Talk:Pencil bomb attacks

A fact from Pencil bomb attacks appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 11 July 2009 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that Franz von Rintelen, a German spy living in New York during World War I, used pencil bombs to sabotage Allied shipping?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2009/July.

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Conflicting/wrong info

Does this thing detonate, or does it just start a fire? The article says one, then says the other.

Is sulphuric acid even "inflammable"? Would another liquid that was merely inflammable be able to eat through the copper disk? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.85.209.143 (talk) 14:46, 30 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Picric acid, the other component, is described as a high explosive; its salts even more so. Sulphuric acid is not. I am not a chemist, but my best guess is that the sulfuric acid was used for two reasons: 1) its reaction with picric acid is exothermic but not sufficient to cause the picric acid to explode, thus causing a hotter and longer lasting fire, and 2) it, too, ate at the copper plug, allowing for finer timing of the bomb. So... my guess is that 'detonate' is close to hyperbole. --2601:1C0:5802:C256:DC21:1920:8E25:D9E0 (talk) 23:21, 5 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]