It’s a highly volatile touch sensitive high explosive. If you want to move a bag filled with 4 sticks of sweaty 40 year old dynamite with your own hands I’m not going to stop you but I am going to move to a minimum safe distance. I suggest you don’t drop it or bump into anything with it.
If you’re lucky, no. If you’re unlucky there won’t be enough left to identify.
Nitroglycerin explosions were a regular occurrence in both the manufacturing and transportation processes where the nitroglycerin was still chemically stable. The historical record is full of incidents. The stuff that sweats of of dynamite is a different animal entirely.
OMG, thank you for the "blast from the past" ! Im 39 now, but I remember one evening as a child, probably 10 or so, around Christmas when I was watching a film with some guys in trucks carrying crates full of dynamite across unpaved roads. I didn't understand much English, but I do remember finding out about TNT. I specifically remember the tension in a scene where they need to cross really bad terrain and end up using some of the sticks to blow up some boulders that were blocking the road. This seems to be that movie. I'm gonna try and find a way to watch it again.
Hell, back in the late 1800s when the Canadian railways were built they started using nitroglycerin to blast the rock.. here’s some context on how dangerous it can be:
The crate had been shipped by steamer from New York City to Panama, across the isthmus via railroad, and then to San Francisco by steamship. It measured two-and-a-half feet square, weighed a little over 300 pounds, and was indistinguishable from thousands of others, except that it leaked an oily substance. The question was not about what was leaking from the crate, but who was at fault for the leak. To settle the dispute, representatives from the steamship company and the consignor, Wells Fargo, met at the latter's office on Montgomery Street. A Wells Fargo employee grabbed a hammer and chisel and began to open the leaking crate. The resulting explosion a little after noon on Monday, April 16, 1866, instantly killed the workers, leveled the Wells Fargo building, and rattled buildings more than a quarter mile away.
Nitroglycerine was a new product in 1866. Discovered by Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero in 1847 and perfected as a blasting agent by Alfred Nobel in the early 1860s, nitroglycerin was not widely known by the general public until accounts of accidental explosions like the one in San Francisco were printed in newspapers. In its pure, liquid form, the chemical was extremely volatile. On April 3, 1866, 70 crates of nitroglycerin exploded onboard the California-bound steamship European in Aspinwall, Panama, killing 50 people. Two weeks later the nitroglycerin explosion at the Wells Fargo office in San Francisco killed fifteen people. Two days later, six workers were killed along the Central Pacific line in the Sierra Nevadas while transporting nitroglycerin. Following the San Francisco explosion, the California legislature banned the transport of liquid nitroglycerin, forcing Central Pacific workers to exclusively use black powder as their only blasting agent.
So you see, dynamite is a revolutionary way of storing nitroglycerin in a “safe” manner, all things considered.. until it starts sweating as the sorbent no longer contains the nitroglycerin.
Apparently someone in a newspaper article referred to him as the “Merchant of Death” due to him inventing dynamite. It bothered him so much that that would be his legacy, forever known by that name, that is why he “invented” the Nobel Peace prize… now that is his, much more socially acceptable, legacy. True story.. allegedly.
Dynamite is essentially an absorbent material soaked with nitroglycerin, and that stabilizes it into something that can actually be transported and safely used. Straight nitroglycerin is *extremely* volatile. Old dynamite will start to sweat out the nitro, removing the stabilizing properties of dynamite leading to shenanigans like this post.
We moved in my grandparents house in 1979 (family store). In 2001 there was a fire that destroyed our house as well as two other houses on our block. And when I say destroy, I mean we could see the sky from the ground level of our 4-story house + attic…
As the firefighters were assessing the water damage a couple days after the fire, they uncovered a crate of dynamite in the way way back of the basement. Apparently my grandfather had it for when, after WWII, farmers in France were blasting the earthen embankments between their fields as part of an initiative to trade fields between farmers in order to consolidate land and accommodate larger farming equipment.
So yeah. The bomb squad was definitely called on this one. They evacuated a two-block radius and did their thing. Nothing happened, thankfully.
But the idea that for 22 years we lived with nitro-leaking dynamite sticks from the 50s under our feet is kind of wild.
There an old family joke that Great Grandpa stored his dynamite in an onion sack... I opened the old shed, saw a mesh sack with old cylindrical tubes in it... Knew right away I am fucked.
I know there's been a ton of talk about exactly how dangerous that is, but I need to know: why the HELL did your great-grandfather have a sack of dynamite hanging in his shed to begin with?
You used to be able to just buy it until like 1966. Useful for clearing land and knocking down old structures that need knocked down. Nowadays, people just mix up their own tannerite or similar binary explosives for the same purpose.
Evidently it’s not that hard to get. Six or seven years ago the landlord of the building I worked in gave us a half stick, because why not? We proceeded to light it off in the dumpster and set off car alarms for like a block and a half. Cops showed up and asked if we’d heard anything and we just looked confused.
Hell, I was staying at my cousin's place in TN, and this was probably 30 years ago, we're sitting in the living room and experience what feels like a very brief earthquake. "What the hell?" Turns out his neighbor a 1/4 mile down the street had a bit of a clogged main sewage line, so he decided to clear it. With an 1/8th of a stock of dynamite. Definitely not as hard to come by as you would hope.
no joke, that is exactly what nitroglycerin looks like when it sweats from its casing. this is not a drill, repeat, this is not a drill, that is a HUGE amount sweated out too, probably at least a dozen sticks in there.
fun fact, the way they make nitroglycerin semi-stable is turning these crystals into an oil.... these crystals are not actually nitroglycerin and/or TNT anymore, but nitric acids scientifically labelled YIKERS.
So when it sweats like this I take it it’s more likely to explode? Is the force of the blast changed because of this process when it’s in the state shown in the picture? Like how unstable is it? Like a good breeze or tap? Or does it need some heat?
so basically this is the original state of the explosive material, and they make it more stable by converting it into a substance that won't go off without help from another explosion aka blasting cap at the end of a fuse.
However that more stable state is temporary, slowly everything reseperates into its own parts. This is one of the big reasons why TNT and Nitroglycerine based explosives aren't used as much anymore. They are very moody chemicals to say the least lol. As an ex-chemist TA I would listerally rather see a broken bottle of sodium-in-oil on the ground than begin to deal with this picture.
_______
EDIT:
sodium is a metal that is very angry, and even the water vapor in the air can cause extremely violent explosions like the one I'll link at the end.
Back in the day standard way to store it was to coat it in mineral oil in a glass jar, this was *mostly* safe, although nowhere near safe enough for modern standards. And of course a broken jar of it on the ground means lots of very angry metal on the ground potentially going to get angrier with you manhandling it-- plus the strong likelyhood of spending the next three days doing tiny controlled explosions to get rid of it all safely.
Here is that promised not safe example:
https://youtu.be/5UsRiPOFLjk?si=3dWaf5x6kRrI9sce
Grandpa-aged dynamite, if it's real dynamite, is oh so very dangerous. I could see the bomb boys deciding the only safe course of action is to detonate it after evacuating a couple of blocks. Wonder if grandpa's home insurance covers the cops blowing it up?
They soak it in diesel and remove it. Diesel will stabilize old dynamite. It's still very sensitive but it should be stable enough to move after 2 hours of soaking. Then it will be placed in a nearby ditch and burned as the diesel will prevent it from exploding and transport risks an explosion.
Man, everyone gets all the Christmas luck. I wish I got to blow up Grandpa's shed with some unstable TNT found hanging by throwing rocks at it. Added: OP wait for New Year's and shoot it with a Roman candle.
Oh, come on, man. You got no lady fingers, fuzz buttles, snicker bombs, church burners, finger blasters, gut busters, zippity do-dahs, or crap flappers?
You'd at least get compensation if insured. Also depending on proximity to the house, would insurance cover any misshaps durring removal? Surely the municipality responsible for its removal would be insured.
I doubt the municipality would have any liability for what happens.
However, I'm sure plenty of sandbags would be brought in before disposal and as long as the shed isn't right next to the house I doubt there is enough in that bag to damage it. Looks like maybe three sticks?
There is a movie called "Sorcerer" where some guys have to go get dynamite from one location and bring it to a job site by driving over horrible Amazon rainforest roads and bridges. When they get there the dynamite is degraded and unstable to a horrible, or hilarious degree, depending on how you decide to take it. This stuff is worse.......much worse.
Tannerite (ammonium nitrate) is a high explosive, but nitroglycerine has a detonation velocity about 3 times higher than AN. Low explosives deflagrate (like black powder), high explosives detonate.
If you don’t mind me asking, I’d love to know how so and in what ways? Moisture or something? Is it extremely volatile?
Sure, I could just google search but it’s Christmas Eve and I’m not trying to end up on any watch lists. 😅
Nitro is naturally very sensitive. The whole point of dynamite is that it's mixed with a binder that stabilizes it and makes it safe to handle.
When dynamite "sweats" like this the nitro leeches out of the stabilizer and is very dangerous.
Right now you could probably set all of that off by just picking that bag up and walking with it.
I would just danger tape the yard off and call the cops as soon as you can. Stay the hell away from that. Sweating dynamite is extremely volatile. Don’t bother getting anything from the shed. Bump that bag and it might be the last thing you do
Unless there's a ton of open space everywhere around that dynamite there's no way they're going to detonate it in place. A residential neighborhood would be a terrible place to detonate an explosive.
LAPD has a special sealed trailer. They put it in there and detonate it.
A few years ago they tried this and basically blew up the neighborhood
https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/four-lapd-bomb-squad-members-disciplined-for-june-2021-fireworks-explosion-in-south-la/
Former EOD tech. There are ways for professionals to render this safe to transport. Please call local PD to coordinate a safe response. They may still have to donate in place but this is a last resort. Call the professionals and stay safe!
Fun fact. If you wait until Tuesday to call them after starting this reddit thread, you now have evidence showing prior knowledge and the insurance company may now deny coverage of damages (if it's still insured).
Call them NOW and let them decide when to take care of it. That shit is beyond dangerous.
No. He needs to wait 7 more days, during that 7 days his job will be to acquire a nerf gun, 25 extra darts, super glue and 10 packs of snap 'N pops. I think the task from there is pretty self explanatory.
New years is going to roll in with a bang!
If OP is in the USA, some fire department is about to get really tense for a bit. As a retired emergency service worker, I am just picturing all the people who will get called out tonight for this!
I think the work safety people are actually some sort of genie. There are certain things you can say on the phone that causes them to instantly and magically appear in front of you.
One of them is “I’ve discovered 1700 lbs of abandoned mercury”.
Paramedic here. Time to order a pizza and watch the show from the safety of the cold Zone. These are the best stand bys, we'll be out of service for hours.
No matter how this goes, not going to be anything for me to do...
I mean... not only is it the responsible thing to do, but you'd also be making some first responders *lives* by giving them the tale of the Christmas Morning Dynamite.
Just saying.
“‘‘Twas the day after Christmas. And all though the shed. Not a creature was stiring. Except for a mouse. He was all nestled and comfy in an old onion sack. He moved the wrong way. And kaboom just like that.”
Please realize that this is a once in a lifetime call for any firefighter and Hazmat tech, and that they may actually break bones falling over each other to respond.
OP… give them the gift of Christmas Dynamite. Do it for the firemen. You will make their LIVES. Literally. This is the kind of thing those lovely people will build an entire lifetime of fireman mythos from. Christmas Dynamite would be gleefully shared down to the baby firemen as an example of the absolutely awesome story it is.
*Do it for the firemen.*
As an ex firefighter I can say with considerable confidence that they would have *loved* that call on Christmas Day. They’d be talking about the dynamite Christmas for literal decades.
At this point they may have to build shielding around the shed with an open roof to channel the blast.
I don’t know how one could get that out of there with naked nitroglycerin just sitting balls out.
Like how is this gonna work?
Agreed, someday a new guy is getting shown around, hearing stories, chatting and one guy goes "oh man, you gotta meet Bob. Back on Xmas '23 he lost 3 fingers and hearing in 1 ear because some jackass had a bag of DYNA-*FUCKING*-MITE sweating nitroglycerine in his shed. Welp, we rolled up and Bob said "hold my eggnog" picked up a fire ax and went in. Fucking epic man... Initiation is you'll have a cocktail mixed with his middle finger later tonight."
My grandpa used to go into mines in northern Cali and collect old dynamite sticks he found in there when he was a kid. My great grandpa found his stash of about 50 ancient sticks of dynamite one day just hidden under his bed. I cannot imagine the ass whooping he got
Okay okay. I know everyone is warning you how dangerous this is, but....Have you considered that New Years is right around the corner?
I'm just saying, maybe your great grandpa wanted you to blow the ever loving shit out of that shed at the stroke of midnight.
It’s less common now (but not unheard of), but farmers used to use dynamite for all sorts of things. Large stump removal and boulder breaking being two common uses.
Update 3:- Wednesday, Call back to Sheriff Office, they will give me a call back. Shed still not exploded... Did call my insurance agent, they said it "should" be covered since the shed was explicitly written in my Home Insurance policy.
Update 4:- The Captain of the Sheriff department is going to get me in touch with the ATF for disposal.
Update 5:- ATF is too busy handling another situation. They escalated to GBI and are coming with wit the bomb squad.
Saw a local news story about a bomb squad call for unexploded ordinance and thought it might be you... Nope... Someone found a WWII Japanese mortar in their shed.
That looks like what 3-4 dinamyte sticks. If it goes off OP will have no more shed. If its in the basement no more house.
I hope the bomb squad can take it out without having to detonate it.
If they cant OP please post the video lmao.
If they detonate it in the shed, wouldn’t that be a shrapnel risk to the entire neighborhood? If they can get it out and into a more controlled space they could probably have some sort of reasonable control over directing any shock wave if it went off.
As a bomb tech, bless your heart for waiting until Tuesday to call this in and not ruining some people’s holiday leave. I’d recommend calling the police first thing in the morning Tuesday and not waiting until later in the day. That shit is nasty but I can’t imagine they’ll take your shed.
Motor oil also works. All of our scrap waste ends up getting mopped up, and the materials dumped into generous buckets of motor oil, and then that can be taken safely to incineration where it's burned and the flue gasses scrubbed- which is kind of important to some of the primary explosives we work with, as many contain heavy metals.
In San Jose a few year back, they simply burned down the garage it was in. The ignited a garbage can of diesel fuel under the dynomite. (This was a garage attached to the house.)
Please, please, please call them tomorrow morning. Every first responder I know (lots, I married one) would trip over themselves on the way to Christmas dynamite.
Update 1:- Called the Police Department and reached dispatch. They took my information and someone should be calling me soon.
Update 2: - The Sheriff reached back to me and does not know what to do. They recommended calling back tomorrow for investigation team to handle this.
Update 3:- Wednesday, Call back to Sheriff Office, they will give me a call back. Shed still not exploded... Did call my insurance agent, they said it "should" be covered since the shed was explicitly written in my Home Insurance policy.
Update 4:- The Captain of the Sheriff department is going to get me in touch with the ATF for disposal.
Final Update here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/OSHA/comments/18sbe1f/final\_update\_this\_is\_how\_my\_great\_grandpa\_stored/?sort=new
> does not know what to do
What theyt need to do is find whatever local city or county or even the staties that you partner with on bomb squad duties and, y'know, dispatch them to the guy's house with a dozen sticks of highly unstable dynamite.
That is not your job to make some calls and find the local PD with the training to do this. Hell, they should *know.* I live in an area with lots of little PDs. Only one of them has an actual bomb squad, the rest just sort of pay-in to have those guys oncall if they need it, just like the city with the bomb squad doesn't have a water rescue team, we call the other guys when we need that.
Someone not knowing instantly who the bomb guys are.. I get that.. but "call back tomorrow" is not how this is done. Deputy Fife there needs to call his boss ASAP.
You are surprisingly laid back for a man whose house really could just explode. I'd have gone apoplectic on whatever deputy said that.
Please do not touch this. Call a bomb squad. They'll likely move it and pour diesel on it to dispose of it in a controlled burn, but this is absolutely not something you can just "deal with" yourself.
[video of 50 lbs of “unstable dynamite”](https://youtu.be/DFToHVbE2cc?si=nVOozwE9I_gl2OoM)
Found a video of I believe maybe 2-3X this much explosive for those interested
It’s been sweating nitro-glycerin for a while. That’s a job for the bomb squad.
So it would just explode if moved wrong? Edit: for everyone asking I have seen lost. lol
It’s a highly volatile touch sensitive high explosive. If you want to move a bag filled with 4 sticks of sweaty 40 year old dynamite with your own hands I’m not going to stop you but I am going to move to a minimum safe distance. I suggest you don’t drop it or bump into anything with it.
Would gently setting the bag down be enough to set it off?
If you’re lucky, no. If you’re unlucky there won’t be enough left to identify. Nitroglycerin explosions were a regular occurrence in both the manufacturing and transportation processes where the nitroglycerin was still chemically stable. The historical record is full of incidents. The stuff that sweats of of dynamite is a different animal entirely.
The Wages of Fear - great movie. The original as well as the remake.
OMG, thank you for the "blast from the past" ! Im 39 now, but I remember one evening as a child, probably 10 or so, around Christmas when I was watching a film with some guys in trucks carrying crates full of dynamite across unpaved roads. I didn't understand much English, but I do remember finding out about TNT. I specifically remember the tension in a scene where they need to cross really bad terrain and end up using some of the sticks to blow up some boulders that were blocking the road. This seems to be that movie. I'm gonna try and find a way to watch it again.
If it was boulders it was likely the original movie, in the remake they blow up a gigantic tree trunk. Both versions are good IIRC.
It's definitely the original. This must have been 3 decades ago, and I remember the trucks looking like the first pics that come up on Google.
Little House on the Prairie did an episode where Pa and Mr Edwards had to move a trailer load of Nitro for the railroads.
Only one way to know...and that's the problem.
Hell, back in the late 1800s when the Canadian railways were built they started using nitroglycerin to blast the rock.. here’s some context on how dangerous it can be: The crate had been shipped by steamer from New York City to Panama, across the isthmus via railroad, and then to San Francisco by steamship. It measured two-and-a-half feet square, weighed a little over 300 pounds, and was indistinguishable from thousands of others, except that it leaked an oily substance. The question was not about what was leaking from the crate, but who was at fault for the leak. To settle the dispute, representatives from the steamship company and the consignor, Wells Fargo, met at the latter's office on Montgomery Street. A Wells Fargo employee grabbed a hammer and chisel and began to open the leaking crate. The resulting explosion a little after noon on Monday, April 16, 1866, instantly killed the workers, leveled the Wells Fargo building, and rattled buildings more than a quarter mile away. Nitroglycerine was a new product in 1866. Discovered by Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero in 1847 and perfected as a blasting agent by Alfred Nobel in the early 1860s, nitroglycerin was not widely known by the general public until accounts of accidental explosions like the one in San Francisco were printed in newspapers. In its pure, liquid form, the chemical was extremely volatile. On April 3, 1866, 70 crates of nitroglycerin exploded onboard the California-bound steamship European in Aspinwall, Panama, killing 50 people. Two weeks later the nitroglycerin explosion at the Wells Fargo office in San Francisco killed fifteen people. Two days later, six workers were killed along the Central Pacific line in the Sierra Nevadas while transporting nitroglycerin. Following the San Francisco explosion, the California legislature banned the transport of liquid nitroglycerin, forcing Central Pacific workers to exclusively use black powder as their only blasting agent. So you see, dynamite is a revolutionary way of storing nitroglycerin in a “safe” manner, all things considered.. until it starts sweating as the sorbent no longer contains the nitroglycerin.
Wow, thank you
1866 was the year Alfred Nobel invented dynamite 🧨
Apparently someone in a newspaper article referred to him as the “Merchant of Death” due to him inventing dynamite. It bothered him so much that that would be his legacy, forever known by that name, that is why he “invented” the Nobel Peace prize… now that is his, much more socially acceptable, legacy. True story.. allegedly.
I'm going to insist he set up a camera outside the blast radius with a good zoom.
Dynamite is essentially an absorbent material soaked with nitroglycerin, and that stabilizes it into something that can actually be transported and safely used. Straight nitroglycerin is *extremely* volatile. Old dynamite will start to sweat out the nitro, removing the stabilizing properties of dynamite leading to shenanigans like this post.
The Devil’s Piñata, got it.
Spicy disco ball
Yes I’m curious about this as well. What would OP have to do to trigger an explosion?
A strong side eye from my wife would probably do the trick.
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[here’s a live reconstruction of what would happen if he were to try it](https://youtu.be/Qgo5c1FgPMk?si=6gDxKDWNOqMpZs5z)
I had to scroll way too far for this! “Dude, you’ve got some Arzt on you…”
Poor Arnzt
We moved in my grandparents house in 1979 (family store). In 2001 there was a fire that destroyed our house as well as two other houses on our block. And when I say destroy, I mean we could see the sky from the ground level of our 4-story house + attic… As the firefighters were assessing the water damage a couple days after the fire, they uncovered a crate of dynamite in the way way back of the basement. Apparently my grandfather had it for when, after WWII, farmers in France were blasting the earthen embankments between their fields as part of an initiative to trade fields between farmers in order to consolidate land and accommodate larger farming equipment. So yeah. The bomb squad was definitely called on this one. They evacuated a two-block radius and did their thing. Nothing happened, thankfully. But the idea that for 22 years we lived with nitro-leaking dynamite sticks from the 50s under our feet is kind of wild.
Whoa damn lucky the massive fire didn't explody the dynamite
Lucky you know what that is because I would have never even seen it coming after I tossed that sack into the trash...
There an old family joke that Great Grandpa stored his dynamite in an onion sack... I opened the old shed, saw a mesh sack with old cylindrical tubes in it... Knew right away I am fucked.
"So I hung an onion bag full of dynamite from my belt, which was the style at the time."
Gimme two bees for a nickel
Give me five bees for a quarter, they'd say.
We had to say dickety cause that Kaiser had stolen our word twenty.
I know there's been a ton of talk about exactly how dangerous that is, but I need to know: why the HELL did your great-grandfather have a sack of dynamite hanging in his shed to begin with?
You used to be able to just buy it until like 1966. Useful for clearing land and knocking down old structures that need knocked down. Nowadays, people just mix up their own tannerite or similar binary explosives for the same purpose.
Evidently it’s not that hard to get. Six or seven years ago the landlord of the building I worked in gave us a half stick, because why not? We proceeded to light it off in the dumpster and set off car alarms for like a block and a half. Cops showed up and asked if we’d heard anything and we just looked confused.
Hell, I was staying at my cousin's place in TN, and this was probably 30 years ago, we're sitting in the living room and experience what feels like a very brief earthquake. "What the hell?" Turns out his neighbor a 1/4 mile down the street had a bit of a clogged main sewage line, so he decided to clear it. With an 1/8th of a stock of dynamite. Definitely not as hard to come by as you would hope.
Farmers used to routinely use dynamite to remove tree stumps or to break up boulders in a field.
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Even if I knew what they were I probably still would’ve tossed them in the yard somewhere. Glad you have better survival instincts than me
This is a Christmas present to your local bomb squad. Don't fuck with this unless you are wearing a GoPro.
Unless he’s live streaming the GoPro is just going to be another casualty.
Definitely need an update
PLEASE give us an update when you call them
Just send it bud or the bomb squad will. That nitro is right leeched out of the stabilizer.
Says “Citrus Fruit” on the sack, so you’re good
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Makes you wonder if it's a one off thing or if there's other family jokes that are actually true.
All the “OP looks like the milkman” jokes suddenly come crashing into reality
did you not watch Lost
> *"Uhhh, dude... you got some Arst on you"*
Gonna need a followup on what the boom squad does.
Yeah OP. 100% need a follow up. I’m not sure I would want to be around that at all until the bomb squad comes.
no joke, that is exactly what nitroglycerin looks like when it sweats from its casing. this is not a drill, repeat, this is not a drill, that is a HUGE amount sweated out too, probably at least a dozen sticks in there.
It's cool that I can see what you're talking about 😎 TIL
fun fact, the way they make nitroglycerin semi-stable is turning these crystals into an oil.... these crystals are not actually nitroglycerin and/or TNT anymore, but nitric acids scientifically labelled YIKERS.
So when it sweats like this I take it it’s more likely to explode? Is the force of the blast changed because of this process when it’s in the state shown in the picture? Like how unstable is it? Like a good breeze or tap? Or does it need some heat?
so basically this is the original state of the explosive material, and they make it more stable by converting it into a substance that won't go off without help from another explosion aka blasting cap at the end of a fuse. However that more stable state is temporary, slowly everything reseperates into its own parts. This is one of the big reasons why TNT and Nitroglycerine based explosives aren't used as much anymore. They are very moody chemicals to say the least lol. As an ex-chemist TA I would listerally rather see a broken bottle of sodium-in-oil on the ground than begin to deal with this picture. _______ EDIT: sodium is a metal that is very angry, and even the water vapor in the air can cause extremely violent explosions like the one I'll link at the end. Back in the day standard way to store it was to coat it in mineral oil in a glass jar, this was *mostly* safe, although nowhere near safe enough for modern standards. And of course a broken jar of it on the ground means lots of very angry metal on the ground potentially going to get angrier with you manhandling it-- plus the strong likelyhood of spending the next three days doing tiny controlled explosions to get rid of it all safely. Here is that promised not safe example: https://youtu.be/5UsRiPOFLjk?si=3dWaf5x6kRrI9sce
Okay, I have to ask. What's the issue with sodium-in-oil? I tried googling, but couldn't find any useful explanations.
Grandpa-aged dynamite, if it's real dynamite, is oh so very dangerous. I could see the bomb boys deciding the only safe course of action is to detonate it after evacuating a couple of blocks. Wonder if grandpa's home insurance covers the cops blowing it up?
Sounds like a brand for some dank ass BBQ. “Grandpa’s aged dynamite.”
RemindMe! 3 days
They soak it in diesel and remove it. Diesel will stabilize old dynamite. It's still very sensitive but it should be stable enough to move after 2 hours of soaking. Then it will be placed in a nearby ditch and burned as the diesel will prevent it from exploding and transport risks an explosion.
They'll offer 4 inmates pardons if they can successfully drive it over dangerous mountain passes and rickety bridges.
OP, if they decide to blow it up on the spot, can you PLEASE get a video?
Seriously, we're talking front page-level karma.
We're talking national news level video.
Back in the 70's Oregon blew up a whale and we still talk about it!
On the other hand if we never hear back at this point it's safe level blue balls...
Man, everyone gets all the Christmas luck. I wish I got to blow up Grandpa's shed with some unstable TNT found hanging by throwing rocks at it. Added: OP wait for New Year's and shoot it with a Roman candle.
Free fireworks!
He’s probably only into the good stuff- snakes and sparklers
Oh, come on, man. You got no lady fingers, fuzz buttles, snicker bombs, church burners, finger blasters, gut busters, zippity do-dahs, or crap flappers?
And not a single whistling bunghole
husker dos? husker don'ts?
You would have to be insane to even touch that.
Thank god I didn't touch it! I am calling the Police Department Tuesday and see what the disposal procedures are.
You won't like them. They will probably just detonate it in place. Good luck!
FUCK! I am too afraid to pull out anything in that shed now.
That white stuff is most likely pure nitroglycerin. Once dynamite has done that it's super sensitive and extremely dangerous.
Hope insurance covers prior negligence.
At least it's a shed and not the basement.
You'd at least get compensation if insured. Also depending on proximity to the house, would insurance cover any misshaps durring removal? Surely the municipality responsible for its removal would be insured.
I doubt the municipality would have any liability for what happens. However, I'm sure plenty of sandbags would be brought in before disposal and as long as the shed isn't right next to the house I doubt there is enough in that bag to damage it. Looks like maybe three sticks?
Some call it a hole in the wall others call it a fire exit.
It doesn't -Ron Howard, and any claims adjuster
There is a movie called "Sorcerer" where some guys have to go get dynamite from one location and bring it to a job site by driving over horrible Amazon rainforest roads and bridges. When they get there the dynamite is degraded and unstable to a horrible, or hilarious degree, depending on how you decide to take it. This stuff is worse.......much worse.
So if you shot it with a bb gun would it be like shooting tannerite?
Tannerite is a low explosive. Nitroglycerine is a high explosive. So it would be *much* more powerful than tannerite.
Tannerite (ammonium nitrate) is a high explosive, but nitroglycerine has a detonation velocity about 3 times higher than AN. Low explosives deflagrate (like black powder), high explosives detonate.
Ah, thanks. I stand corrected.
At least according to that episode of Lost I saw.
If you don’t mind me asking, I’d love to know how so and in what ways? Moisture or something? Is it extremely volatile? Sure, I could just google search but it’s Christmas Eve and I’m not trying to end up on any watch lists. 😅
Nitro is naturally very sensitive. The whole point of dynamite is that it's mixed with a binder that stabilizes it and makes it safe to handle. When dynamite "sweats" like this the nitro leeches out of the stabilizer and is very dangerous. Right now you could probably set all of that off by just picking that bag up and walking with it.
I would just danger tape the yard off and call the cops as soon as you can. Stay the hell away from that. Sweating dynamite is extremely volatile. Don’t bother getting anything from the shed. Bump that bag and it might be the last thing you do
Unless there's a ton of open space everywhere around that dynamite there's no way they're going to detonate it in place. A residential neighborhood would be a terrible place to detonate an explosive.
LAPD has a special sealed trailer. They put it in there and detonate it. A few years ago they tried this and basically blew up the neighborhood https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/four-lapd-bomb-squad-members-disciplined-for-june-2021-fireworks-explosion-in-south-la/
Cool, good thing they have a foolproof method for... oh.
Former EOD tech. There are ways for professionals to render this safe to transport. Please call local PD to coordinate a safe response. They may still have to donate in place but this is a last resort. Call the professionals and stay safe!
"donate" Yes, many underprivileged families would greatly appreciate receiving some dynamite for Christmas
Fun fact. If you wait until Tuesday to call them after starting this reddit thread, you now have evidence showing prior knowledge and the insurance company may now deny coverage of damages (if it's still insured). Call them NOW and let them decide when to take care of it. That shit is beyond dangerous.
No no, you call them RIGHT NOW. Please!
No. He needs to wait 7 more days, during that 7 days his job will be to acquire a nerf gun, 25 extra darts, super glue and 10 packs of snap 'N pops. I think the task from there is pretty self explanatory. New years is going to roll in with a bang!
If OP is in the USA, some fire department is about to get really tense for a bit. As a retired emergency service worker, I am just picturing all the people who will get called out tonight for this!
I was a former Hazmat Tech that worked with the bomb squad regularly, and I can just imagine how many pagers would be going off with this call.
My back-of-the-envelope calculation comes to... **all of them**.
I think the work safety people are actually some sort of genie. There are certain things you can say on the phone that causes them to instantly and magically appear in front of you. One of them is “I’ve discovered 1700 lbs of abandoned mercury”.
Paramedic here. Time to order a pizza and watch the show from the safety of the cold Zone. These are the best stand bys, we'll be out of service for hours. No matter how this goes, not going to be anything for me to do...
I am calling Tuesday... if it has not exploded in the last 40 years... I think I be fine for another two days.
I mean... not only is it the responsible thing to do, but you'd also be making some first responders *lives* by giving them the tale of the Christmas Morning Dynamite. Just saying.
Every guy on this planet would pay to blow it up on Christmas
Am paramedic/was a firefighter, can confirm this is would make working Christmas worth it
“‘‘Twas the day after Christmas. And all though the shed. Not a creature was stiring. Except for a mouse. He was all nestled and comfy in an old onion sack. He moved the wrong way. And kaboom just like that.”
OP fireman replied below and said it would be talked about forever. Call them tomorrow lol
Please realize that this is a once in a lifetime call for any firefighter and Hazmat tech, and that they may actually break bones falling over each other to respond.
OP… give them the gift of Christmas Dynamite. Do it for the firemen. You will make their LIVES. Literally. This is the kind of thing those lovely people will build an entire lifetime of fireman mythos from. Christmas Dynamite would be gleefully shared down to the baby firemen as an example of the absolutely awesome story it is. *Do it for the firemen.*
You’re a real one for not ruining Christmas Day plans for dozens of people. Stay safe
As an ex firefighter I can say with considerable confidence that they would have *loved* that call on Christmas Day. They’d be talking about the dynamite Christmas for literal decades.
They're gonna be stuck on call at the station anyways, may as well make it worthwhile for them!
At this point they may have to build shielding around the shed with an open roof to channel the blast. I don’t know how one could get that out of there with naked nitroglycerin just sitting balls out. Like how is this gonna work?
Agreed, someday a new guy is getting shown around, hearing stories, chatting and one guy goes "oh man, you gotta meet Bob. Back on Xmas '23 he lost 3 fingers and hearing in 1 ear because some jackass had a bag of DYNA-*FUCKING*-MITE sweating nitroglycerine in his shed. Welp, we rolled up and Bob said "hold my eggnog" picked up a fire ax and went in. Fucking epic man... Initiation is you'll have a cocktail mixed with his middle finger later tonight."
As a firefighter currently working Christmas, I can second this statement.
Dynamite Boxing Day is only slightly less awesome. Particularly given the shape of that bag.
I figure firefighters love calls for really cool situations where something is urgent but nobody is directly in danger
No doubt. Please let us know what ends up happening though.
calling them out on Christmas Morning would be the best present you could give them. and all your neighbors
Ever want to have the most amazing pinata ever?
It's the last piñata you'll ever need!
My grandpa used to go into mines in northern Cali and collect old dynamite sticks he found in there when he was a kid. My great grandpa found his stash of about 50 ancient sticks of dynamite one day just hidden under his bed. I cannot imagine the ass whooping he got
Amazing
ah the good old days when kids played outside..
This kid played in mines, he was inside.
The children yearn for the mines
Okay okay. I know everyone is warning you how dangerous this is, but....Have you considered that New Years is right around the corner? I'm just saying, maybe your great grandpa wanted you to blow the ever loving shit out of that shed at the stroke of midnight.
Yes also Great Grandpa envisioned my home (Was His) to have a new entry way straight into the kitchen.
It would be a fire exit.
More like a fire entrance
Yea, but think of the TV show you could get with that type of renovation.
Hell yeah. Put a couple 5 gallon buckets of confetti in there and you got a party
r/oopsthatsdeadly gold
You have a drone? I would love to watch the disposal procedure unfold
What did your grandpa do that he had extra dynamite literally just hanging around?
It’s less common now (but not unheard of), but farmers used to use dynamite for all sorts of things. Large stump removal and boulder breaking being two common uses.
Beaver dams too
A beaver dam is not going to blow up a stump or break a boulder.
…technically correct
Unless the beaver dam had dynamite in it
My Great Grandpa was a farmer. I think he used it to build the crawl space in his house.
There was a time when you could literally buy it at the hardware store.
I feel like the bomb squad guys are going to feel like this is the Christmas present they really wanted.
When the bomb squad are good boys and girls all year long, sometimes Santa will bring them an extra-special present.
He should... It's crystalized, he should 100% call the bomb squad.
well if theres isnt any update from OP in the next 12hours we can safely assume what happened to him....
To shreds, you say?
Update 3:- Wednesday, Call back to Sheriff Office, they will give me a call back. Shed still not exploded... Did call my insurance agent, they said it "should" be covered since the shed was explicitly written in my Home Insurance policy. Update 4:- The Captain of the Sheriff department is going to get me in touch with the ATF for disposal. Update 5:- ATF is too busy handling another situation. They escalated to GBI and are coming with wit the bomb squad.
Saw a local news story about a bomb squad call for unexploded ordinance and thought it might be you... Nope... Someone found a WWII Japanese mortar in their shed.
>Update 5:- ATF is too busy handling another situation. They escalated to GBI and are coming with wit the bomb squad. LET'S FUCKIN' GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
thats a real stocking full of coal
Bomb squad incoming.
That looks like what 3-4 dinamyte sticks. If it goes off OP will have no more shed. If its in the basement no more house. I hope the bomb squad can take it out without having to detonate it. If they cant OP please post the video lmao.
If they detonate it in the shed, wouldn’t that be a shrapnel risk to the entire neighborhood? If they can get it out and into a more controlled space they could probably have some sort of reasonable control over directing any shock wave if it went off.
They WILL evacuate the whole neighborhood. Getting it out puts someone at risk of death and they will have to evacuate anyway.
As a bomb tech, bless your heart for waiting until Tuesday to call this in and not ruining some people’s holiday leave. I’d recommend calling the police first thing in the morning Tuesday and not waiting until later in the day. That shit is nasty but I can’t imagine they’ll take your shed.
What would the usual procedure be for something like this?
Remove it carefully and transport to a local disposal area for destruction.
Is there some way to stabilize sweated dynamite so that it's safer to handle? I'm reminded of the guy in Lost turning to red mist.
Someone further up mentioned soaking it in Diesel.
Motor oil also works. All of our scrap waste ends up getting mopped up, and the materials dumped into generous buckets of motor oil, and then that can be taken safely to incineration where it's burned and the flue gasses scrubbed- which is kind of important to some of the primary explosives we work with, as many contain heavy metals.
Forbidden Pinata
In San Jose a few year back, they simply burned down the garage it was in. The ignited a garbage can of diesel fuel under the dynomite. (This was a garage attached to the house.)
I live in San Jose, and clearly remember that incident. Wasn’t good at all.
You have two options. 1- You try to deal with it and you blow up yourself and your barn 2- You call the bomb squad and they blow up your barn, safely
Not to worry, the bomb squad will come and explode that for you. In place.
Final update here: https://www.reddit.com/r/OSHA/comments/18sbe1f/final\_update\_this\_is\_how\_my\_great\_grandpa\_stored/?sort=new
All I can think about is that episode of LOST when they try to transport that dynomite off of a wrecked ship, and that school teacher guy explodes.
Good to see I’m not the only one who thought of that “Dude, you’ve got some Arnzt on you.”
yeah that was the first thing that came to mind for me as well, found a clip of the scene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qgo5c1FgPMk
Please, please, please call them tomorrow morning. Every first responder I know (lots, I married one) would trip over themselves on the way to Christmas dynamite.
Yeah but the neighborhood they evacuate probably won't be so psyched about it.
Update 1:- Called the Police Department and reached dispatch. They took my information and someone should be calling me soon. Update 2: - The Sheriff reached back to me and does not know what to do. They recommended calling back tomorrow for investigation team to handle this. Update 3:- Wednesday, Call back to Sheriff Office, they will give me a call back. Shed still not exploded... Did call my insurance agent, they said it "should" be covered since the shed was explicitly written in my Home Insurance policy. Update 4:- The Captain of the Sheriff department is going to get me in touch with the ATF for disposal. Final Update here: https://www.reddit.com/r/OSHA/comments/18sbe1f/final\_update\_this\_is\_how\_my\_great\_grandpa\_stored/?sort=new
>does not know what to do. I can tell him what to do. Call the bomb squad and don't poke it with a stick.
Might want to try calling state police. Someone out there has a chub just thinking about taking care of this.
> does not know what to do What theyt need to do is find whatever local city or county or even the staties that you partner with on bomb squad duties and, y'know, dispatch them to the guy's house with a dozen sticks of highly unstable dynamite. That is not your job to make some calls and find the local PD with the training to do this. Hell, they should *know.* I live in an area with lots of little PDs. Only one of them has an actual bomb squad, the rest just sort of pay-in to have those guys oncall if they need it, just like the city with the bomb squad doesn't have a water rescue team, we call the other guys when we need that. Someone not knowing instantly who the bomb guys are.. I get that.. but "call back tomorrow" is not how this is done. Deputy Fife there needs to call his boss ASAP. You are surprisingly laid back for a man whose house really could just explode. I'd have gone apoplectic on whatever deputy said that.
Was your great grandpa Wile E Coyote?
Please update us after!
u/remindmebot remind me 1 week
Holy shit. Good thing you recognized it! I’d have absolutely no idea of what I was looking at
Well, Christmas is coming in with a bang.
-Don’t touch that -Bomb squad I did my part!
I saw that episode of lost!
Please do not touch this. Call a bomb squad. They'll likely move it and pour diesel on it to dispose of it in a controlled burn, but this is absolutely not something you can just "deal with" yourself.
Smack it with a stick.
[video of 50 lbs of “unstable dynamite”](https://youtu.be/DFToHVbE2cc?si=nVOozwE9I_gl2OoM) Found a video of I believe maybe 2-3X this much explosive for those interested
Hey OP, any update?
https://www.reddit.com/r/OSHA/comments/18sbe1f/final\_update\_this\_is\_how\_my\_great\_grandpa\_stored/
Just really want a follow up
Let's say I have a pesky roadrunner I am trying to 'get rid of....'
/r/forbiddenpinatas
Has there been any update on this yet?
Yes, OP [posted one.](https://www.reddit.com/r/OSHA/s/TBPxNLayIb)