Chemistry

  1. Home
  2. Education
  3. Chemistry
photo of Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D.

Anne Marie's Chemistry Blog

By Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D., About.com Guide to Chemistry since 2001

Make a Smoke Bomb

Wednesday January 18, 2006
It's illegal for me to tell you how to make a "bomb" bomb, but a smoke bomb isn't really a bomb at all. It's just inefficient combustion that produces a lot of smoke. Smoke bombs don't blow up and aren't intended for destructive purposes. There are some really dangerous instructions for making smoke bombs available on the internet, mainly involving materials that produce toxic smoke or burn uncontrollably. However, it's possible to make your own smoke bomb easily, cheaply, and safely. I've written instructions, complete with alternate recipes and tips for making colored smoke. BleachSoft has a really nice video that explains the basics of making a smoke bomb.

Yes, I must make smoke!
(Did I mention this variation burns with a purple flame? Very cool.)

Comments

July 29, 2006 at 7:33 am
(1) pyro8 says:

ok one thing wrong about that video DO NOT wait till it is chocolaty when it looks like peanut butter is when you take it off.

ok and the measurements are a rario of 30:20 saltpeter : sugar of 30g saltpeter and 20g sugar.

anyway is is best to use them in the day.

have fun

DO NOT MAKE THE SMOKE BOMB ON A GAS STOVE IT HAS A HIGHER DANGER OF BURNING WHEN COOKING IT

if you dont want to risk cooking it you can still have the 30:20 ratio mixture and just light it with a sparkler (bomb will be in a powder from)althogh it leaves molten sugar everywhere but when cooked or melted watevr it leaves nothing well very very very very close to nothing anyway

have fun

and be safe

January 3, 2007 at 9:57 am
(2) j says:

a nice smoke bomb from The Netherlands

Leave a Comment

Line and paragraph breaks are automatic. Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title="">, <b>, <i>, <strike>

Discuss

Community Forum

Explore Chemistry

About.com Special Features

Chemistry

  1. Home
  2. Education
  3. Chemistry

©2009 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.

All rights reserved.