Talk:Chlorine bomb

Article Creation

Noticed a few pages linking to this device, tried to address the issue without giving too much information on how it is made, although I think that's more because I have nfi how it's made and cbf'd looking it up. I wanted to reflect the fact that the media and police treat these items as though they're WMD's yet most kids, myself included, going through their 'yay blow shit up' phase (this is mostly a teenage male thing, unfortunately, call it a chromosonal defect! :P) have made, or witnessed the making and detonating of many of these things. GAOTU 02:03, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

Terrible article, in general

I think someone should make mention of the fact that these are being used currently by the terrorists in Iraq in a very lethal way, using other explosives to spread out the effective range of the chlorine. Which I might point out is entirely feasable here, this article really seems to give people the impression that making such an explosive device is reasonable, without mentioning large scale lethal use of chlorine bombs against people, which seems more encyclopedic to me. I am not saying recreational use of such should not be included, but I came here looking for uses of actual chlorine bombs in Iraq and elsewhere. also, the phrase "chlorine bombs are reflected by the authorities and media as legitamite IED's, although are commonly made by teenagers and children sometimes with unfortunate results, although most of these accidents are due to carelessness and ignorance alone." I can't begin to note the problems with that, first its a POV problem, it gives the impression that the authorities concern over people making explosives is unreasonable, that its perfectly normal to make chemical explosives at a young age, rather than buying firecrackers or what have you. Secondly are technical problems, the phrase "reflected by the authorities and media as legitamite IED's" as though their not actually IED's, which of course means improvised explosive device. I don't know how much more accurate a term you could get for a chorine bomb. then it says "commonly made by teenagers and children, sometimes with unfortunate results. Although most of these accidents are due to carelessness and ignorance alone" the word alone gives the distinct impression that if you show care that its not inherently dangerous but only if your careless or ignorant. Besides that (sigh) there's also the fact that whoever wrote this gave no citations at all, including his assertion that such devices are "commonly made by teenagers and children". Frankly I think this article should be deleted, it has no references of any kind and gives directions on how to make a bomb. Getting rid of it for that alone would be cencorship would be wrong, but if its not going to give citations it should scrapped or seriously improved, with references to other, non-recreational use. As it is I am just going to remove the section. Colin 8 04:42, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

I rewrote the section that offended you, and mentioned Iraq. Please feel free to make more improvements. Your claim needs a reference just as much as the one about children does; maybe you could start there. Poor quality is not a reason to delete an article. This is a notable topic. --Alynna 05:09, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

The only thing I can say is that this is an article just as any other and, yes as horrific as it use may be this article in hands of the right people it is a learning tool. Just like a gun does not shoot itself ,the knowledge of bomb making does not kill anyone, please understand to you all that trying to limit information,or do more gun control laws does not stop the bad guys from getting guns anyway. Good luck to you all.

Split

I've just clarified that there are two quite different things referred to as "chlorine bombs". (In the future this page might turn into a disambiguation page). Snori 22:41, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

Ah, that does clarify things. I agree on the split. Any ideas on what the pages should be named? --Alynna 03:09, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

I think moving the weapon information from this article to 2007 chlorine bombings in Iraq and leaving a link at the top of this page is a better solution. These bombs have only been used in Iraq, so a merge is inevitable.--Chaser - T 19:11, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Sounds good to me. Is there any weapon information here that is not already at 2007 chlorine bombings in Iraq? --Alynna 03:38, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

I moved what I thought was relevant. Feel free to modify.--Chaser - T 16:33, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Looks good. --Alynna 18:37, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Merger?

There are a large number of similar devices, using various methods of generating gas, such as chlorine, CO₂, and hydrogen gas. All are primarily done as experiments or pranks, though at least one assault is documented (see http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/acidbomb.asp). I think maybe a merger is in order, with all individual instances redirecting to a page titled "gas pressure bomb" or the like, as that describes the common mode of operation. I'm cross-posting this to Talk:dry ice bomb as well. scot 21:55, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

PS--here's a souce (an AZ law) that lumps these together under the name "gas-pressure bomb": http://www.gunlaws.com/agog2021.htm scot 22:01, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

What is the "chlorine", and what is the reaction?

Elemental chlorine is a gas, but the Youtube videos clearly feature a solid form of "chlorine." Is this trichlor? What is it? If someone knows a brand name of "chlorine" that can be used to make the bombs, please tell me and I will look up the actual ingredients.

What chemical reaction occurs? Is the alcohol catalyzing the decomposition of the trichlor and the release of Cl2 gas? What other substances (aside from alcohol) could have been used? Depending on what the chemical called "chlorine" is and what the reaction is, this kind of bomb could be heinously toxic to the environment, the bomb makers, and anyone downwind of the explosion or walking by ground zero afterwards.18.248.7.51 (talk) 00:04, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

Sodium Hypochlorate. It's a redox reaction that frees Cl2. They are probably using hydrogen peroxide as an oxidizer. The products from the reaction are rather nasty, so yes, they should definitely be avoided.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.99.164.202 (talk) 04:53, 25 October 2009 (UTC)

Cleaned up last paragraph

"Decapitalized" the compound/element names in the last paragraph, along with some other minor fixes. Joeylawn (talk) 03:56, 22 April 2015 (UTC)