[exhales]
Boy, that was amazing.
I got a little nervous there.
It was a little panic, little panic moment.
[synthetic voice] The Modern Rogue makes smoke bombs.
This is the first episode of the Modern Rogue that we're doing anything that has the word
"bomb" in it, so yes, I'm extra, extra nervous.
Well... you know, some people would say the Taco Bell episode contained some bombs.
Fair enough, fair enough.
Look, we're making smoke bombs, but what I couldn't believe is that the recipe was so
dead-simple.
I guess we're just doing traditional combustion, but with a mixture that is gonna be real smokey?
Yeah, well this one is the most common recipe for a smoke bomb:
granulated sugar, and potassium nitrate.
You can order it from various chemical distributors online and get it in its pure form.
You can also find it in some certain stump removers that have almost purely potassium nitrate.
Is there any kind of scary, like "you're going to get cancer for handling this" stuff in there?
Oh, absolutely. "Don't make eye contact. Don't ingest it."
>> Uh, let's just say nobody try this. >> Don't eat it.
It's not terribly common anymore, but most people know potassium nitrate as one of the
key ingredients in black powder.
Gun powder now uses cordite, but back in the day black powder, when you combine sulfur
and charcoal, you also use potassium nitrate, which is why we can still find it in a lot
of fireworks today.
All right, let's make it absolutely clear that nobody should try any of this at home.
Correct.
We are going based on recipes we have found in our research.
If we suffer harm as a result of this, that's our own dumb fault.
Now, let's show everyone exactly how to do it!
Well... how we're doing it.
All right, Jason.
What is the super complicated, secret formula to mix household sugar with potassium nitrate?
Three parts potassium nitrate, two parts sugar.
That was not nearly as complicated as I had hoped.
That's all it is!
Now there are different ratios that you can use, some people say five to three, some people
say three to two.
The more sugar you have as compared to the potassium nitrate, the slower it's going to burn.
>> Brian: So I'll just go 60 grams. >> Jason: Yep!
>> Brian: And then what, just pour the rest in there as well?
Go ahead and do about 40 grams, take us up to 100.
Now if it's not 100 percent right on, I assume we're still okay?
There's a lot of room for flexibility in this.
Great.
Grant Thompson did a mixture where he went 40-60 instead of 60-40, and it ended up crawling
out like one of those fourth of July snakes.
Pharaoh's Serpent I think they call that.
>> Brian: And we're doing what, low heat on this?
>> Jason: Yeah, now you should take it low heat and it's safer if you do a hot plate versus an
open flame, clearly.
Just go ahead and dump it into the frying pan, then we're going to stir it.
The potassium nitrate is acting as an oxidant here.
The sugar itself is what's flammable, that's our fuel.
So essentially, we're just burning sugar really fast all at once.
Exactly!
Thanks to the presence of oxygen in there.
Correct.
>> Brian: Okay, so we keep going.
Now at this point everything's getting caramelized, but we keep going until it totally liquefies?
>> Jason: Yes.
It really is important that you take it off when it looks like peanut butter, otherwise
it will turn chocolatey and eventually start to burn.
>> Brian: [gasp] It's happening! It's happening.
>> Jason: Is it?
>> Brian: Look at that, that's perfect.
>> Jason: Yeah, that's perfect. Here, I'm going to go ahead and turn it off.
See, even that right there is enough to make a decent smoke bomb.
You can make other variants of your own fuses that we're not going to get into right now.
>> Brian: What is this?
>> Jason: That's some yarn.
It actually solidifies really quickly, so you have to move very fast as soon as you
take it off the heat.
>> Brian: Still hot.
Let's clear off everything of value here.
>> Jason: Yes.
All right, I'm doing it!
>> Brian: Back up, back up, back up! >> Jason: Burn, burn, burn!
It's fine!
>> Oh my god, it's happening. >> See? Look at that!
It's going to explode.
Yes!
>> Oh wow. >> Holy s---!
>> Okay. >> Holy s---!
I didn't expect that!
Holy s---!
That was unexpected, that's a lot of...
I told you, I told you, I told you!
Holy cow that was f---ing amazing!
[manic laughing]
Oh my god!
You were not worried enough!
>> I was not worried enough. >> You were not worried enough.
Oh my god!
I didn't think it was going to turn into a mini-volcano!
It is a mini-volcano!
You were right on the safety thing.
And you thought I was being a big baby.
And you look, and it does, it looks like those little fourth of July snakes.
Yeah!
It's all just crumbled, decayed sugar.
That was so satisfying.
I'm so happy we did that.
Yeah, and look at all the smoke that that little amount made.
Apparently we're vanishing.
We're ghosts.
Here, let's do our disappearing act.
Where's my grappling hook?
-- CC BY BIZARRE MAGIC --