From: abmac@dslextreme.com   
      
   Hi guys ...   
      
   I wanted to know how this Holmes guy who make Bombs.   
      
   So I did the Google on Black Gun Powder.   
      
   He needs a Pound (.5 kilo) to do any damage to a human being with   
   shrapnel ...   
      
   This Holmes guy seems to have had 100 pounds or so to use for his   
   Gas/Smoke Gernades he made ... that WORKED !!!   
      
   He did the Circuits for the triggers ...   
      
   and did this Wall Mart Parts ... on DRUGS .. and being a SCHITZO.   
      
   This is EASY ASSEMBLY ... common folks.   
      
   Get with it.   
      
   Any how getting a 100 pounds of Black Powder is easy to get if you have   
   the right paper work ...   
      
   or steal it if you can get away with it.   
      
   He had to have something stable to use and pour.   
      
   Holmes could have made the Black Powder him self.   
      
   But that is a LOT OF WORK AND TIRESOME big time to do the amount he   
   needed ... and he would have to do that on drugs and being schitzo.   
      
   Here is the reference on that ... to wit:   
      
    From The Foxfire Book, Volume 5 - © 1979 The Foxfire Fund; Published by   
   Doubleday Books   
      
      
      
   "Black powder is and isn't hard to make depending on which end you look   
   at it from. It is a long and tiresome task if you make more than ten   
   pounds at a time.   
      
   "Out on the West Coast, as in some southern states, the trend by the   
   government is to prevent its sale with mountains of red tape. Making   
   your own black powder, however, is not unlawful as yet, as far as I know."   
      
   "By weight measure, black powder is made of seventy-five parts saltpeter   
   finely ground, fifteen parts charcoal, and ten parts sulfur. All   
   ingredients must be fine ground separately. This can be accomplished   
   with either a mortar and pestle, or with a hand-cranked flour mill.   
   Never mix all three ingredients before grinding unless you want to turn   
   your mill into a deadly grenade, or your mortar into a cannon that can   
   blow off your fingers or even your hand."   
      
   "Then the ingredients can be mixed with a small amount of water so the   
   mixture comes out with biscuit-dough consistency. Usually when I mix the   
   ingredients, I add just enough stale urine to make the batch bunch about   
   like biscuit dough. The urine, substituted for water, gives the powder   
   more oxygen and higher performance."   
      
   "Flowers of sulfur is ideal for gun powder, and it can be bought in most   
   drug stores in four-ounce bottles or pound cans."   
      
   "It can also be found in pure deposits around volcanoes, and in early   
   times, because it was found where molten lava issued from the earth, the   
   sulfur condensed around the rims of the volcanoes was called brimstone."   
      
   "Today, in certain places around the world, sulfur is recovered from un-   
   derground deposits by pumping live steam underground through pipes. The   
   sulfur melts and, being lighter than water, is easily pumped out at   
   another point close by. Then it is pumped into big ships that haul it to   
   industries all over the world. That's why you can buy a hundred-pound   
   sack for about three dollars in most places.   
      
   "Saltpeter, the chemical that produces the oxygen for the other   
   ingredients when lit off, can he made by putting urine and manure of any   
   kind in a big cement tank mixed with water until you have about three   
   hundred gallons mixed up. Then you put on a tight lid and let it sit for   
   about ten months. You have to have a drain pipe and valve at the bottom,   
   and a stainless steel filter screen installed beforehand or you'll have   
   one big mess on your hands. At the end of that time, you run the liquid   
   that drains off through ashes into shallow wooden trays lined with   
   plastic sheeting and let them stand for evaporation in the sun. When the   
   water evaporates, potassium nitrate crystals (saltpeter) will form in   
   the bottom of the trays."   
      
   "In the old days in cities, most outhouses were fitted with trays or   
   drawers under the seats that could be pulled out from behind the   
   building. They had night-soil collectors who were paid so much every   
   month by the outhouse owners to keep those drawers emptied, and they'd   
   come around with a special wagon into which they dumped the contents.   
   When the wagon was full, it was hauled out to where another fellow   
   bought the contents and dumped it into concrete tanks where the bacteria   
   works it just like yeast works wine or bread dough. Then the liquid was   
   run through ashes into shallow tiled or plain concrete evaporating trays   
   or basins to recover the saltpeter."   
      
   "Today, saltpeter can also he bought in most drug stores in bottles or   
   cans."   
      
   "Charcoal provides the carbon needed when the powder is lit off. When   
   burning, the carbon assists in making potassium carbonates and carbon   
   sulfates during the one one hundredth of a second that it is burning.   
   Most of this is released at the muzzle of a smoke pole in the form of   
   powder smoke. Some remains in the barrel in the form of fouling and   
   should be swabbed out about every third shot if the shooter wants the   
   round ball to continue to shoot true."   
      
   "The charcoal should never be made from hardwood as hardwood has too   
   much ash. Such woods as chinaberry, willow, cottonwood, soft pine with   
   no knots, or redwood and Western cedar make the best grade charcoal. A   
   fifty-five-gallon drum with a snap-on lid and a match-stem-sized hole in   
   the lid set over a fire Pit is a good charcoal maker. Take the wood and   
   chip it or cut it into inch chunks and put a bucketful in the drum. Then   
   build a hardwood fire under the drum and when smoke begins to spurt from   
   the vent, light the wood with a match. When the flame goes out, your   
   charcoal is made. Rake the fire out from under the drum, plug the vent   
   with a bit of asbestos fiber or a nail that fits in tight, and let the   
   drum sit overnight to cook. You can then crush and powder the charcoal   
   with a mortar and pestle, or run it through a hand-cranked grain grinder   
   to a flourlike fineness. "   
      
   "By the way, Just yesterday I took time out and made batch of powder,   
   and this time, when I mixed the ingredients, I added homemade alder   
   charcoal instead of redwood and improved the powder's performance 100   
   per cent. I recently bought a tight little sheet-metal heater stove for   
   camp cooking and by accident discovered that getting a load of alder   
   going good and then closing it UP tight and dampering it until it went   
   out and turned cold converted the alder into nice pure charcoal. "   
      
   "When making black powder, never add any other ingredients or explosive   
   powders unless you wish to turn your muzzle loader into a grenade that   
   can kill you or cripple you for life. Keep your black powder stored in   
   steel, airtight cans in a cool, dry place, and out of the reach of   
   children. My parents failed to do that, and I've carried powder marks on   
   my face for the last thirty years. A ten-year-old may think he knows   
   what he's doing, but ten years don't give him enough prudence to think   
   many things out ahead of time before he lights that match."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)