Tap-a-cap

[PhillipM]

We used to take a tin can and punch a hole in the bottom, and put a firecracker inside with the fuze sticking through the hole. We'd slip the can on the end of a fence post, tape another firecracker to the outside, connect the fuzes and touch a match. That can would go waaaay up and BANG!

We also would drill a hole in a pipe cap, and use that for the breech of a cannon made out of pipe and shoot marbles into a wooden fence.

In Egypt, we could get "torpedoes" -- brown paper wrapped around gravel and some explosives. We'd go up on the roof of a 3-story house and throw them down at the apron of the underground garage -- the whole house would shake!

Railroads use an explosive device called a torpedo to warn of a stopped train or other hazard on the track. They go off when a train runs over them. Same thing?

[Vern Humphrey]

Railroads use an explosive device called a torpedo to warn of a stopped train or other hazard on the track. They go off when a train runs over them. Same thing?

Yep. They're made (if memory serves) of potassium chlorate, sulfur and gravel. The ones we bought were wrapped in brown paper and tied with fine wire.