Death by Milk (or an explanation of Carbid Schieten)

Right, this page is for all those not Dutch people out there, who want to know what it was that I nearly blew my head of doing this new years eve (2002). Something called Carbid Schieten in Pigeuropean (ie. Dutch).

Well, firstly, Carbid Schieten translates to English like this: Carbide Shooting. But I suppose most people won't go like "Ooh! Carbide Shooting! I know what you mean now!", so let me go into this a bit deeper. Let us start with the Carbide.

Carbide is a rocky material, called CAC2 in the language of people like my girlfriend. It's made of coke and slacked lime, by heating the two in an electric oven. It used to be used in eg. carbide lamps or to make acetylene gas which can be used for welding.

Right, the whole idea is contained in this: CAC2(s) + 2H20(1)----> HCCH(9) + CA(OH)2(s), which basically means, that if you put water with the carbide is produces (amongst something else which I haven't got a slightest idea what it might be (ask my girlfriend, she should know)) acetylene gas; an explosive gas!

Now you take a milkcan (with a nicely fitting lid) and drill a tiny whole in the back of the milkcan. Now all you need is something like a torch, or alternatively attach in some way (consult someone about this with who does knows what he is doing...) a nut (and they say Dutch words are silly...) over the hole on the back and get some firecrackers which fit the nut and get lighter. Oh, and fill a empty bottle or something with water. That's all really, so here we go.

Now, put the milkcan almost flat on the ground with the front a bit higher as the back (don't put it upright, unless you have a pressing deathwish), get the lid off, and dump some amount of the carbide in milkcan. Now put some amount of water into the milkcan too, and quickly put the lid back on. (a (rubber!) hammer might be useful here...)

Now, wait...

Okay, now you make sure nobody you like is in front of the milkcan, and nothing valuable resides there either, and then carefully put the tip of the torch near the hole in the back of the milkcan. The shooting then follows.

Right, and this is what people (especially redneck farmers) do all over the north of the Netherlands around the new year. And we (mainly scouting people - a kind of people who like to blow up stuff anyway) like to do it too on new years eve.

Oh, and about that nut and firecracker thing, what you do (well, what we do) is to brake the firecracker in two (this makes the firecracker burn, but not explode, since it's now open at one end) and stuff the part with the fuse on it into the nut. Now you can light the whole thing and still have some time to take cover.
The only thing is, that the firecracker must fit well, so none gas can escape past it. Because else it's not very healthy to crouch down right besides the milkcan and light your lighter! This is about what happened to me this year. The recoil made the milkcan flip over backwards with great speed and it hit me straight in the face. Auch! I was very lucky all I got was a very big lump and a headache.

Right, now I have to disclaim some stuff, before somebody gets himself killed.
I extremely dissuade anyone from trying this all, after just reading this page. This page is an description of carbid schieten, not (I say NOT) a guide to carbid schieten!!!
Also, trying to headbud the oncoming milkcan lid is not recommended. People have actually died of such a lid encounter of the frontal kind. Get everybody behind the milkcan, when you are about to fire.
And last but not least, terms on this page might be completely wrong, all the Dutch words that I didn't know the English word for were translate just by dictionary or by #aglami / #wizzfizz. Not at all by research. And none of the photos used are mine. They are ripped from the internet using the almighty Google.com and are therefor probably used without any permission. Yeah. Live with it.

For more exciting carbid schieten stuff, go to the "Steen Goed Materiaal" website. This is in Dutch, but it's probably not that hard to understand.