3/9/2022:
I was reading in The Knowledge about making gunpowder. When I was a teenager my friends and I dabbled in explosives. There was a factory store in a neighboring town called Scientific Glass, which sold all kinds of laboratory supplies, including chemicals. We would ride our bikes to the store and purchase chemicals and equipment for our experiments. One day while buying the gunpowder ingredients (saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal), the clerk mentioned that we should be careful not to mix these items together. Which was our plan entirely. We also like to mix potassium permanganate with glycerin in small enclosed bottles and watch the bottles explode. This was in the late 60s, early 70s. That was back in the day when chemistry sets could be dangerous. I cannot imagine that kids today can be as free as we were to make really bad mistakes.