Making Light:  Gasoline and fluorescent tubes ::: May 31, 2005, 11:14 AM

I suppose I was precocious, because I did my investigation of fuel-air
explosions when I was eleven or twelve.  It was a natural outgrowth of
my previous studies in "how deep a hole can I dig with this post-hole
digger?" together with a new-found interest in "is there anything more
interesting I can do with gasoline than mowing the lawn?"  The part I
hadn't figured out is that the first shot warms up the hole, so the
second shot has much more vapor to work with.

This oversight would have gone unpunished if I hadn't insisted on
looking into the hole to see the blast.  Myopia may have saved me from
blindness (my glasses deflected the hot gasses from my eyes) but maybe
not--the blast was not really extreme.  The skin burn was barely first
degree, lost in the sunburn I already had.  I might have gotten away
clean if Mom hadn't asked where my eyebrows went.