stupid human tricks

[Todd Young]

Aahh, the foolish days of our youth.

I made something at the time called a "polish cannon" (apologies to
those of the Polish nationality out there). Similar in design to the
potato cannon, except it used a tennis ball. The cannon proper was made
out of Point beer cans (brewed in Stevens Point, Wisconsin) when they
were still made from tin and were straight. I cut the top and bottom off
of 5 cans, and the sixth can the top was made into a baffle, and a hole
was punched on the side at the bottom. All the cans were taped together
with duct tape, with the sixth can at the bottom.

Dump in a little lighter fluid, stuff the tennis ball in, toss it in the
air a couple times to vaporize the lighter fluid, then light at the hole
in the bottom of the cannon. After burning my fingers a couple times
using a match, I too went on to using a "flint" style spark lighter. The
longer length ensured my fingers weren't too close to the flame jetting
out the hole.

That thing made one helluva loud booming noise, about equivalent to a
shotgun. With the right prep, the tennis ball could be made to go so
high as to disappear from view. My dad lit it off in the house once
without the tennis ball in it, scared the sh*t out of my mom.

Mark L. Chang wrote:
>>Hmm, I've never tried that one.  I've dumped all kinds
>>of stuff into my potato cannon, but I have to agree
>>with Mark, Aqua Net is still the best.  It's scary how
>>flamable that stuff is.  Hmm, I wonder what the octane
>>value is?  Maybe I could rig it to press the nozzle at
>>WOT throttle and inject some into the intake....
>
>
> For the cost, Aqua net was good for us at the time. Giant bottles at
> WalMart for pennies. Get a Coleman lamp ignitor (flint on a wheel), and
> blammo, instant 300ft shots of potato!
>
> --
> Adam to Eve: I'll wear the plants in this family!
>

--
Todd Young
7079 Dawn Ave. E.
Inver Grove Heights, MN 55076