Boston Bombs Made From Presure Cookers

Originally posted by MrWendal

Originally posted by AnonymousCitizen
Thanks for your reply, but I was not trying to pin anything on anybody. I did some searching for historical instances of pressure cookers used in bomb making and that's where it led me.

Do you have other suggestions for trying to solve this? If so, please contribute.

I suggest checking out pipe bombs.

The fact that the case for the bomb is a pressure cooker is irrelevant. The construction and characteristics of the bombs matter. These were glorified pipe bombs. They used nails and BB's as shrapnel. This is why you see the majority of injuries being on the lower extremities. When these exploded it did not explode upwards- it just exploded outwards.

Correct, the theory is a makeshift fragmentation grenade essentially.

You could use anything, although certain things are far more effective than others.
A metal lunchbox, an old microwave, a paint bucket of nails, what have you.

Human creativity has no limits it seems.

Originally posted by MrWendal

Originally posted by freedom12
ABC News is linking them to Al-Qaeda.

Others I'm sure already have also.

Anyone wanna take bets that they locate the bomb-maker/Al-Qaeda training camp somewhere in Iran?

edit on 16-4-2013 by freedom12 because: (no reason given)

How odd. I have CNN on and they just reported a few minutes ago that according to the White House there appears to be no foreign involvement associated with this attack and they do not believe Al Qaeda is involved.

So in no uncertain terms, they haven't a clue.

Neither do I.

Maybe bringing up the IRA is relevant after all.
You know, this attack is eerily similar to their signature (or is that MI5-SIS-MI6 I cannot tell? hah).

Originally posted by Panic2k11
reply to post by thisguyrighthere

 

I see it also as a counter productive the pressure cooker would dampen the explosion itself, unless the explosive is slow or has a very low energy potential (making it more a noise maker).

Most explosives that are easy and/or cheap to source/produce are often slow burning. Even using something like a plastic piece of pipe would result in far less power than something like a pressure cooker, which can hold up to much higher pressures. I'm assuming they disabled the safety valve on the pressure cooker, which are legally required to be on there I believe. This would allow a pressure buildup far greater than simply using a piece of plumbing pipe (or at least, greater than pipe that you could easily get and use for the same price)

Think of the old firecracker in the hand thing, with your hand open you might get a burn, with your hand closed, you might loose that hand, and pieces of your hand might injure others as they explode outward.

The only way the container would dampen the blast is if the blast was extremely small. Such as a charge small enough to slightly rupture the container, allowing it to release the pressure, but not big enough to totally destroy and escape the container. From the perspective of pure energy, energy IS lost when the material explodes out of it's container, but it's not about pure energy, it's about HOW that energy is applied to the surrounding environment.

reply to post by James1982


I think that it is a trade off, "bad explosives" vs explosion energy.

There will be always a loss of energy to get the vessel into critical state, so part of the explosion is not simply translated into kinetic energy but is absorbed and pressure cookers are very resistant, what is reflected is used into a pressure discharge (less damaging) and less directional (there is no way to ascertain the point of rupture of the vessel, occurring where the structure is more weak (valves and lid). The rapidity of the pressure equalization (release) would also be translated that the the louder the more energetic it will be (but since we are talking about slow explosives the trade off is predicated in a delay so that all the energy potential of the explosive is used) in any case this type of device is a bit amateurish or intentional, toward providing a spectacle that inflicting damage or casualties. The location near the mailbox also reduced potential damage and is itself an indication of the low power of the explosion.

New pics from moments before, after blasts

The selection may have been due to ease of replication of devices (but even there it seems to have generated some duds), low cost, chance of detection on explosive fabrication and high portability. Again toward making a some-sort of statement not specifically destruction.

The best chance in detecting the culprit(s) will be the vessels themselves, if they can ascertain the model and even a serial number finding the location of sale may be easy (depending on the steps made to hide the purchase).

lets assume the bomber was smart enough not to have sent in the warrenty card

you can get them anywhere for cash
especially garage sales
guess we will have to make them illegal in the future

reply to post by Danbones


That may be the case and one possible reason why some of the devices did not work, the models of the cookers were different...

I wonder if the pressure cooker would inhibit the bomb sniffing dogs from detecting the explosive?

reply to post by ParasuvO


That, for sure.

Pressure cookers can be quite large. Growing up we had a fairly small one, but even then it was really heavy. I don't see why it couldn't be made into a device -- I just would have thought there would be easier options.

reply to post by PrinceDreamer


Huge Irish population in Boston...

Originally posted by MrWendal

Originally posted by muzzleflash
I call these types of explosives "Pipe Bombs".

Crude, cheap, easy to assemble, yet effective.

The shrapnel makes it a powerful anti-personnel weapon.

It's popular with terrorists because of how easy it is to build and deploy.

I am so happy to see someone call this what it is.

These bombs are nothing more than glorified pipe bombs. However, this type of weapon is not exclusive to foreign terrorist. Just about any kid in rural Oklahoma and Kansas can make one.

Was only 15 we made them to take out beaver 2 or 3 at a time
was get $10.00 a peace good money then case of beer was only $4.25

pressure-cookers can be bought at thrift stores for around $3 for smaller ones and about $8 to $20 for the big stainless steel ones. no questions asked and untraceable. the big stainless steel ones are used for small moonshine stills for home brew.
homemade black powder is easy to make and with the large fireball and heavy white smoke its likely what was used. untraceable.
www.survivalistboards.com...

the electronic circuit board found may or may-not be traceable.

most bombers arrested have been caught because the BATF was able to trace one or more of the components back to the bomber.

In this case that may be hard to do.

I do expect its some home grown terrorist not a Muslim group.

Muslim groups know how to make better high explosives like Acetone peroxide (triacetone triperoxide, peroxyacetone, TATP, TCAP) or ammonium nitrate.

reply to post by MrWendal


Why would just about any kid in Oklahoma or Kansas know how to make a pipe bomb?

I can see it now, some guy is trying to buy a pressure cooker at Wal-mart as a present for his wife....

Cashier: "Sir you cannot buy this item without first having a background check and being on a waiting list for 14 days. If you are mentally ill or have a felony on your record the DHS will be notified about you possibly being a terrorist and steps will be taken to assure you will not receive this technology."

Guy: "But her birthday is tomorrow!"

Cashier: "Better get her a skillet then."

Originally posted by Cancerwarrior
I can see it now, some guy is trying to buy a pressure cooker at Wal-mart as a present for his wife....

Cashier: "Sir you cannot buy this item without first having a background check and being on a waiting list for 14 days. If you are mentally ill or have a felony on your record the DHS will be notified about you possibly being a terrorist and steps will be taken to assure you will not receive this technology."

Guy: "But her birthday is tomorrow!"

Cashier: "Better get her a skillet then."

DHS is the least of his worries if he's buying cookware as a gift for his wife. What, are they out of vacuums and irons?

Originally posted by AnonymousCitizen

Originally posted by Cancerwarrior
I can see it now, some guy is trying to buy a pressure cooker at Wal-mart as a present for his wife....

Cashier: "Sir you cannot buy this item without first having a background check and being on a waiting list for 14 days. If you are mentally ill or have a felony on your record the DHS will be notified about you possibly being a terrorist and steps will be taken to assure you will not receive this technology."

Guy: "But her birthday is tomorrow!"

Cashier: "Better get her a skillet then."

DHS is the least of his worries if he's buying cookware as a gift for his wife. What, are they out of vacuums and irons?

Yeah I made that mistake one time early in my marriage. She passionately told me stuff like vacuums and irons and cooking utensils is for the house and not for her. So now when birthdays/anniversaries roll around I just get her a gift certificate for some shoes or a nice dress or something.

So yeah, I learned an important lesson that day. Men like to get tools and stuff that we can use and women like to get stuff that makes them feel pretty.

reply to post by threeifbyair


When you live out in the middle of no where, you learn things that some person living in the inner city may never learn. As an example, ever captured and cooked an Alligator? I haven't either, but here where I live now I am viewed as odd for not having done so. When you live in the bayou capturing, killing and eating some gator is pretty normal. When you live in midwest rural USA- making a pipe bomb and blowing up some stuff out in the country is pretty normal.

Originally posted by Doom and Gloom
reply to post by AnonymousCitizen

 

Since the pressure cookers have been identified in the loss of life and limb, there should be legislation that put into place a series of checks and balances to keep these weapons from being put into the hands of criminals. Background checks for anyone that purchases cook ware. Of course we need to put into place the appropriate fees and taxes to fund this new proposition. /end sarcasm


Just because this was something that happened in Afghanistan in 2006 does not mean it was the work of any ME group or person. It could just as likely be some disgruntled moron that was home grown.

People don't kill people, pressure cookers do! Oh, wait...

Originally posted by threeifbyair
reply to post by MrWendal

 

Why would just about any kid in Oklahoma or Kansas know how to make a pipe bomb?

What? You have never taken a pipe bomb fishing? lol

See my thread HERE.

This is an Al Qaida concoction. It was warned about last year and Al Qaida's "Inspire" magazine ran an article three years ago calling for these new wave of attacks and giving detailed information on how to make these exact bombs in one's own kitchen.