Blasting Machines: Not Just for Wile E. Coyote
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- Опубликовано: 11 сен 2023
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NOTE: I fail to mention it in the video, but the Mk. VII Dynamo exploder produced 110V, and the Mk. II/III Condenser Exploder 1500V
Blasting machines or Exploders are used to remotely set off small explosive charges known as detonators or blasting caps, which are necessary to set off larger charges of high explosives. In this video, we examine two British Commonwealth military blasting machines from the mid-20th Century - a Mk.VII Dynamo Exploder and a Mk.II Condenser or "Beethoven" Exploder - and discuss the early history of high explosives and initiation systems.
SOURCES
railroad.lindahall.org/essays...
www.henrysmilitarycollectable...
www.awm.gov.au/collection/REL...
talesfromthesupplydepot.blog/...
www.nonex.co.uk/exploders-non...
www.flickr.com/photos/russell...
talesfromthesupplydepot.blog/...
www.britannica.com/science/ni...
www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexpe...
www.pitandquarry.com/blasting...
I clicked on this video to see how explorders worked. I never thought I'd learn so much from your comprehensive study of them as well as the explosives that they ignite.
Explorders are trail blazers, literally blasting their way through the unknown!😉
Yeah you did; you're too old
I love this channel Jim always manages to make the most dull looking objects explode into an interesting explanation. Must sort out a 'super chat' of sorts, these videos must take some time and effort to produce. Much appreciated
Really neat video
sooo... you clicked on it expecting to learn, but didnt think you would learn? i really dont understand all the comments that are like this
What is most praiseworthy is that you take the time and effort to compose and learn a script that keeps the information flowing and that your speech is 100% intelligible.
He is using a teleprompter you know!
Yup can see it's reflection in his glasses. Still very well written and presented.@@oak_meadow9533
@@oak_meadow9533 As stated in one of his other videos, he's not.
Weird! I guess he just has good bullet points to glance at + strong understanding of topic. Impressive.
There's also an electric blasting cap that detonates a booster charge. With the atom bomb the detonations had to be synchronized to about 1/100,000 sec.
As long as it doesn't carry the A.C.M.E label I think you are good ...
LOL
Oh! I need to put *ACME* on the 1/2 scale versions I hope to make in the future!
"Beep Beep!". 🐦
There is nothing wrong with ACME products. Even the anvils require knowledge for proper use. Wile E. never made proper use of the products. (Yes! there was an ACME anvil. I saw the advertisement in one of my old reference books.)
My father was in Italy in WW2, he was in a pioneer platoon that blasted solid rock for entrenchment of troops. In some places they dug latrines with dynamite. Good show.
I spent some time in the Yukon and got to know an old miner who told me a story of finding a cabin with boxes of old dynamite, all sweeting nitroglycerin.
No one wanted to move it, so they RCMP was called in and a young and eager fellow.
He decided that shooting the boxes would do the trick.
Trouble was to get a clear shot he had to be a bit closer than he wanted to be, several shots later the cabin went up! With alot more force than anyone thought, leading to a rain of logs a d a rather stunned RCMP officer.
As a young 19 year old and just a bit navies food.this to be a wounderful story
My grandad was a shot firer in a coal mine. He had a dynamo exploder at home that we used to zap each other with, fun times. He also had a small shed waaaay down the back of the property that had the odd box of sweating gelignite inside... it went up in a bushfire around 1976. Quite spectacular.
No he didn't. And even if he did, he should not have been storing explosives in unsafe conditions on private property. It's nothing to be proud of.
@@PreservationEnthusiast It's possible he did, depending on how far back Grandpa acquired the Dynamite. People were blasting stumps and the odd boulder out of the way quite frequently through the mid 1900s out in the western USA.
Also, apart from any laws making it illegal, there is nothing wrong about owning dynamite, only in using it to be destructive or to harm people. In that regard, there's not much difference between dynamite and a hammer, besides degree of impact.
Also, was not aware he said that he or his grandpa was proud of it; more like it just was.
@@danahansen5427 I didn't say his grandpa was proud of it. He's the one who is proud if it as evidenced by his posting of it on social media. If one has irresponsible relatives, it's something to keep quiet about, not to boast about.
@@PreservationEnthusiast And again I say, it just 'was', and he thought the world at large might have a bit of vicarious enjoyment.
Kinda like me talking about the whizbang of a car accident my brother was in; car totalled but he had just bumps & bruises (never happened, BTW).
@@PreservationEnthusiast You wouldn't believe the numbers of normal people, farmers, and former mine workers who had dynamite in the 1970's and back. By the 70's that stuff was getting real old.
I worked as an assistant to a blaster..There was 2 kinds of explosives we used. One was called powder the other was jell. Powder was a larger stick had can be cut in half for a smaller blast. It looked like sprayable lawn mix ,cellulose with a green color. Gel was like a tick jelly , dark blue. I would load boxes of explosives on the bed of the pick up to start the day. The bed of the truck was slippery with gel residue. The blasting caps all had time delay ratings. I serviced the drill rig. It had treads like a tank powered by a compressor. Very satisfying work
I thought this channel had like 500,000 or more subscribers. I am shocked that you only have 16,400 subscribers. You deserve so many more
It's gained 8,500 subs in 6 days! I'd say it's "Blowing Up" LOL.
To remove the crank on the Beethoven:
Turn the crank backwards.
If it is stuck, give it a “vigorous yank”.
This should release it and you should be able to remove it.
I tried that, but apparently the crank has been attached so long that the threads are seized; I decided to leave it alone lest I end up damaging it.
@@CanadianMacGyver Ive just posted the same advice. so yeah, leave well alone.
@@CanadianMacGyver The same problem exists within soviet KPM-2 blasting machine (which looks quite like a direct copy of CE1500V)(but with bakelite body, which makes it all better). I've had to spin the crank counterclokwise with 'vigorous yanks' for a good few minutes before it succesfully detached. Now I always place some lubricating oil on the crank before attaching it, which makes detaching it much, much easier.
I think you shouldn't worry about damaging it; if it's anything like KPM-2, it's so rugged, you'll damage your wrist well before you damage the device.
Huh, it's quite similiar on the inside, too.
@@CanadianMacGyver I had the same problem with another hand cranked device (insulation tester, with a very similar generator).
To unstuck the crank you have to open the device, mechanically block the rotor to avoid counter rotation and gently spin the crank in the opposite side.... this trick always work.
The generator in the Beethoven unit looks exactly like those used in old British telephone switchboards (up to 70's) to generate ringing current. I have a few of them and years ago made my own "exploder" for setting off fireworks. I'm pleased to see that I independently came up with a similar circuit, minus the voltage doubler.
The generator also got used to give my mates nasty electric shocks!
In the US the ringing voltage was about 100 volts, in modern times it's 90 volts for ringing, and 50 volts DC to carry the audio signal. I restore old phones and have a few crank type ringer boxes.
@@outerrealm I have my mom's oak cabinet crank phone that she bought at an antique store in the mid 1960's. We couldn't "dial out" but could answer and converse with it.
I have many precious memories of showing it off & letting my friends try it!
I still have a 1974 wind up megger that does this.
@@yuglesstubemy dad had one and let us play with it when we were about 8.
There's nothing more fun than shocking your friends as a kid😂
@Deludedcrackhead I would get unsuspecting kids to insert a finger into the detached spark plug connector on a lawnmower...and pull!
i dont see a script. I don't see him speaking from memorization. This man is so knowledgeable about the topics he discusses. hes absolutely brilliant.
I really appreciate how you are willing to disassemble items as much as needed in order to demonstrate the principles
Every once in a great while, the algorithm actually delivers. Grade A content, good sir, and I love the channel name :)
RUclips drops some pretty random stuff into my queue, but this one is brilliant. Cameras & photography, plus making loud noises & blowing stuff up. The perfect channel!
Excellent research, well-scripted and illustrated: also collectively a big plus. Once the more thoughtful mad lads tune in to it this channel should do well.
A very informative account of the history of blasting, you failed to mention the most common detonator used in mining today ie the nonel detonator, which initiates the explosive via a hollow plastic shock tube whose interior is coated with a film of explosive dust. While electric initiation with a Beethoven of AN60 gelignite was the norm when I started my mining career in the 70’s even then the push for safer explosives saw the replacement of nitroglycerin based explosives with much safer emulsion explosives and electric initiation with nonel systems. The key, or handle of the Beethoven, is removed by winding it backwards. The key was only allowed to be in the possession of the shotfirer who would only mount it to the firing box after the lead wires to the blast were un shorted and connected to firing box, once the shot had been fired the handle/ firing key was immediately removed from the box. The lead wires were then twisted back together to short them out, thus ensuring that a subsequent blast would not be tied into a live circuit.
One major side benefit that occurred replacement of nitroglycerin in explosives was NG headaches became a thing of the past
That is even old tech now. Around 2007 most mines switched to digitally armed timed and fired detonators. This is usually for production blasting, not development headings. Although by now, the intrinsic safety may have lead them to universal use in the mines.
The detonators are individually programmed with a small device, by a blasting plan, provided by the planner for the area.
This system is safe, as anyone thinking they can set them off, by connecting to an electrical source, will be greatly disappointed. The demonstration involves cutting off the small inductor (radio frequency) off the end, then putting the exposed wires on 220V, nothing happens.
The caps are timed with the programmer, after loading in the hole, the radio lead is run through all the end loups, in the cap leads, when the digital signal is sent through, the caps go off in their timed firing order.
Sorry for the ramble, best wishes from the far North.
@kevinrogan...........Even back in the 70's when I started my mining career we were using small units that had batteries that charged up a condenser. Much better than the big plunger dynamo. I remember int the 80's when we used down hole detonators that had a tube with a small amount of petn soaked fibers that had a low order detonation down the hole to the main charge. We were using water gel slurry at that time. Some time in the late 80's we then switched to Nonel. Never got to use the detonators with the chips in them but they were on the way in the middle of the 90's.
I love the smell of freshly blasted rock in the morning.
Ive only read about those...but as someone who suffers from bad headaches myself, they sounded quite horrific! There was a scene at the near end Bryce Courtenays book "The Power of One" where a huge miner has been driven temporarily nuts BY a NG headache...
....we had Beethoven exploders at Hillgrove, NSW, where I worked when I was young.....there was also a plunger type exploder in a box.....we also used to fire single charges of our cap lamps, a practice which was frowned upon by the management
I just discovered this channel and I cannot stop watching his videos
What a well written and comprehensive documentary about exploders and their origins, well done sir.
the nice thing about "waterproof", if you're going to use that kind of thing in a mine, is that it probably also effectively means "intrinsically safe", so you don't ignite the cloud of gas you happen to be standing in.
I never thought of that angle during the video but see the point. I have been in a few industrial sites which had such radios. My usual radio and cell phone were locked away at check in.
Big difference in that intrinsically safe has to survive an internal blast from having a deliberate fill of 50% hydrogen and oxygen in testing, waterproof does not need that. That is why they went to the metal casting over the wood, as that allowed it to be classed early on as EEX, though they fail modern methods. you see the difference in electric cable joints, where the waterproof one from Pratley can be made from plastic, but the EEX version is a 5kg casting with multiple screws and gaskets, for the same number and size of cables. And 50 times the price as well, but it is waterproof as well, especially when filled with the gel pack it comes with.
@@SeanBZA the Pratley one in my garden joining 3 armoured cables is still working fine. The bulldozer they glued to the cable was still suspended over the entrance to the factory 50 years after the demo, the staff have the option of walking underneath it on their way in or out. I always watched Mr Pratley walk under it.
I used to be an excavator driver and sometimes would have to assist blasters, bring them caps, dynamite or gravel used over the dynamite in the holes etc. And I would of course use the excavator to place the huge blasting mats made of old truck tires over the rock after loading the explosives to prevent pieces of rock from flying around. Sometimes sand was used to cover the rock if mats were not available.
The caps used nowadays have a calibrated ignition delay so the rows of holes can be set to explode one after another instead of simultaneously to assist the breaking of the rock and lessen vibration. They are used so the first rows of holes go first followed by the other rows in rapid succession so the rock material "opens like the pages of a book" and falls sideways instead of flying up.
The blasting machine commonly used was made by Dynamit Nobel company, very much like the second machine in this video but bigger and it was red and yellow. It had two buttons, a crank and a voltmeter and you would hold one button down while cranking until the voltmeter shoved the voltage was sufficient for the number of caps used (caps were wired in series so the more caps the greater voltage) and then, while holding the first button, press the second which would detonate the caps.
Man, simple Fascinating!
I was floored with your presentation! Thank You so much. I was mildly curious, and you just swept me up in your explanations.
Wow. Thanks!
😎👍
While serving in the US Army in Vietnam in the early 1970s, the top secret communications equipment we used (crypto) had plates of thermite sitting on top of the equipment racks to destroy said equipment if the base ever was in danger of being overrun by the enemy. The plates had small coils of detonation wire hanging from them, and we were trained to connect them to a field telephone and crank the ringer to set off the charge (90 volts pulsating DC). As an alternative, the charge could be set off with a simple single D-cell battery.
You are one of the best speakers on You Tube. Thank you.
Very well produced, well done.
Loved it, all we need are a few detonator caps to see these in operation.
Came here to learn about the internals of these blasting machines, but by the middle of the video I learned how to make various substances
An excellent explanation of not just the Exploders but also detonators and the basic explosives after black powder.
Ive been studying the RUclips algorithm as if it was a stock market and if my intuition is correct, then your channel is about to see a MASSIVE influx of viewers and subscribers as soon as the algorithm starts recommending your videos to people who watch channels like Forgotten Weapons. I’m predicting this channel to have ~150k to 450k subs by 2025 and several videos which will have gained almost, if not over 2M views. Specifically the videos about the flechettes (that one’s gonna get a LOT of views) and the exploders and fresnel lens. Your video titles are really good too!
Your videos are always so informative. Love this channel!
THIS is a beautiful documentary and history lesson on the most beloved device of all who grew up watching them on cartoons and movies.
I discovered this channel last weekend and can't stop watching 😅. So many interesting and well brought subjects!
The tactful sparseness of the soot on your face was good, we wouldn't want a controversy.
Who do you think I am? Justin Trudeau?
@@CanadianMacGyver Lol.
20:43 - that sprag clutch (i think you'd call it) is there to, as you mentioned, not turn the generator while pulling up on the handle, but also to allow the armature to freewheel (not stop dead) when the handle is shoved down and hits the bottom of it's stroke.
Not a criticism, just adding to the info. Awesome video, first I've seen of this channel. Subbed.
Your channel is gonna blow up, boss. 👍
Not only did I learn a lot about these devices but I also learned the name of a movie I've remembered a scene from since when I was a kid, but had no idea what movie it was from. Only downside is now I want one of these for my collection of odd and interesting machines. ;)
Maybe not just for him, but he sure makes the most entertaining use of them.
I heard Wile E Coyote made quite a bit of money suing Acme for their defective products.
😂😂
Great history rundown on the explosives and blasting caps. Really appreciated that...
I am so pleased that you use the proper term AD instead of the current garbage CE
Fulminate of Mercury was often used as part of the plot in the old Wild Wild West TV show. I played around with chemical compounds a bit when I was a kid and while I never made mercury fulminate I did make some nitrogen triodide 💥, which makes nitroglycerin and mercury fulminate look stable by comparison.
It was also used by Water White in his negocios with Tuco Salamaca😊
I got hold of some potassium permanganate or something similar when we was kids.
Wearing my dads motocross boots three of us tried to set it off by kicking a tile under which a significant quantity had been placed, as we stood on it.
I failed in repeated attempts, but it blasted my friend, who succeeded, quite some distance into the air, hurting his leg rather badly. Quite a loud bang too! 1988 was a very good year.
@@yuglesstubedamn, my HS adventures with thermite and a laser (long story) looks like child's play...
But I did make more than my fair share of black powder and pipe shotguns in middle school
@3dpyromaniac560 Haha. We also used to mix Alginate, a chlorine based pool chemical and brake fluid. I never had much success with it.
I guy I knew, older than me, was making alginate bombs in big coke bottles.
At some point, they shook up the mixture, placed the bottle on a rock and ran away.
After some time, the explosion not having occurred, they returned to the bottle and this guy looked into it from the top. It went up in his face.
He was scarred for life. Worse than Niki Lauda. He committed suicide some years later.
Made my own black powder in high school. Grinding the sulphur, charcoal and saltpeter with mortar and pestle. Totally ignorant that compressing black powder can make it go off. Somebody warned me, luckily. Still have 10 fingers.
When my dad and I used to blast stumps on the farm, what you could do legally in the 1960's, we just used a cheap, common lantern battery. Used to be you could buy dynamite and caps at the hardware store. As a teenage kid, my friends and I, we used to blow things up for fun and recreation. We used 8 sticks and blew a junk chicken coop to bits, that was funny
Excellently produced and presented! Best of luck!
Well presented. I enjoyed the history lesson.
Condensor (or condensator) is just another word for capacitor.
They both mean the same thing.
Fascinating and very informative. I now have a greater respect for Wile E Coyote.
Wages of Fear is a fantastic movie. Everyone should see it. And great video, bud. Really good info, clearly presented. Kudos.
Excellent video. You could replace the missing rubber gaskets with cork ones.
Wow, how interesting. I used the model rocket detonator's back in the 1970's & also fuse cord for rockets. I sub to a bunch of abandoned mine channels on you tube, and the info you provided in this video helps to tie it all together. New sub to your channel.
You got me with that opening. Very funny. Very informative. Now I'm subscribed.
Excellent video. Very interesting history and teardown. Thank you for including your sources. Subscribed.
One of the episodes of Little House on the Prairie was also centered around Michael and Isiah transporting nitroglycerin.
Eminently well explained... A very enjoyable presentation...
My coworkers would hate you if they knew that your channel is the source of all of the new random facts I incessantly throw at them
Ah, the weird things that come up in my suggesteds. Was just discussing a large demolition with a friend, and how it was set off. Subscribed!
I was not expecting such a detailed & well scripted video . 👍🏽
You had me at "I'll take these apart, to show you, how they work". I found a rare jewel. Some people get millions of hits for summing up a wikipedia article,...
Thx and have fun! Btw, the Nobel price seems to have started out as sort of Darwin award. "This is too dangerous, to handle safely." "Don't worry about it, we know what we are do BOOOOOM!!
An old friend of mine had a blasting machine he got in an auction lot. It had a Cannon connector on the side of it. I have yet to see another one like it.
Dad got his in the same way. lovely old thing, restored it wonderfully, nothing like old wood and brass. the Cannon connector is very strange. they are actually really old types of connectors, starting in the 1915's and industry standard in all sorts of applications by the 1930's. the strange thing is tho, I was under the impression that the standard operating procedure was to twitch the 2 wires together when your running your line, so it is impossible for static or stray energies to accidentally fire the charge. its not until the area is made safe that the shotfirer separates the wires and attaches the exploder.
considering the wires are only going to explode, I cant imagine attaching a connector each time would be practical. the only reason I can come up with is an early attempt at staged blasting, which is the modern way its done. rather than one big boom, a series of smaller ones are timed to really quite accurately remove dirt and have it fall where you want it. rather than having, say, 6 exploders and 6 guys (or a fancy piece of kit like we have now), one exploder, one guy plunging, another guy switching plugs, and another with a stopwatch counting them off.
My Aunt worked as a bomb truck operator for an open cut mine, and each year they produced a highlight reel DVD of all their detonations. they have to record them all anyway, just a cool idea to edit it all together, add a banging sound track and give them to the team. for those who dont know, modern surface open cut uses one of the cheapest and safest explosives, ANFO. basically diesel and fertiliser. both can be pretty bad on their own (ask Beirut), but only get very explosive when mixed. so the bomb truck mixes them in situ. has an auger to drill a hole, a hopper to automatically dispense the granulated oxidiser and a bowser to dispense the fuel. they can tailor the size of each blast, and place it accurate. just drive it around the blast site drilling holes and laying bombs. pretty cool.
Wow, what a great story. You covered so much more than I expected. Thank you.
I really like the efficiency of the design of the dynamo exploder, using the plunger handle as the carrying handle when not in use. It also seems like a design that apart from the rubber gaskets crumbling; it probably will be fully functional for more than a lifetime; and if something breaks it's probably easily repairable.
EXCELLENT presentation! Thank You.
It looks like your voltage is stepped up with the transformer and using a single wave rectifier changes it to a pulsating DC that is charging a capacitor.
Yeah, just found this channel and came to say something similar. Looking at the circuit diagram given there is no voltage multiplier, only the transformer provides step-up and the diode simply rectifies this into pulsed DC to charge the main capacitor. The second capacitor seems to be there only to support illumination of the neon indicator light once the handle stops turning.
Both fascinating and informative! Well done indeed!
Always wondered about these things. Thanks for the thorough tutorial.
Excellent video, as usual. Thank you.
That was awesome. Extremely interesting. I always figured I knew how that stuff worked; this confirmed it. Thanks
Good God those solder joints on that second unit!
Great video! Thanks so much, keep 'em coming :)
I was a British Army Sapper ( Royal Engineers) from 1977 to 83 and to undo the handle (Beethoven) we just turned it sharply backward, but you model may have some oxidation ( rust) on it, when we had to walk miles with it we called it many thing but not Beethoven.
Thank you for making this video. Very interesting and informative.
Fanastic video! Great work!
very nice presentation.
Fabulous clarity. Thank you!
I once misbelieved that these "Push for BOOM" things are like bicycle pumps which generate heat through rapid air compression to blast bombs.
Iirc some work like that. It might be that the shape of these electric ones here is the way it is because it's similar to preexisting pneumatic detonators. Otherwise I can't see why the dynamo one wouldn't be a pullcord device.
I might be wrong though, all I am basing this off of is a vague recollection of some gameshow-esque video.
Excellent presentation of very interesting history and information.
You’ve got a new subscriber! What a fascinating video and such great content! Thank you.
Lad I found this channel..cool look at things I didn't know I was interested in
I thoroughly enjoyed this content!
Very interesting. Thoroughly researched and presented well. Thanks. Jim Bell (Australia)
Very good video. Thank You Sir.
Above and beyond brother . Definitely subscribing
Some sense of humor the narrator had. Thus, I started getting silly. You showed me how these detonators work. And who invented these contraptions.
I have a blasting machine among my stuffs (Hungarian made, I guess), but I don't remember its type. It is a condenser-exploder and it has two functions. The first is the circuit-tester: the generator passes a limited current through a milliammeter and the blasting network. Thus the completeness of the blasting circuit can be checked. Then it can be switched to explosive mode with the turn of a rotary switch. A neon lamp shows the charge of the capacitor.
Bro the algo is giving me some fire low sub content. Good stuff
Intro is a win already...
amazing presentation!
Fantastic film. Thank you.
How have I not been recommended this channel previously - very good content and pacing. OP also even looks like he's from the past ;)
The "detonation wave" is inside the explosive. It's shock wave is the external blast.
In Wages of Fear main characters are actually transporting liquid nitroglycerin stored in jerrycans while Friedkin's remake replaces that stuff with old and very badly stored dynamite.
Many thanks for this enlightening and very interesting story, Mr MacGyver - as a great fan of the Looney Tunes cartoons - and especially Roadrunner! - I've often wondered exactly what was inside those boxes.
:)
So absolutely fascinating. Thanks
Another excellent presentation
Very enjoyable presentation and well researched content. You get one of these: 👍
In some desert cave Wile E. Coyote is intently watching this video with his left paw scratching his chin and his right paw sketching a new scheme on a pad.
Really good video. Thank you.
Enjoyed this video - well made - very informative - learned a lot - signed up and am looking for more from your channel.
this channel really is brilliant, so glad i found it
I think you will find that the AC generator of the Mk2 Condenser detonator is exactly the same type as the ring generator used by the British GPO (Telephone company) for ringing remote telephone bells in small private exchanges. I have one and it looks the same, it puts out AC and would be about the right voltage.
very good presented
I feel I am smarter after I watch these presentations
Very interesting and very well presented!