85_SS_302_Coupe
10-30-2008, 08:15 PM
This is kinda long but please look at the pics and read this and let me know if you know anything about this thing...
I've had this ever since i was about 10 years old. I had a friend growing up who's dad was a war nut, and he had literally 100s of these things in a grocery bag in a bottom drawer of their gun cabinet. I was told at the time that they were used to derail enemy train shipments. I believe it's a block of sulpher (based off the smell and the fact that they'll burn under water) wrapped in a waxy paper with lead/tin straps out to the sides that would wrap around a train track, and when the train runs over it, they explode.
I don't know how true that is but i know they definitely were used on train tracks and i know they will explode when trains run over them....when we were kids we used to get a bunch of them and break them open and break off little pieces and hit them with a hammer on concrete and they'd pop...and i mean pop louder than any fire cracker you've ever heard. You couldn't pop a piece anywhere near the size of a pea because not only would it blow your ear drums but it would send rock dust shrapnel in your face. It also takes a tremendous force to pop them...you can't just stomp your foot on them to make them go, and i don't think a car could do it...it takes solid impact to make them blow.
One time when i was about 15 me and some guys got curious and rigged up a way to crush a whole brick. One of my friends' dad was a truck driver, and they had some semi wheels (without the center hubs) behind their house. Anyone who's ever tried to pick one of these up knows how seriously heavy they are. We stacked 3 of them up and put a brick on the ground inside them where the sulpher block laid, then put a big ladder over the tires and ran a long rope with another brick tied to it so we could drop it from a safe distance. It took a few drops but when this thing went off, all 3 wheels went a good 15 feet into the air and we all hit the deck. It scared the hell out of us and i don't think any of us ever played with them again. This one has been in a keepsake box ever since.
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee275/EVIL85SSP/PA300014.jpg
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee275/EVIL85SSP/PA300019.jpg
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee275/EVIL85SSP/PA300021.jpg
Anyways, besides all that, does anyone know what their true purpose was, or has anyone even seen them before? If it really is a war relic i'd like to know...unfortunately i only have this one left after so many years. I've searched for "Standard Railway Fuses Corp." and come up with nothing.
I've had this ever since i was about 10 years old. I had a friend growing up who's dad was a war nut, and he had literally 100s of these things in a grocery bag in a bottom drawer of their gun cabinet. I was told at the time that they were used to derail enemy train shipments. I believe it's a block of sulpher (based off the smell and the fact that they'll burn under water) wrapped in a waxy paper with lead/tin straps out to the sides that would wrap around a train track, and when the train runs over it, they explode.
I don't know how true that is but i know they definitely were used on train tracks and i know they will explode when trains run over them....when we were kids we used to get a bunch of them and break them open and break off little pieces and hit them with a hammer on concrete and they'd pop...and i mean pop louder than any fire cracker you've ever heard. You couldn't pop a piece anywhere near the size of a pea because not only would it blow your ear drums but it would send rock dust shrapnel in your face. It also takes a tremendous force to pop them...you can't just stomp your foot on them to make them go, and i don't think a car could do it...it takes solid impact to make them blow.
One time when i was about 15 me and some guys got curious and rigged up a way to crush a whole brick. One of my friends' dad was a truck driver, and they had some semi wheels (without the center hubs) behind their house. Anyone who's ever tried to pick one of these up knows how seriously heavy they are. We stacked 3 of them up and put a brick on the ground inside them where the sulpher block laid, then put a big ladder over the tires and ran a long rope with another brick tied to it so we could drop it from a safe distance. It took a few drops but when this thing went off, all 3 wheels went a good 15 feet into the air and we all hit the deck. It scared the hell out of us and i don't think any of us ever played with them again. This one has been in a keepsake box ever since.
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee275/EVIL85SSP/PA300014.jpg
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee275/EVIL85SSP/PA300019.jpg
http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee275/EVIL85SSP/PA300021.jpg
Anyways, besides all that, does anyone know what their true purpose was, or has anyone even seen them before? If it really is a war relic i'd like to know...unfortunately i only have this one left after so many years. I've searched for "Standard Railway Fuses Corp." and come up with nothing.