Replies

That’s nothing. For my public speaking and rhetoric class (public school, late eighties) I did a presentation on the mechanics of flint lock and percussion cap muzzle loading weapons. As a prop I brought in a bayonet from a Springfield musket. I didn’t bother to tell the teacher about it. I’ll never forget the look on her face when I pulled it out from behind the podium. For a second speech I did a presentation on how to make hydrogen filled balloons from toilet bowel cleaner and aluminum foil. Fortunately the teacher was young and relatively easy going.

I’d be going to school shackled, wearing an orange jump suit, giving presentations on how to brew gin from apple cores if I was born 15 years later than I was.

I’d be going to school shackled, wearing an orange jump suit, giving presentations on how to brew gin from apple cores if I was born 15 years later than I was.

When I was really young, for "show and tell" I brought in things like a dummy grenade and a muskett.

Later in high school (late 80's) I presented "What to do when the Heimlich Maneuve fails" - it invloved a steak knife, fake blood, booze, Bic pen and a friend with a sense of humor.

Since I went to Frankford High in Philly, my next presentation was "Her Water Broke, What Now!?"

For the record the kid is a cr@ppy artist no matter how you rotate that picture...

My German teacher was also a chemistry teacher. She had an annoying habit of pacing around the room. One day I mixed up a batch of "contact explosive" and sprinkled the wet bits around the floor. As it dried, it became unstable and "popped" when she stepped on the bits. She was no fool. The second time she heard a pop, she sent the whole class to pick up a copy of a discontinued German textbook that was being given away to get it off the school inventory. Lots of popping followed. Aside from some tiny iodine spots on the floor, no harm done.

My chemistry teacher made a mistake in class (some years after my attendance). The "demo" with sugar and potassium perchlorate detonated and blew off the end of the lab table. Not good. The thermite class project required gathering lots of red rust and aluminum cans. We spent a couple class periods chopping up enough material. A small sandbox was placed on the cement walkway outside of class. The materials were mixed, a magnesium strip added and lighted. We were rewarded with a nice blob of very hot steel.