Madcap scientist builds an awesome homemade thermite cannon that spits fire
Colin Furze, a real-life mad scientist has a liking for building things that often blow up and that too intentionally.
UK YouTuber Colin regularly makes bizarre devices for his YouTube channel. Colin’s whose hobbies include pyrotechnics and cannons has designed an impossibly dangerous-looking thermite cannon. He has just posted a video of YouTube, which is a homemade pneumatic launcher that pushes lit canisters of thermite. Thermite is a horrid chemical composition made of metal power and oxide that burns as hot as 2500 Celsius, which when ignite you do not want to be anywhere near it.
Colin’s latest invention is a huge cannon that is ignited by thermite, a chemical composition made of metal power and oxide that burns as hot as 4,532 degrees Fahrenheit.
According to United Nuclear, ignited thermite has the potential to produce a temperature of over 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit while producing a healthy dose of molten metal. Additionally, lighting thermite requires a heat source of roughly 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit to incite a reaction and won’t light via an ordinary safety fuse — hence, Furze opts for the strip of magnesium (as seen in the video).
While the first video deals mainly with the production of thermite and the manufacturing of shells, Furze’s second video details the exact way in which he constructs the actual cannon. Lastly, his third and final published video is where Colin puts the finished thermite launcher to the ultimate test.
While “dangerous” is an evident term to describe Furze’s crafts project, the device he built is rather cleverly designed.
The weapon uses a series of switches that independently load, light, and launch the thermite, which guarantees that the payload doesn’t burn prematurely and make Furze an amputee, or maybe worse.
It’s also definitely well-crafted, with a clean steam punk look rather than the burnt-out “scrap aesthetic” you so often see in DIY cannon smiting.
Watch him demonstrate his thermite cannon below:
