Barney & Clyde by Gene Weingarten; Dan Weingarten & David Clark for December 13, 2018

Old hardware stores used to carry carbide for making acetylene

https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2011/11/chris-dumm/obscure-object-of-desire-austin-magic-pistol/

Amazon shows MANY sources of calcium carbide for cannons and lamps.

I think Eb is just yanking Cynthia’s wood!

I remember the old cap guns I had as a kid and loading the rolls of red caps – that smell of a burnt cap made it almost feel like the real thing but the bang wasn’t nearly as loud as we had hoped, or so we thought.

I remember getting a Junior Chemistry set one year. Boy did I have fun with that! Made all kinds of stuff that would be banned today (or at least considered extremely bad for kids). It was fun! Sigh.

I remember my brothers carbide cannon.

The ones I had that shot pingpong balls were red rubber, and you’d squeeze the gun to pop the ball out. Fairly underwhelming.

But I did love my Mattel ™ Shootin’ Shell® set; suede holster rig & sheath with a plastic Bowie knife & copy of a Colt SAA, plus a Winchester 1874. The guns had brass casings with springs in them, and plastic bullets that you clicked onto them. The hammer popped the bullet loose & it flew out the barrel. Even had special green circular self-stick caps for the shells. Even cooler than my grandson’s Nerf guns! And way cooler than my big brother’s Mattel™ Fanner Fifty®, which used the 50-shot roll of caps that Steve mentions above (thus requiring much less reloading), but had no projectile, and had a plastic gunbelt.

I haven’t thought of this in forever, but I had a toy handgun that shot white beans with a spring.

Sounds like grandpa lifted some stuff from the supply tent before he shipped back home.

Do they want to reduce Barney’s riches with destruction?

Fire and acetylene gas? Lucky it wasn’t all ignited. Ah the “good old days” when no one cared the danger, just do it.

Enough of that boring dreche! Let’s talk about the match head bombs we used to make! That was real fun!