Boston Marathon bombing were crude devices often called pressure cooker bombs

[Little Star]

Boston.com/AP

By CASSANDRA VINOGRAD and PAISLEY DODDS
April 16, 2013

AP Glance: Pressure Cooker Bombs

The explosives used in the Boston Marathon bombing were crude devices often called pressure cooker bombs, according to a person briefed on the investigation.

Here’s a look at some of the most recent container bombs:


February 2013: A bomb hidden in a pressure cooker explodes inside a restaurant in northern Afghanistan, killing five people.


October 2012: French police find bomb-making materials in an underground parking lot near Paris as part of a probe into an attack on a kosher grocery. The discovery includes bags of potassium nitrate, sulfur, headlight bulbs and a container used as a make-shift pressure cooker.


May 2012: U.S. jurors hear that explosives experts had found a pressure cooker containing smokeless gunpowder and other material in the Texas motel room of a soldier accused of planning to blow up Fort Hood military troops and other personnel.


May 2010: One of the three devices used in the May 2010 Times Square attempted bombing was a pressure cooker, according to a joint FBI and Homeland Security intelligence report issued in July 2010.

Read more about other most recent container bombs here:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2013/04/16/glance-pressure-cooker-bombs/MYVLq4WWSAOVsVjCMIiP2N/story.html

[cali]

1. yeah, but the authorities also said that the construction showed a degree of sophistication

and the maker knew about circuitry.

[Little Star]

2. I read somewhere that they did find a circuit board but

what ever I was reading didn't give any explanation of the significance. I've been out all day taking my elderly in-laws grocery shopping, etc. and just started reading around the net to see if anything was new on the investigation.

Everyone around here is just sad yet angry at the same time. The whole thing is just unbelievable. *sigh*

[Aerows]

3. I'm a runner

and I'm nowhere near Boston, but I'm sad and angry, too. It's horrible that an event that was joy was turned into an atrocity .

[Eleanors38]

5. This individual/group wanted to hurt people, in more ways than one. It's hard to reconcile a...

cause or movement with someone like this. We had a term for these people when I was growing up: "He gone feral."

[Little Star]

6. It is sad. My husband was a runner though..

not a marathon runner. He was also a cop and volunteered at the finish line for many years. He passed away March 2012. I'm glad he didn't have to see this. He loved that marathon so much! I have all his volunteer passes that he had to hang around his neck...*sigh*

My whole family kids, grandkids etc always go but we liked to be at the start line in Hopkinton. It's such a fun family day for everyone.

[SidDithers]

8. My wife has run New York and Chicago

and did Disney this year.

She said it's always been in the back of her mind, when running those huge, high-profile events, that an attack is possible, and would be almost impossible to prevent.

Sad day, indeed.

Sid

[Aerows]

13. It's horrible

They took an event that was for joy and accomplishment and turned it into carnage.

Bless your wife, may she and I not be taken down due to someones ugly agenda.

[Eleanors38]

4. Due to the big thick white cloud, and the reported smell of "sulfur," the explosive...

may have been old-type "black powder." Even "smokeless" gunpowder as reported in the would-be attack at Fort Hood, would not have produced such a massive cloud, and would (if in similar volume to black powder) have produced far more casualties.

If you have ever been to a fireworks display, you've seen a derivative of this ancient explosive in action. Ironically, modern "smokeless" powder is much more stable, and requires a healthy detonator (blasting cap?) or primer. Black powder is more dangerous to handle as it is much more subject to explosion due to both concussive force and flame/heat. Reporters noted very little structural damage, even under "ground zero," which also points to black powder. In any event, if you buy a large quantity of fireworks, and take the time to split them open, you can make a small bomb. Or, you can just concoct the stuff Gilbert's Chemistry Set-style on your kitchen counter:
75% saltpeter (potassium nitrate), 15% charcoal, 10% sulfur. See any number of Utube videos on the subject.

Note: one of the reasons soldiers up until the mid-1800s wore very bright, uncamouflaged uniforms was so you had a chance to fire at the right "enemy" through the massive clouds of smoke. Khaki, olive & camo came later with the much more powerful "smokeless" powder. The odor of spent modern cartridge propellant is more aromatic, and by most accounts, pleasant.

[Little Star]

7. Thanks for that info. Very interesting.

[Eleanors38]

12. Thank you. Another consideration...

The black powder source is harder to trace, as indicated. TNT and other modern high explosives do require licenses, permits, registration, or combinations thereof. Black powder, obviously not. Early reports (rather quick ones from Homeland Security & other intelligence agencies) indicated that there was little chatter, traffic or the cyberspace equivalent leading up to and immediately after the blasts. This guy(s) was flying below the radar, and black powder would keep him there. The chemists will have to due some late night work (with appropriate assistance) to analyze unburned substances (black notoriously is not a complete burn), so maybe they can come up with manufacturer sources/lot numbers and the like.

Appropriate assistance:

[Little Star]

14. I just hope they catch who ever did this. And sooner rather than later. It's just awful.

[Eleanors38]

15. I think they will. His possible advantages will be in the end his disadvantages:

He knows the life, he knows the customs, he knows how to shut up, he knows what not to do. But those in that life and with those customs are all experts, too.

[anneboleyn]

9. Thanks for a great and very informative post

[Robb]

11. No. Many explosives produce white smoke, even in "small" amounts.

Gelignite, ANFO, ANFO-AL. 3-5 pounds of any of them would produce the same blast; lack of structural damage only means the bomb is small.

You can kill and hurt a lot of people with very little explosive; they weren't trying to bring down a bridge.