the early ones made in germany by weco, they were green triangles, were the best, and very consistent, with a nice sharp crack. I' ll pm you more details on how I think they were made you can still get them as jokes, on ebay, but they don't seem as good as the original green german onesdave Edited February 15, 2020 by dave321 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave321 Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 Right, the Cigarette Bangers were Silver Fulminate. It is the samestuff that is used in those little Party Poppers. The ones with thepull-string which shoot out those paper streamers use it. It is easy to isolate and remove if one wishes to, in order to useit for special projects. Carefully. It's a tiny amount but ratherpowerful.wrong ! party poppers use a version of armstrongs mixture, NOT silver fulminate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justvisiting Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 The cigarette loads that I remember came in the little red and white tin. As I said, the loads were little splits of wood, and they were whiter than any wood. For this reason, I thought that maybe the explosive was precipitated in the wood by a double displacement reaction. I tried to do this, but was unsuccessful. All I got was the most feeble pops. If the commercial loads were made with silver fulminate, I'm curious how they impregnated the wood. Also, as I understand it, silver fulminate is quite sensitive. I wonder if the wood acts as a desensitizer, like kieselgur does for NG? Maybe the splits aren't wood? Wikipedia says Christmas crackers were indeed made with silver fulminate. I had an incident with fulminating silver (not silver fulminate) as a kid. I would do various chemical experiments 'just to see what would happen', in the basement. I had made some silver nitrate, and was playing around with it. I poured some excess into a test tube, and added some ammonia water. Then I forgot about it for a few weeks. One day I came down to my 'lab', and found my test tube rack rent to shreds, and glass everywhere. I immediately concluded that my younger brother had taken a hammer to my test tube rack, and promptly beat him up. It was only later that I learned about fulminating silver, and realized I'd inadvertently made quite a lot of it, and it went off spontaneously. Luckily, the only one hurt was my brother Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave321 Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 its just mixed with a bit of binder and coated onto the end of the wooden peg, nothing special about it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidh Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 I made this once, and I heard it may be what they used for cigarette loads. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_acetylide Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave321 Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 I made this once, and I heard it may be what they used for cigarette loads. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_acetylide i am afraid you heard wrong, they use silver fulminate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bourbon Posted May 28, 2020 Share Posted May 28, 2020 When I was a kid, cigarette bangers looked exactly like miniature Red Hot Candy. Hurt alotta people. thoughs little buggers really popped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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