- Gurstelle, William.
Whoosh Boom Splat.
New York: Three Rivers Press, 2007.
ISBN 0-307-33948-3.
-
So you've read The
Dangerous Book for Boys and now you're
wondering, “Where's the dangerous book for
adults?”. Well, here you go.
Subtitled “The Garage Warrior's Guide to Building
Projectile Shooters”,
in just 160 pages with abundant illustrations, the
author shows how with inexpensive materials,
handyman tools, and only the most modest of tinkering
skills, you can build devices including a potato
cannon which can shoot a spud more than 200 metres
powered by hairspray, a no-moving-parts pulse
jet built from a mason jar and pipe fittings, a steam cannon,
a “snap shooter” made from an ordinary spring-type
wooden clothespin which can launch small objects across
a room (or, should that not be deemed dangerous enough,
flaming matches [outside, please!]), and more. The
detailed instructions for building the devices and
safety tips for operating them are accompanied by
historical anecdotes and background on the science
behind the gadgets. Ever-versatile PVC pipe is used
in many of the projects, and no welding or metalworking
skills (beyond drilling holes) are required.
If you find these projects still lacking that certain
frisson, you might want
to check out the author's
Adventures
from the Technology Underground (February 2006),
which you can think
of as The Absurdly Dangerous Book for
Darwin Award
Candidates, albeit without the detailed
construction plans of the present volume. Enough
scribbling—time to get back to work on that
rail gun.
December 2007 