A blog about Ruby, Rails and other Tech. Mostly.

1st Mar 2004, 3:50pm

Matchstick rockets

Hey, *I* invented these!

It's true. I used to spend hours in my bedroom wrapping matches in silver foil, and lighting them from underneath. I discovered that the best place for doing this was on my windowsill, which was tiled and therefore fireproof. I didn't have a little holder though, I used stand the matches up against the metal window frame.

I would light the wrong end of the match with another match, and as it burnt to the top the head inside the foil would heat up, and eventually ignite in a small explosion sending the match flying.

It was a great and entertaining pastime when I was young teenager. And there was only a small risk of causing the carpet to catch fire.

Interestingly, I did once light a fire in my (metal) waste paper basket. This was also entertaining, but unfortunately the carpet underneath melted, which was an eventuality I hadn't considered. I hid the melted part under the waste basket, and didn't tell my parents. And they didn't notice for quite a few days that there was a big hole in the carpet...