Heard on CNN there is some speculation that the bombs were made from gunpowder. Partly because they smelled like gunpowder after they went off.

If that's the case, we can expect where that will go. If only there was no gunpowder available, then this would have been prevented.

Sad that this is so predictable.

You can make gunpowder in large amounts, at home. Low-density wood charcoal like alder or ash works best. Potassium nitrate is readily available, as is sulfur. You can even use sugar as a substitute ingredient, it just raises the flash point. They mix the ingredients in static-dissipating ball mills (like rock tumblers) and prill the wet material to make grains through screens.

Many fireworks hobbyists and professionals make their own powder.

BAN CHARCOAL!!!

well they are already trying to ban sugar so......

Have reloaders been able to find gunpowder before this incident?? A few weeks ago, I bought the last can of 2230 from my local gun store. It hadn't been available online or in other "big box" stores.

They won't have to prove it was made from gunpowder though, just a "hint" that it may have, or even could have is enough. Better ban it just in case.

That sounds like the recipe for black powder, which is an explosive. Modern gun powder is not an explosive. It burns at a very high rate of speed to create the gas/pressure needed to propel a bullet.

The tv people were speculating that because of the large orange flash when the bomb went off, that perhaps the explosive was more liquid based. I'm ignorant on such matters, though.

Yes, that is the recipe for black powder ("gun powder"), not smokeless powder that is used for reloading modern firearms.

The smoke was white. Not gun powder.

They had a FBI Specialist say this shortly after the blast

My first thought from the pictures that the smoke didn't look as "white" as black powder smoke, but I've only set of small amounts. Are there any reports that it smelled of sulfur?

Unless they had pounds upon pounds of smokeless powder, gun powder alone could not create that blast. Smokeless was designed to create gas pressure in an in closed space. In open air, it kind of pops, not booms

now AP is reporting that the bombs were in 6-liter pressure cookers.

I just read that the bombs were literally packed into pressure cookers... smokeless powder will explode if confined. I still think that it was something more than/added to just black powder, but a smokeless powder "explosion" would fit with a violent explosion but with limited distance (like the window behind not breaking completely). Like a ruptured case in a rifle. Just my speculation ONLY.

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Have reloaders been able to find gunpowder before this incident??

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nope, powder has been scarce for several months now.

There would have to be a bathtub of smokeless in addition to other chemicals in order to get the size of explosion shown in the videos.

Might be some good mythbusters episodes that dig into the explosive properties of smokeless.

Smokeless powder is not an explosive. It does not explode - it burns at a controlled and predictable rate.

Like anything else pressure related, you increase the pressure in a contained vessel and eventually something gives, usually by catastrophic failure of the containment vessel.

Explosives, by nature, are relatively unstable without the addition of binders or stabilizers - black powder, nitroglycerine, ammonium nitrate (treated), etc. are all explosives and either need to be handled very carefully, or chemically mixed with binders to stabilize the explosive element (such as TNT).

I heard on the news coverage right after the blasts that they were interviewing a resident that was very close to the blasts. Don't remember where he was from or had been living but had experience with terrorist bombings before and he said he recognized the smell as being cordite.

He was stating that it was cordite as if he was 100% sure and was not thinking it might have been but was certain it was cordite used.

I've watched several videos of C4 explosions and my guess is that it was C4. White smoke is a characteristic of a C4 explosion.

White-ish smoke is a characteristic of a bunch of different explosives - ammonium nitrate being one of them.

Cordite, C4, Octol and any other military restricted explosive is going to be extremely difficult to come by.

I'm sure Chemist can come on here and explain just how easy it is with a little background in chemsitry, or a little research, to take every day household items and combine them in such a way to make some relatively powerful explosives.

Could you combine a binary that slowly releases gas as the catalyst dissolves?

If they know the volume of the containment vessel and the energy of the blast, it seems the next logical step is to find the fuel...

Cornmeal, maybe? Dust bomb in a pressure tank?

Time to start ordering background checks on pressure cooker purchases I guess.

[This message has been edited by Stive (edited 4/16/2013 4:52p).]

You can make gunpowder in the garage with easily available ingredients.

I'm almost shocked they haven't tried to tell us the bombs were packed into 30 round "ammunition clips".

The police and national guard on the scene are armed with "high powered rifles" not assault weapons that us civilians own.