From: hmg@alkymi.unit.no (Hilde Margrethe Grande)

This is an attempt to answer a question that seems to be popping up ever
so often on this group, namely how to make smoke.
I have been reading this group for a while, and collected earlier answers to
that question. I have only collected reciepes that has not been pointed out as
wrong or dangerous by others on the net. Still, I have not had time to test
any of these reciepes by myself, so I can not vouch for their safety. My
suggestion to those of you that want to use these reciepes is to wait for a
while and see if anyone more knowledgeable out there has any corrections, 
and then try small batches in the beginning. I would be very grateful if those
of you who try the reciepes could email me comments about the results.

Be careful!
Hilde (hmg@alkymi.unit.no)


How to make smoke and smokebombs:


Stage use:

For "Stage" use, you almost certainly want to stay far away from pyrotechnic
devices, in favor of "smoke machines" (which can be rented), dry-ice and hot
water (fog creator).


Smokebombs:

****************************

There is a very easy to make, simple, safe compound that you can make to
produce a dense light gray smoke.  Only two chemicals are required to make
this compound, Potassium Nitrate (Salt Peter) and everyday refined sugar.
For the optimal yield slowly heatand mix together 5 parts Potassium Nitrate
with 3 parts sugar (parts are by mass) until a yellow liquid forms
(continually stir the mixture through the entire heating process) pour the
liquid into whatever container you are going to be using (aluminum foil
works well) and place a blasting fuse in athe liquid as it dries.

I have had alot of success with this compound, and it is very easy and quick
to make.  the only major problem that you can have while making it is if you
heat it too much and it ignites in your lab (kitchen).

hope this helps,
brett

************************

A way to make a really potent smoke maker is to GENTLY melt a
60%/40% KNO3/Sugar mixture, and pour the resulting fluid into a suitable
container (soup can works well).  Insert a fuse, and let the fluid s
solidify.  Watch out for the column of flame that shoots out!!!

I'd be interested to know what kinds of gasses are being produced.  I
imagine CO, CO2, H2O, and maybe NO, NO2, but I'm not skilled enought 
to know for sure.  :-)

I can't imagine anything that burns being much safer than this...
however, you should ALWAYS be careful with anything that burns (god
knows enough people are killed by matches, cooking oil, smoking, etc).

I don't know how suitable this will be for rockets.  It tends to
produce a lot of crap (incompletely burned sugar, melted KNO3, etc)
which might clog up a nozzle.  Perhaps if the proportions were just
right you might have some luck.

As you might suspect, it burns much faster when ignited in a liquid
state.  Eight or ten years ago I was melting about two pounds of this
stuff in my fathers woodworking shop in a tin can over an open
flame...  The setup was on a workbench at about chest level and I was
stirring the stuff quickly to keep it from over-heating on the bottom.
Luckily, back then my reflexes (if not my judgement) were good. I saw
a tiny flash of light on the edge of the can, I jumped back, and the
can erupted like a volcano!  An orange and black column of smoke and
flame shot out of the can and burning particles of the mixture sprayed
all over the shop.  My parents were away for the afternoon, and I
spent the next two or three hours cleaning up.  The eruption charred
the rafters and some wood stored overhead (I planed the rafters and
hid the wood).  The burning particles left burned spots on everything 
they landed on.  I guess I cleaned up well enough, since they never
said anything.  And luckily the neighbors didn't call the fire
department when clouds of white smoke were billowing out of the
windows of the shop.

Actually, with a little common sense this stuff is extremely safe... just
make it in reasonable sized batches (say, one cup or less at a time), use it
un-melted, or melt it outside on a hot plate, don't lean over the
top of the container as you are heating it, wear eye/face
protection... etc.  The ingredients are non-toxic (but strongly
diuretic I believe).

Greg Hamlin
hamlin@ral.rpi.edu


************************************************

A completely other way to make smoke is the "Berger mixture", which smokes
by emitting large amounts of Zinc chloride to the air. If the air has
significant moisture, as f.i. on rainy days, it works best.

The mix is made from Zinc dust, wood meal or a comparable filling stuff,
and a chlorine donator, f.i. tetrachlormethan or copper chloride.
Tetra, easily available some years ago, may be hard to get today because
it's now known to be very toxic.

The classic smoke/fog device was made by mixing zinc dust with some
amount of wood meal and adding tetra until it is wet. Then, fill the stuff
into a pot/tube of cardboard or similar, and ignite it with a pyrotechnical
setup (fuse and powder, or sparkler). It's sometimes hard to ignite, but
works great. Once upon a time we set the whole floor of our school into
dense fog with only a mortar of Berger.

**********************************************


My standard smoke (which is actually an U.S. military smoke) consists of:

       45 parts zinc oxide (available as a pigment)
       45 parts hexachloroethane
       10 parts aluminium (any grade)

This mixture is quite difficult to ignite. I recommend using a sparkler
as a fuse.

Hexachloroethane (which is not exactly an essential vitamin, and which
may be hard to find) can be replaced with 72 parts PVC. This, however,
makes the mixture yet harder to ignite. 

The zinc oxide can be replaced with titanium dioxide (2 parts ZnO 
replaced by 1 part TiO2). The titanium dioxide is also available as 
a pigment (and very likely originates from Finland! - so use it ;-). 

In theory, this smoke could be colored yellowish brown by adding 
iron oxide (any of them) and preferably some other oxidizer 
(KClO4 should do the job just fine) to burn the carbon from the smoke. 
I once tried this, but the results were not very promising. With
enough imagination and good will, the smoke _was_ yellowish, though.

These smokes are slightly irritating and not suitable for indoor use.


Karri

*******************************************

As far as smokebombs are concerned, I have used this recipie several times, and
have gotten mixed results.  It originally came from PMJB2.
By weights:
        75% Ammonium Nitrate
        10% Sulfur
        15% Charcoal 
The AN must be a fairly fine powder, which is tough to get because it is 
hydroscopic.  Everything is mixed together and then packed into a used rocket
engine.  PMJB2 suggested that you put a few paper match heads at the nozzle of
the rocket, insert a fuse, and then load the mixture a little at a time.  
After each layer, pack it down with the eraser on a pencil.  Doing it like this
helps to give you a more uniform density, and gives you better control on the 
density.  After it is packed in, seal the open end up with a few layers of 
newspaper, then a melted wax plug.  The reaction is sped up a bit if you 
add around 5% black powder to the mixture.  (I didn't want to suggest using
match heads in a rocket engine...but that is the way the book says to do it. 
You only need about 5 heads at most.  You can use other containers other than
rocket engines, but I have a few emptys at my disposal.  NO C02 cannisters 
PLEASE!!!! :-)  )  I have done a little bit of experimenting with melting the
AN/Sulfur mixture then adding the charcoal/Black powder to it.  I melted the
mixture into the bottom of a pop (I'm from Pittsburgh, soda for the rest of 
"yunz" :-) ) can, added the charcoal, let it cool to solid disk and then ground
it finely. Then I would add the black powder, right before loading it.  I 

haven't tried making it into one pellet yet. So far the main problem I've had
was ignition.  Oh, and a C or D sized engine can burn up to 10 minutes, 
depending on your composition.  I used the AN that you can get out of 
Instant Ice Packs, very finely ground charcoal briquets, and sulfur from
a chem kit.

Also the 5% black powder is substituted in for about 5% of the 
AN.  


Schrec.

PS.  I'll mention it again, this stuff is by weight.


**************************************

Ok,  seeing all the posts about making smoke bombs, I thought I would
throw in my version of the smoke bomb.

If you are familiar with the group of Japanese executioners from 400 years
ago, formerly called Ninja, then you are aware of some of their diversion
tactics.  One such tactic was to make a throwing motion toward the ground
and a flash of fire and a bellow of smoke would rise from the ground and
when the smoke cleared the Ninja would have vanished.

This will help explain what was used in this simple little device.  This
secret is revealed for your reading enjoyment and had been tested by
myself under controlled conditions.

NINJA SECRET

Items Needed:
	1 - 3/4" chrome steel ball
	1 - box of toy roll caps
	1 - envelope of SHEET flash paper
	1 - bottle of white or silver flash powder

Take the ball and scratch up its surface with sandpaper.  This gives the
ball a better gripping surface when wrapping the caps.  Next, unroll a
roll of caps all around the ball making several turns so the ball is
covered completely.  Roll the caps tightly around the ball with the
cap-heads facing outward.  Use about 1/2 of a roll and tape the end with a
small piece of scotch tape.  The caps are a small form of contact
explosive and this is what causes the ignition on sudden impact.  Next,
roll the ball up in the center of a 4" X 4" sheet of flash paper forming a
tube.  Tape the center with a small piece of tape.  Now take this tube
assembly and add a 1/2 teaspoonful of white flash powder into each end of
the tube.  Do each end separately, folding and taping ends securely or
simply twisting the ends closed.  The user must be very careful when
working with the finished product as it could explode in his/her hands if
they press too hard.  Use extreme care after the powder is added.

The principle of this entire effect is very simple.  The weight of the
steel ball causes the bottom cap to explode when dropped and, in turn, the
explosion causes the flash paper to ignite thus lighting the flash powder.
 This chain reaction happens very quickly and it should be noted that
certain factors are very important in order to obtain a finished product
that is 100% surefire.
These factors are:
		1)  Size and weight of the ball
		2)  Too much flash powder can cause a cushion effect
		3)  Too many caps can also cause a cushion effect
		4)  Not enough caps can cause a misfire

The finished ball should be tested outdoors until you perfect the item. 
Do this on a hard flat surface.  The ball should be thrown in a downward
motion landing about 4 feet away from you.

Any other questions, feel free to leave a post here, or E-Mail me at:

witninja@crl.com

Lates.....
--------------------
From: sheye@daimi.aau.dk (Simeon Falk Sheye)
Date: 7 Jan 94 16:28:21 GMT

A couple of weeks ago, there was one or two articles on the 
subject of smokebombs.

The idea was to use sugar, and some oxidizing agent to produce alot of
smoke (mostly vaporized water!).

I've done this myself a couple of years ago (using sodiumchlorate (NaClO3)
and sugar) with a fairly good result. 
But what worked *alot* better was to add Ammoniumchloride (NH4Cl) to
the previous compound. The idea is that NH4Cl sublimates due to the high
temperature, and when cooled in air, re-crystalizes into very fine 
particles, like a dust cloud.
In EC, NH4Cl is classified as slihgtly toxic, but still it's used in
candy here in Denmark (Tastes good actually), so i don't think the smoke 
is very harmfull.

To make a smokebomb yourself, you need to get a heatsource (gunpowder
works fine, but i believe almost anything from thermite to dynamite can
do. Then mix as much NH4Cl into the heat source as possible, so that 
it still is able to burn. (for 100g NaClO3/sugar i used 40g NH4Cl).

A version i've seen in school is to pour knoc. HCl i one bowl, and konc. 
NH4OH in another bowl nearby. The fumes combine in air to solid NH4Cl.
This isn't very impressive thoug (boiling the two solutions works *alot*
better), but the unreacted fumes of HCl and NH4OH are rather unpleasant.

Cautions: NaClO3 is a powerful oxidzer, but unfortunatly, shock-sesitive
          when mixed with any sort of fuel (including sugar).
          Therefore i recommend *not* to use it if you are unfammiliar 
          with it.

          NH4Cl is listed as slightly toxic, and although i myself haven't
          sufferd any harm from inhaling the smoke, i cannot guarantee 
          that you won't do so. (Check with your chemistry teacher or 
          someone else who know about the substance).


As to the Ari Jarmala's article on Hydrogen bombs, what i user to do when i  
was a kid; was to fill a 10-25l plastic container (those used for gasoline,
 oil etc. just can't remeber the english name) with 2 parts H2 and one part O2.
I got the hydrogen from aluminium flakes and HCl, bubbeling i trough water to 
reduce acid fumes. (This gets *hot*). And the oxygen was supplied from 30% 
H2O2 and dirt (MnO2 from the inside of a battery actually, but ordinary dirt 
works fine too). This also gets *hot*.
A 10L container can be filled in 5 to 10 minutes.

To fill the container, i first filled it with water, then turned it upside 
down in a big tank also full of water. then i lead Hydrogen/Oxygen in trough
a rubber pipe. This approach makes easy to get the correct mix of H2 and O2, if
you fill it with one at a time.




                |------------|
Surface inside  |           -----  H2 + O2
 |  container __|_________*__|            |== <- H2 / O2 |
 |              |        *   |            ||             |
 | Water|       |          * |            ||             |
 |      |       |         *  |            ||             |
 |______|_______|        * * |____________||_____________|
 |      |       |         * *|            ||             |
 |              |--------__ *|            ||             |
 |              |_______|  |*|            ||             |
 |                          *==============|             |
 ---------------------------------------------------------

To set the thing of, i used to drill a hole in the screwcap, where i fitted
a set of wires connecting at thin iron-wire (from those steelsponges that are
 used to clean pots and pans in the kitchen) like this:


          ----
          |    -----
          |   /    | 
    ======#===     | Thin iron
         /|   \    |
        / |    -----
       /  ----
    Hole tihgtend with chewing gum ore whatever is at hand.


The bomb could be set of through 20 m of ordinary 220V wire (110V in the US?),
 with a 9V battery.
The report is compareble to a pipebomb containing ~100g NaClO3/Sugar (a small 
handgrenade!), but is alot safer, as the explosion is located a large spot,
thus reducing the effect at a single point.
This sort of thing isn't capabel of tearing of your fingers/hands/arms/head, as
the above mentioned pipebomb is, and it doesn't produce shrapnel flying at 
high speeds, but i can still cause severe burns, and it is sensibel to static
electricity.
Preferably do these things out in the open, as it is hard to control whereto 
the excess hydrogen flow. Just so that you don't blow up the bathroom..... 

No need to mention: The container is *not* reusable.
 

          ----- Simeon Falk Sheye -----

------------------
From: carl@kbss.bt.co.uk (Carl Reid)
Date: 13 Jan 94 08:52:34 GMT

Heres my alternative to the Potassium Nitrate/Sugar smoke mix, that is safe to mix
indoors:

Buy some parafin wax from a local hobby shop. Get a glass heatproof bowl and stand it
in a pan of boiling water. Add enough wax until you have approx 2cm of molten wax in
the bottom of the glass bowl. Now add Sugar and Potassium Nitrate (or Sodium Nitrate)
in the ratio 50:50 by mass, a table spoonful at a time. Stir well. Keep adding this mix
until all the wax is absorbed, keep stiriing and then leave for a few mins. You should
notice a thin layer of molten wax on top of the mix (if not add more mix). Now remove
pan from heat source and either a) pour mix into containers (toilet roll tubes) and add
fuse OR b) pour onto a warm tray and spread into a thin layer. Leave to cool. 
You should now have a hard crystalline substance that can be ground OR re melted into
whatever shape you want. You can use Sodium Nitrate as the wax over comes its
hydroscopic tendancies.

This mix burns very slowly and very hot, and produces 2 - 3 X more smoke than the 
normal Potass/Sugar mix!!!

Have fun!!

               _________________________________________
              |The views expressed here are not those of|
              |British Telecommunications PLC. They are |
              |just mine, and I'm just plain insane.... |
              |_________________________________________|
