Why I Spent 3 Days Boiling Chicken Poop

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  • Опубліковано 29 січ 2025

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  • @htme
    @htme  2 роки тому +39

    Get 20% off your first monthly box when you sign up at bespokepost.com/htme20 and use promo code HTME20 at checkout!

    • @ghoutiwalid
      @ghoutiwalid 2 роки тому

      Please, am a viewer from north africa, i love to see you doing a project about pyrolysis

    • @mattparker9726
      @mattparker9726 2 роки тому

      you went to Utah and didn't visit Cody from Cody's Lab? F.

    • @mikeeB-m5h
      @mikeeB-m5h 2 роки тому +1

      I've been researching this topic... For scientific research... For a long time. A better way in terms of volume was having a manure dump with leaves and grass compost. Add urine in a daily basis, or just pee on it every day. After a year, do the same steps of extraction, and there you go, a much higher volume of KNO3.

    • @ghoutiwalid
      @ghoutiwalid 2 роки тому

      @@mattparker9726 totally agree, he could help more

    • @isaacgraff8288
      @isaacgraff8288 2 роки тому

      Excited to see the visit to Cerro Gordo

  • @Great_Olaf5
    @Great_Olaf5 2 роки тому +749

    Another reason why bats and birds are preferred for this is that they both have have a combined track for liquid and solid waste. Most of the animals we're familiar with have solid waste and liquid waste, and the liquid waste is where most of the uric acid, urea, and ammonia are located. With most animals, that liquid waste will just seep into the soil, which is why they had to cart away all that dirt, with birds and bats, the liquid is already mixed in with the solid, so if you're careful and prepared, you can just collect the manure directly for a more dense concentration of the things you actually want.

    • @ketsuekikumori9145
      @ketsuekikumori9145 2 роки тому +67

      Another thing to add. These animals have to fly, a very energy intensive form of movement. So they want to extract all the nutrients out their meals as much as they can. Resulting in concentrated droppings. Before the hauber-bosch process was invented, guano was usually acquired as a minable "ore" so to speak. This is because birds and bats congregate in specific spots for whatever reason. Be it their home or a common food spot, these animals would leave their droppings in the same spot again and again. Before humans came along to mine it, these spots would have enough time for the various bacteria to convert the ammonia to nitrates. Islands have been claimed and fought over for this white gold. And I believe the US Guano Islands Act is still technically in affect.

    • @janvesely6353
      @janvesely6353 2 роки тому +19

      Livestock urine on nitrate beds was the major source of biologically based nitrates anyway at times when naturally concentrated nitrates were not available for any reason and before synthesis of ammonia and nitric acid from air was invented.
      Not that bats and birds don't produce suitable substance, they obviously produced significant deposits, but there was simply not enough volume to cover the demand on fly in wartime if one didn't have an access to those deposits.

    • @lmccampbell
      @lmccampbell 2 роки тому +25

      Bats are mammals they have separate urinary and fecal systems.

    • @dextreme1754
      @dextreme1754 2 роки тому +12

      "bats and birds ... both have a combined track for liquid and solid waste" yeah chicken are also birds by the way you are referring to is called cloaca also you countered your own previous sentences with "liquid waste will just seep into the soil, which is why they had to cart away all that dirt" so, what?! It's nonsense what you are saying so birds like chicken are preferred for this kind of making black powder but because they have a cloaca the nitrates will seep into the soil?!?!?!?! I don't understand your logic, also bats doesn't have a cloaca they are mammals!

    • @bradley3549
      @bradley3549 2 роки тому +13

      Try as I might, I have yet to teach my chickens to shit in a bucket.

  • @mrbullseye
    @mrbullseye 2 роки тому +380

    I'm so sad that Cody's series of videos where he collected his pee and let it ferment in a pile of straw, dirt and stuff, on to of a tarp, to then do this exact process to make a crude gunpowder; is gone. It was cool to see you redo this. In some way you are paying homage to Cody and challenging UA-cam's decision to make him remove that series!

    • @raymondgutierrez5421
      @raymondgutierrez5421 2 роки тому +41

      Oh no it's gone? I loved that video

    • @smithyboats283
      @smithyboats283 Рік тому +16

      Are there any archives of that series? It was one of my favorites.

    • @SlipNperiodSlide
      @SlipNperiodSlide Рік тому +37

      it’s always nice seeing people talk about cody, he got me into this side of youtube many years ago

    • @Brahkolee
      @Brahkolee Рік тому

      Agreed. I went looking for Cody’s video(s) a while back and couldn’t find it. I suspected that UA-cam had removed it, but it’s good to have confirmation.
      It’s also, y’know, completely asinine. Anyone in the US over the age of 18 can buy black powder right off the shelves of gun/sporting goods stores. While transactions are obviously monitored, it is in no way restricted. No one who intends to make a bomb or use black powder to harm other humans would go through the trouble of collecting their urine & fecal matter every day for months/years to make a niter bed. Cody’s was a purely scientific endeavor, and anyone with half a brain would’ve seen that.

    • @technocracynow9339
      @technocracynow9339 Рік тому +19

      Thats why Science Videos are hosted on decentralized Plattforms, UA-cam is just Ads and "Entertainment".

  • @charleswalker7010
    @charleswalker7010 2 роки тому +87

    I harvested nitrates from the silt and water removed from my aquaponics setup. I has a stable closed loop system that pulled water from the tank into a garden trough and an ebb and flow system back into the tank to aerate the water for the fish. I didn't use filters and would let the silt (and nitrates) build up a bit then once a year I would deep clean the tank and dump all the waste into the gardens since its pretty much the same as miracle grow. The nitrate concentration was pretty high (least for a fish tank) specially in the silt so would have probably worked well for this application. If using particularly dirty fish such as gold fish you could probably get a decent amount of nitrates and it looks like it would be a lot cleaner too.

    • @MJ-kc8iz
      @MJ-kc8iz Рік тому +3

      I was watching this video and had a similar thought.. "Hey, that's the same nitrification cycle in my freshwater aquarium. I wonder if you could get a cleaner result from fish tanks?"

  • @bennih.471
    @bennih.471 2 роки тому +239

    Regarding the brown/black colouring of the solution I would suggest running the liquid through an active charcoal filter.(active charcoal can be made pretty easy) And recrystallising the crystals with hot water was a very good idea! Next time take all your solids and try to dissolve all your crystals with as little hot water as possible and then try cooling the solution in an ice bath immediately after everything had dissolved. You'll get a purer end product with this procedure.

    • @yannickvanzetten8278
      @yannickvanzetten8278 2 роки тому +24

      Letting it slowly cool down is better for purer crystals, as there is more time for water to get out of the way fromthe crystal, capturing less contaminations inside your crystals

    • @Devin_Stromgren
      @Devin_Stromgren 2 роки тому +7

      Wouldn't the charcoal filter out the nitrates?

    • @rowanbcapr
      @rowanbcapr 2 роки тому +2

      @@Devin_Stromgren i looked it up, and no, it doesn’t.

    • @firestorm8471
      @firestorm8471 Рік тому +4

      Filter through tightly packed hay. Afterwards, sun dry the hay and add it to your makings for charcoal.

    • @user-iw6vf4vl7n
      @user-iw6vf4vl7n Рік тому

      fân

  • @akakscase
    @akakscase 2 роки тому +30

    Just a quick heads up on the silver extraction:
    You can really speed up the process with things you have already unlocked. With the iron/steel you can make a “dolly pot” which is just a tube (about 12-14 inches long, and 4-5 inches wide, a solid bottom, and a iron/steel rod about 1 1/2 - 2 inches in diameter and a bit longer than the tube) and striker. Cook the ore (make a big fire, put the ore in a iron or steel container that keeps it open to the air, and cook it as hot as you can get it for about 2-3 hours) before crushing it in the dolly pot. You can pan off the host rock pretty easily Al Al gold panning style. You’ll end up with a fairly (70% - 80%) pure ore sample that you can then quickly dissolve with your acids.
    Cooking the ore isn’t 100% necessary but cooking it first gets rid of a lot of the sulfur and oxides, as well as making the host rock MUCH easier to crush by hand.

  • @CraftsmanOfAwsomenes
    @CraftsmanOfAwsomenes 2 роки тому +34

    Think it's more of a national security concern for literally everywhere with heavy firearm use and not just Europe. Sengoku Jidai Japan used more guns than Europe during the same period. Or perhaps the Persianate "Gunpowder Empires" of the Ottoman Empire, Safavid Empire, and Mughal Empire.

  • @GoodandBasic
    @GoodandBasic 2 роки тому +25

    Thanks so much for the Collab! This was an incredibly fun batch of projects, and it was amazing to see this one in particular work using such basic materials. JB

  • @jimjim7708
    @jimjim7708 2 роки тому +4

    Watching the stick with the ember going into the pot reminded me of turning my home made gunpowder into black powder as a child over an open fire. When I was stirring my molten gunpowder I couldn't help but wonder how flammable it was, so it stuck the end of the stick in the fire. Then I stuck the stick back in the pot to continue stirring when a spectacular sight happened. Oh the memories. I love watching your videos. Thanks for the great content.

  • @samstewart4444
    @samstewart4444 2 роки тому +16

    On the explosives theme, once you learn to make nitric acid from the potassium nitrate, you can make nitroglycerin, ammonium nitrate, ANFO (high explosives), guncotton (smokeless powder), and fulminate (for making detonators or percussion caps).

    • @jamiehughes5573
      @jamiehughes5573 2 роки тому +4

      Rookie ISIS members:hmm better get my notepad

    • @themanhimself3
      @themanhimself3 2 роки тому

      @@jamiehughes5573 He just called ANFO a high explosive. With this guys info the ISIS problem will be a self resolving one.

    • @radioanon4535
      @radioanon4535 2 роки тому +4

      ANFO is not made from nitric acid directly, but by mixing 4 parts ammonium nitrate and 1 part fuel-oil.

    • @ronv6637
      @ronv6637 Рік тому +3

      ANFO is not a high explosive but a second tier explosive

    • @cvspvr
      @cvspvr Рік тому

      ​@@radioanon4535ammonium nitrate can be made from nitric acid

  • @anne-droid7739
    @anne-droid7739 2 роки тому +17

    After more than a half century of trying to imagine the stench, I am delighted to hear that the boil-down did not fill everybody's village with the reek I was picturing. Thank you! One less misery for Back Then.

    • @douglascampbell4993
      @douglascampbell4993 Рік тому

      Don’t try this with pigeon shit..
      that smell will re-kill your ancestors!

    • @user-iw6vf4vl7n
      @user-iw6vf4vl7n Рік тому

      poured in a thin layer and sundried much easier and less resources wasted than boiling

  • @Rabidgiant
    @Rabidgiant 2 роки тому +34

    I love how every time I get bored and nothing looks good on UA-cam you post a video

    • @JamesChurchill3
      @JamesChurchill3 2 роки тому +4

      Please get bored more often, these videos are great.

  • @camilomiranda61
    @camilomiranda61 2 роки тому +52

    So for anyone who is gonna get bespoke post, do not get that hatchet its awful the wood is crap and the eye isn't formed properly not to mention how soft the steel they use is.

    • @Wtfinc
      @Wtfinc 2 роки тому +9

      Not very bespoke huh? What a dumb idea anyway. You can get all the things they get for just as cheap and ull probably save money by not getting crap u didn’t even want. Everyone knows the mystery boxes and grab bags are a scam. Maybe i missed the idea but I would still think it silly. It makes sense more as a gift for someone u don’t really know. A gift idea for anyone that they would certainly use and enjoy is a rechargeable flashlight or a knife, kitchen for the chef, folding for the outdoorsy type, especially girls. Noone wants to get cut.
      That hatchet would have upset me to no end. What if someone took that camping and things went wrong and they had to depend on it. Obviously they should test it before taking it but still, stuff happens!
      I want a nice compass. Thats an item that bespoke should have. Im rambling.

    • @oldogre5999
      @oldogre5999 2 роки тому +1

      I had to turn my adblocker off to see what you guys were talking about! If you pause the video at 5:53 (where the hatchet is lying on its side) I'd swear by the look of that hatchet and the finish on it (all really finely dimpled) that the hatchet is made of CAST Iron!!! If you have that hatchet just search the web on ways to test for cast iron. It would be interesting to know!

    • @Wtfinc
      @Wtfinc 2 роки тому

      @@oldogre5999 It may be cast in a mold but I doubt it's cast Iron. I'm sure there is some carbon in there or it would snap first chop. Maybe it does, idk lol. Garbage

    • @oldogre5999
      @oldogre5999 2 роки тому

      @@Wtfinc cast iron is pure iron alloyed with more than two percent carbon which means that it has more carbon than carbon steel! It's also non-malleable and very brittle... So I will stick to my visual inspection thank you.
      😉

    • @Wtfinc
      @Wtfinc 2 роки тому +1

      @@oldogre5999 so it is, what a dumb name for bad steel. you schooled me there but many materials look like cast iron if they have been cast in a sand mold. unless you can see the crystal structure, you cant really tell what it is. I did read the comments of someone who had gotten one and they said the metal was quite soft. sound like cast iron? sound like mild steel cast in a mold then machined, like how pliers and stuff are made and some of them look like cast iron. I'll stick to my thorough analysis and skepticism over visual inspection every day of every week. I pray you are no welder. visual inspection, smh.

  • @arty7122
    @arty7122 2 роки тому +12

    Pottasium nitrate was used for gunpowder until 1880s, we invented smokeless powder and started using that

    • @ficolas2
      @ficolas2 2 роки тому +4

      Yep, but nitrates were still very much relevant for making nitric acid and fertilizer. And they keep being relevant. But they haven't been made from poop, or harvested from poop since the beginning of the 20th century, thanks to the birkelaldn eyde process, Frank caro process, and later, haber-bosh process to make ammonia and Ostwald process to make nitric acid from that ammonia

    • @real_Donald_Trump
      @real_Donald_Trump 2 роки тому +5

      Smokeless powder is made of nitrocellulose, which can be made with nitric acid, which can be made with potassium nitrate

    • @Wavy_Gravy
      @Wavy_Gravy 2 роки тому

      Gun cotton go psssst

  • @michelhv
    @michelhv 2 роки тому +55

    NileRed: boils pee.
    HTME: boils poop.
    WHEN WILL THEY BE FINALLY REUNITED?

    • @VIG-q1d
      @VIG-q1d 2 роки тому +4

      I want them to make a video together.

    • @aedeatia
      @aedeatia 2 роки тому +2

      NileRed extracted fresh pee, that why he was just extracting the urea. This video said that you need bacteria to convert the urea to saltpeter.
      Bird poop is also mixed with pee as they both come out of the same orifice (the cloaca). Eggs also come out of this hole, so if you get fresh or unwashed eggs, there's bits of poop stuck to the outside.

    • @thrifikionor7603
      @thrifikionor7603 2 роки тому +1

      Codys lab also did a video on the topic but appareantly its gone. He actually let his pee ferment outside for a while so the bacteria can do its thing

    • @hg.chetan
      @hg.chetan 2 роки тому +1

      They will be finally united in some cloaca

  • @missingthe80s58
    @missingthe80s58 Рік тому +8

    A few things.
    You really need to use a covered roost.
    I had chickens and a covered roost and in spite the fact they were free range the nightly roosting had a few 55 gallon drums worth of highly rich material in 6 months and this was not supplimented in any way with urine wetting, turning over or maintenance of any sort.
    Very little rain got to it which is extremely important.
    You need an unleached nitrate source.
    A clue you're doing it right is salt crust formation on the surface, walls and such.
    You did use ash as a potassium ion source which was good but your filtration was very sub par yet very easily remedied.
    Don't be afraid to use densely packed cloth filters, clean fine sand and if you want to go modern, don't be afraid to use a transfer pump hooked to a water filter to clarify the solution prior to reduction on the stove.
    Surface area is also a thing, you'll get a more efficient reduction if you use wide pans rather than deep pots.
    The best source is the Joseph LeConte paper.
    Instructions for the Manufacture of Saltpeter.

  • @YoungGandalf2325
    @YoungGandalf2325 2 роки тому +20

    Wow, that looks like it took a lot of time and effort. I'm glad you were able to turn it into a thirteen minute video.

    • @andie_pants
      @andie_pants 2 роки тому +5

      That was a lot of footage to...
      _boil down_ to 13 minutes.

    • @YoungGandalf2325
      @YoungGandalf2325 2 роки тому +2

      @@andie_pants haha good one! 👍😂

    • @GoodandBasic
      @GoodandBasic 2 роки тому +1

      @@andie_pants 😂😂😁

  • @johgranger1304
    @johgranger1304 2 роки тому +2

    YES! A NEW HTME VIDEO! :D Really love that format. Good work HTME!!!

  • @RealAndySkibba
    @RealAndySkibba 2 роки тому +7

    This is a really cool topic. Videos are always great to watch.

  • @geradkavanagh8240
    @geradkavanagh8240 Рік тому +4

    Mixing wood or better still bone ash to provide Potassium ions improves the yield substantially. Some setups had the liquor from steeping the manure trickle through a bed or column of this before concentrating the salt. In Northern Australia the primary source of potash from timber was grey mangrove resulting in vast areas being denuded.

  • @SLRNT
    @SLRNT 2 роки тому +10

    Interesting how UA-cam took down Codys(Cody’s lab) video about explosives from chicken poop

    • @sootopossum8063
      @sootopossum8063 Рік тому

      Damn UA-cam needs to get their sheeet In check

  • @patchvonbraun
    @patchvonbraun 2 роки тому +115

    You should probably note that black powder (KNO3+Charcoal+Sulfur) hasn't actually been used as a firearm or artillery propellant since the late 19th century, when nitrocellulose-based gun propellants were developed. It's now mostly used in fireworks and hobby rocket motors, and for reenactors and for hobby canons.... Also, the conversion of your mixed-nitrates-from-poop to pure KNO3 using wood ash is really quite critical in getting a quality product. Mg and Ca nitrates aren't nearly as reactive.

    • @nunyabidniz2868
      @nunyabidniz2868 2 роки тому +16

      BP ["black powder" - known as "gunpowder" for centuries, it only became necessary to distinguish it from Vielle's "Poudre B" (poudre blanc - "white powder") once nitrocellulose came along & displaced it] is still widely used in various munitions. The big guns on battleships & the like are driven by NC grains [hard to call it "powder" at the sizes they use!] but those are lit off by... you guessed it!... a black powder initiating charge. Because easier & more reliable ignition. So *technically* still being used as a propellant, altho' its contribution to the net propulsive effect is infinitesimal in those big, biG, BIG boomers! 😄

    • @guythat779
      @guythat779 2 роки тому +4

      The same "boom juice" is used to make nitrocellulose

    • @patchvonbraun
      @patchvonbraun 2 роки тому +3

      @@guythat779 Not sure what you mean by "boom juice". Nitric acid has been made using the Haber-Bosch process for ammonia production, and then the Ostwald process for producing the HNO3 for about a century. While it IS possible to turn KNO3 into HNO3 using H2SO4 (Sulfuric Acid), it's not actually something that is done commercially.

    • @guythat779
      @guythat779 2 роки тому +1

      @@patchvonbraun commercially we obtain kno3 (boom juice as referred to in the video) via hno3

    • @dennislock3415
      @dennislock3415 2 роки тому +13

      Blackpowder is still used in muzzeloading rifles don't know where you are located but in America they have deer seasons dedicated for the use of them.

  • @StarScapesOG
    @StarScapesOG 2 роки тому +29

    Something that I heard is that animal refuse is surprisingly low in urea, meaning that you need A LOT of the guano or other waste in order to get usable quantities of salt peter.

    • @DFX2KX
      @DFX2KX 2 роки тому +9

      oh yeah. It is *very* inefficient. Which is why the Haber process (and to some extent the processes that preceeded it) was so revolutionary. nitric acid is super useful for all sorts of stuff beyond making things go boom, but it was historically quite costly to make.

    • @acestillwell98
      @acestillwell98 2 роки тому +5

      I remember hearing that the French had collection areas below horse stables to collect their urine. They would have straw there too, to absorb it and compost it.

    • @davidkohler7454
      @davidkohler7454 2 роки тому +12

      As kids in the early 80,s living in the hills of the Ozarks, we were lucky enough to have many many caves to go exploring in.. In school we learned about the soldiers in the Civil war using caves as hide outs and to make black powder in, from our very cool History teacher, Also we had a very cool Science teacher who took things a little farther and explained just how that works. Almost any big cave in that area had all 3 ingredients inside. Plenty of Sulfur, camp fire charcoal and piles of old Bat poo.. to make a long story short we blew the ceiling tiles off in the Science room lab. Best day of my school years. Also my mother thought that if the chicken poo made good fertilizer for her garden that some of our Bat poo would be even better. It was way too potent and very quickly burnt up all the plants she used it on. Fun days. Wish I could go back and just stay at that point in time as a young teenager .

    • @acestillwell98
      @acestillwell98 2 роки тому +6

      @@davidkohler7454 Bat guano and bird guano in general is such a great fertilizer that small battles erupted over control of islands and caves. At one point, the world's population was so high that we needed more nitrogen in the ground faster than organisms could produce needed to grow food. Then guano started to run out. There was mild panic over this, until a scientist found out how to produce ammonia, which has nitrogen from the air in it. The story of the man who did it is kinda sad, as he eventually switched to chemical weapons during ww1, and then after his death the nazis abused his creation to kill the jews in camps. He himself was a jew as well.

    • @housegoth
      @housegoth 2 роки тому +3

      @@acestillwell98 not only that, but a large part of the taxes that were paid by farmers was done in the form of things like dung and the compost you mentioned. The need to collect these sorts of products for industrial products are where we get phrases like “to poor to have a pot to piss in” or piss poor.

  • @tobiasmills9647
    @tobiasmills9647 2 роки тому +4

    So, with regards to the pole-lathe, I developed on the idea a bit:
    I had the line fed through eyelets, with one of those survival saws in the middle (where the workpiece would be), after I added a small plank to hold my workpiece - I had a rudimentary scroll saw.

  • @arnearne12345
    @arnearne12345 2 роки тому +19

    i think if you had boiled the dirt itself or at least kept it above 80C for an hour or so it would have leched out a lot more salts given how much more soluable salts are in hot water over cold water

    • @alphagt62
      @alphagt62 Рік тому +4

      Be sure to get those pots back to Mom, she’s making spaghetti tonight!
      I was thinking the same, they should have ground the dirt into finer particles, and poured warm water through it.

  • @m4vr1ck
    @m4vr1ck Рік тому +1

    Bro is literally re unlocking the entire tech tree and im all for it

  • @kreynolds1123
    @kreynolds1123 2 роки тому +105

    If you were to do this again, I'm pretty sure it would be better to mix the water and clay soil till untill all the clay as broken down and suspended. That would ensure all the potasium nitrate is dissolved into the water. Then let the clay settle for a day or two untill the water looked maybe colored but clear. Then decant and collect the water with the salts.
    Then boil.
    And if you wanted to maximize the KNO3 collected you could repeat washing maybe one or two more times, but law of diminishing returns quickly kicks in after the first washing has removed most of the existing KNO3.

    • @frankalvarez7387
      @frankalvarez7387 2 роки тому +8

      heating the water for washing the nitrates will also help a lot because it can dissolve way more

    • @kreynolds1123
      @kreynolds1123 2 роки тому +5

      @@frankalvarez7387 potassium nitrate certainly dissolves far better in hot/boiling water, but I dont think the nitrates were so concentrated that they would not fully dissolve in room temp water of enough quantity to make a slury of clay soil. After making a slurry and letting it settle for a day or two. The water will be clear maybe colored and most of the water will be in a layer above the settled soil containing most of the dissolved nitrates. Decant it and Then boil off most of the water untill you see the first signs of crystal. Then when you let it cool the crystals will fall out.

    • @MadScientist267
      @MadScientist267 2 роки тому

      @@kreynolds1123 I suspect maybe he's angling it will also help loosen and free anything mechanically trapped

    • @Anon-xd3cf
      @Anon-xd3cf Рік тому

      Plus occasional agitation...
      Long soaking and agitation...

    • @kreynolds1123
      @kreynolds1123 Рік тому

      @@Anon-xd3cf agitation initally yes, but nitrates salts ions tend to disolve very easily making further agitation probably unnecessary. Besides, eventually you want the suspended clay particles to fall out of solution. That leaves clay and soil particles on the bottom and nitrate salts in the wate above. The more the gunk settles and compacts at the bottom, the clearer the solution gets, the more water is over head and less embedded in the gunk, and the more easilly you'll be able to decant the water with the dusolved salts without disturbing the gunk on the bottom.

  • @Idigedgein
    @Idigedgein 2 роки тому +8

    “I have a warrant!”
    🐓! 🐓!
    That really got me 😂

  • @ermakers1297
    @ermakers1297 Рік тому +1

    Militaries used to use their own latrine pits as a source for material too. Their own soldiers ended up supplying the the powder for their weapons. The Confederation famously ran articles in the newspapers asking for the citizens to bring their chamber pots to supply the nitre beds so they could make the KNO3.

  • @tracybowling1156
    @tracybowling1156 2 роки тому +26

    My Grandpa was raised on a farm. It was his job to help take care of the chickens. When he was way older, he woke up one early morning asking my Dad to rush him to the hospital. The Dr. said that his lungs were ruined by breathing in all that chicken poop. 😢😢 He died 5 days later. My twin sister and I sat with him and talked with him while he took his last breath. ❤️

    • @richbattaglia5350
      @richbattaglia5350 Рік тому

      Then wear a mask then when handling bad things…

    • @tracybowling1156
      @tracybowling1156 Рік тому +4

      @richbattaglia5350 Well, back then, they didn't think to do so.

    • @lonniemonroe2714
      @lonniemonroe2714 Рік тому

      EXACTLY. I grew up on family farm. Last thing we thought of was a mask..except for Halloween. ​@@tracybowling1156

  • @reelthing4u
    @reelthing4u 2 роки тому +3

    i just want to say thanks for all the time and hard work you put in to your videos.keep up the great job !

  • @seanmessick9330
    @seanmessick9330 2 роки тому +4

    Quick tip! The ATF doesn’t consider flintlocks and matchlocks firearms.

    • @DFX2KX
      @DFX2KX 2 роки тому +3

      nor percussion locks either, though making said caps *historically* involves mercury so proooobably not a good idea. It has to use self-contained ammunition to count (so, needle-guns, pinfire, and newer).

  • @lark7655
    @lark7655 Рік тому +1

    the absurdity of the context behind walking into a chicken coop with a shovel to dig up poop and say to a frantic chicken "I HAVE A WARRANT" is so good and something I'm going to say anytime I interact with chickens now

  • @daniloreisbr
    @daniloreisbr 2 роки тому +1

    I was so happy to see the channel is back! Keep up, guys!

  • @JasonCummer
    @JasonCummer 2 роки тому +6

    I hope YT allows the new related content. I have wanted some of this for informing the crafting of ammo in mods for 7 days to die. Trying to make it a little more realistic and challenging for the players.

    • @jeanladoire4141
      @jeanladoire4141 2 роки тому +2

      I mean you just mine nitrate deposits from the ground, mix with charcoal, and already get a decent reactive mix. Tho you need a lil' something to increase the burn rate, sulfur works well for that.
      But don't worry about realism in 7 days to die, there's no way you can shoot clean ammo like that with black powder

    • @JasonCummer
      @JasonCummer 2 роки тому

      @@jeanladoire4141 yes but despite it being a game about zombies and realism is out at that point, I would like to mod it to have more complexity. Complexity and realism to the real aspects of the game. As if the world was this world but with zombies. I'll have to look in to it more but I should hypothesize that the blunderbus would work with black powder. When I have the time I'll research more. And if it were the case black powder isn't good enough, add some new crafting that made a more modern gun powder. Though I know its player base has shifted to much to easier game play :(

    • @jeanladoire4141
      @jeanladoire4141 2 роки тому

      @@JasonCummer whatever, black powder without sulfur will never do more than a puff. It can be good for rockets, but a good explosion needs a little extra. Modern gunpowder uses nitrocellulose, acid and cellulose, like in paper or in wood. I suppose there could be a craft for quality gunpowder with acid and paper/wood, or even cotton, wich is even better. But realism isn't that important in this game tbh

    • @JasonCummer
      @JasonCummer 2 роки тому

      @@jeanladoire4141 its true realism has gone out the door with the devs a few alphas ago. This last alpha I pretty much stopped developing my main mod and just went for the crazy place the game could be going.

    • @jeanladoire4141
      @jeanladoire4141 2 роки тому

      @@JasonCummer idk what's desirable for the game, but if making sulfur and adding a bit to the powder to increase performance was a thing, i suppose it could become an interesting mechanic

  • @bananieldiamonds1921
    @bananieldiamonds1921 2 роки тому +2

    you can also use nitric acid to nitrate cotton into guncotton

  • @Susie_Floozie
    @Susie_Floozie Рік тому +1

    It's easy to tell chicken poop from dirt. I've helped neighbors clean out messy, neglected coops, and I could tell when I got down to the substratum of earth: When the brown stuff stops coming up as large, flattened, pancake-sized flakes. I noticed that the dirt broke up into clods and dust. Easy-peasy...or rather, easy-poopy.

  • @daanrademaker6099
    @daanrademaker6099 2 роки тому +2

    great video! love to see you upload

  • @rhetoricmonkey
    @rhetoricmonkey 2 роки тому +11

    Great. Now the ATF is coming for my chickens.

  • @junglekiity
    @junglekiity 2 роки тому +2

    HTME: We finally rebuilt after the fire!
    *Very next video*
    HTME: We're making explosives!

  • @NismoXero
    @NismoXero 2 роки тому +4

    Im pretty sure Brandon Herrera could tell you exactly where YTs guidelines land on whatever you plan on doing. He crosses them often 😂

    • @ButtahDawgMcDouble
      @ButtahDawgMcDouble 2 роки тому +1

      I was looking this comment, thank you

    • @DH-xw6jp
      @DH-xw6jp 2 роки тому +2

      Smooth bore boomsticks: 2
      Leaders named Abe: 0

    • @NismoXero
      @NismoXero 2 роки тому

      @@DH-xw6jp exactly!

  • @oliverjurick467
    @oliverjurick467 2 роки тому +4

    I really like how he will literally dig through chicken poop for a video

  • @linuxstreamer8910
    @linuxstreamer8910 2 роки тому +9

    people even got in conflicts for bird poop rocks in the ocean

  • @samuelmacfarlane
    @samuelmacfarlane 2 роки тому +28

    Cody's Lab did a similar project several years ago and got demonitized for it. He used to get demonitized every couple weeks. I hope you guys can avoid his headaches.

    • @DH-xw6jp
      @DH-xw6jp 2 роки тому +3

      It's amazing what having the right politics can do for keeping a channel monetized.

    • @channelm8044
      @channelm8044 2 роки тому

      Is there any other platform where we can find such kind of content?

    • @bensmith4563
      @bensmith4563 2 роки тому +1

      I miss the old days of Cody's lab he made such great content now its eh between the whole getting demonotize all the time and some pos breaking into his account and ripping the guy off

  • @lrmackmcbride7498
    @lrmackmcbride7498 2 роки тому +3

    Advice on extraction. Mix the soil with sand and straw. Then let the straw compost with good air infiltration. This converts ammonia and urea to nitrate and adds potassium. Then make a slurry. Then filter through sand and straw. Repeat twice more with the same soil. Then boil the filtrate down to a slurry and filter through sand and straw filter and rinse the filter thoroughly. Then crystalize and recrystalize. This is a tradional method.

    • @Devin_Stromgren
      @Devin_Stromgren 2 роки тому +1

      That sounds like a much better filtration method than the charcoal filtration someone else mentioned in the comments.

  • @LordSmyrnian
    @LordSmyrnian 2 роки тому +5

    So one big takeaway I got from this was that at some point in time there was a person who wanted to make an elixir of life and thought "let's use chicken excrement!"

    • @etee08
      @etee08 2 роки тому

      If you read "medical" books from the middle age you can find very useful and futuristic treatments, but also strange medicine made of poison herbs or things like pig poop...

  • @Mr-Highball
    @Mr-Highball 2 роки тому +2

    Excellent content as always, thanks for sharing

  • @mersito3955
    @mersito3955 2 роки тому +2

    If you have a building made of stones and people pissed on it. In the event of heavy rain, the saltpetre comes out of the wall by capillary action. This is how it was collected at the time and hence the name stone salt.

  • @ernestsierra6090
    @ernestsierra6090 2 роки тому +1

    ureia is diesel exhaust fluid mixes with water to turn the diesel exhaust into ammonia on newer diesel engines

  • @Jonodrew1286
    @Jonodrew1286 Рік тому +1

    Enjoy watching your perseverance and end results - I like the compost stack method - using layers of straw and small rock and soil/ humous - then urine is every so often poured on top of the pile - I think they were covered slightly as to not be exposed to water - wood ashes were also put on top - the liqueur was collected purified and boiled - I wonder if a filter column would have worked with diatomic earth (SIO2) with a fine fibre glass or cotton to filter it - the solution would have to be less concentrated (before crystallisation can occur…..

  • @birdshot8654
    @birdshot8654 2 роки тому +4

    Hell yeah one step closer to the homemade matchlock video

  • @fizz576
    @fizz576 2 роки тому +6

    Fun fact about black powder it can be used to season food Napoleon would feed his men horse meat season with black powder when they ran out of food. Just to clarify I am talking about Black Powder not modern gunpowder.

  • @piggybackride89
    @piggybackride89 2 роки тому

    My fav channel delivers! thanks team htme!

  • @robertoprestigiacomo253
    @robertoprestigiacomo253 2 роки тому +5

    I'm pretty sure I've heard in a documentary once that in Europe gunpowder was discovered from the saltpetre deposits on the walls of cellars and one way to collect saltpetre was accumulating it in places with high humidity and no air (like a cellar or an underground chambers). I didn't know about animal poop.

    • @billynomates920
      @billynomates920 2 роки тому

      i didn't know about cellar walls! 😄

    • @erictaylor3496
      @erictaylor3496 2 роки тому

      Mostly cellars in dairy barns.

    • @davidseal8375
      @davidseal8375 2 роки тому +1

      Chile saltpeter is sodium nitrate and is mined right out of the ground in arid areas in northern Chile...also in one of the young guns movies there was a town that mined bat poop...

    • @fiokgoogle8779
      @fiokgoogle8779 2 роки тому

      Nagyon is jellemző nekem is a pincében nő mint a hófeher szakáll

  • @itsamirechlerch9318
    @itsamirechlerch9318 2 роки тому +3

    If you buy saltpeter or the ingredients are you gonna be put on a watchlist

  • @RepeatedFailure
    @RepeatedFailure 2 роки тому +3

    The nitrogen cycle is the bane of my existence in trying to keep my pet shrimp alive 🦐

    • @wan2shuffle
      @wan2shuffle 2 роки тому

      Just cycle your tank properly

    • @RepeatedFailure
      @RepeatedFailure 2 роки тому

      @@wan2shuffle Ye, I did for 3 weeks, I was just surprised I needed to track like 6 water parameters for aquarium based animals vs terrestrial. It's more a battle between algae and java moss over nitrates now.

  • @billtheunjust
    @billtheunjust 2 роки тому +2

    I guess this explains why mammoth cave had so much nitrate, and was an important mine.

  • @MuhammedIzuddin
    @MuhammedIzuddin 10 місяців тому

    I just found this UA-cam channel and I already love it

  • @skr9
    @skr9 Рік тому +1

    I have cow dung that has decomposed and become like ash. It has been sitting for a long time in a hot climate in the summer near cows. Does spraying urine on it increase the amount of nitrates?

  • @JudgeTyBurns
    @JudgeTyBurns 2 роки тому +5

    “It’s days like these that I curse the Chinese for inventing gunpowder.”

  • @jeremycrochtiere6317
    @jeremycrochtiere6317 Рік тому

    Multiple crystallization,
    And a few liquid/liquid workup washes using a solvent in which the nitrate has low or no solubility,
    Can help to clean up and purify the product.
    So can adding activated charcoal.
    And the best part is that activated charcoal
    Can then be washed clean and used as one of the ingredients in the gunpowder

  • @itsamirechlerch9318
    @itsamirechlerch9318 2 роки тому +2

    This isn’t what I was expecting to see today, but this is really interesting

  • @nickg5250
    @nickg5250 2 роки тому +1

    outstanding vid as always. one of the best channels on youtube

  • @RepeatedFailure
    @RepeatedFailure 2 роки тому +2

    I learned about this process as a kid after seeing it on the TV show "Connections" and tried/failed to make smoke fireworks aha.

  • @davidhunt7519
    @davidhunt7519 2 роки тому

    Gotta admit, the subtitle "Why I boiled chicken poop..." is what got my attention. I really do appreciate your work. I can refer to it when my wife thinks I'm crazy.

    • @Devin_Stromgren
      @Devin_Stromgren 2 роки тому

      I knew enough about gunpowder already that my thought was, "Oh, he's making saltpeter. This should be interesting."

  • @DFX2KX
    @DFX2KX 2 роки тому +3

    There's actually an old Confederate salt peter factory that got built right under a Union camp, if memory serves.

  • @gkseeton
    @gkseeton Рік тому +1

    I remember learning about the underground cities of Cappadocia and they included pigeon housing to give them access without going above ground.

  • @orangeswell1469
    @orangeswell1469 Рік тому +1

    Dope. Can you do one for magnesium sulfate?

  • @josephhammond6738
    @josephhammond6738 2 роки тому +2

    Would you guys like some better pots. Like bigger ones. Because those tiny kitchen pots seem pretty inefficient.

  • @mikeski8827
    @mikeski8827 2 роки тому

    10:33 I had always wondered how the string on cartoon sticks of dynamite was meant to work but had never looked it up. Now I get the science behind it!

  • @EvilLeprechuan
    @EvilLeprechuan Рік тому +1

    This might also explain why cities took it upon themselves at one point to make communal toilets aka outhouses, it saved them from having many locations and home intruding and concentrated the soil.

    • @ronv6637
      @ronv6637 Рік тому

      Romans did it to reduce disease outbreaks

  • @hollyhrywnak2478
    @hollyhrywnak2478 2 роки тому +2

    Always interesting stuff!

  • @boelwerkr
    @boelwerkr 2 роки тому

    Where i live was the use of "Kadaverställe" documented. A barn like structure near water was build and excavated underneath. Then dead animals where brought there and soaked in pee. The hole was filled up after wards. The decomposing bodies would produce saltpeter. Water would evaporate on the surface under the cover and pull up the salts out of the wet soil.

  • @Nefi424
    @Nefi424 2 роки тому +2

    Out of all of these videos at Utah, I keep hoping for a collab with Cody's Lab

    • @VIG-q1d
      @VIG-q1d 2 роки тому

      Me too, I hope he makes more Martian base videos.

  • @hemodi2002
    @hemodi2002 2 роки тому

    try to run the extracted solution through charcoal before boiling it. some procedures require addition of alcohol after boiling to enhance the crystlization.
    the boiling is just end when the solution is evaporate by half then add alcohol.

  • @ckl9390
    @ckl9390 2 роки тому +1

    Wouldn't it be more efficient to collect urine and let it go stale? I've been in situations where urine had been collected in a bucket and noticed that it didn't take too long (just days really) for clear-white fibrous crystals to grow on the bucket walls and in a crystalline "sludge" to settle on the bottom. The collected urine also turned brown in a rather short time. In which case, the solution you were refining being brown could be a good thing. It is likely an indication that the urates are decomposing as noted by the ammonia smell also intensifying with the colour change in the case of my observation, after which the crystals form if the concentration is high enough. Add some wood ash to do the calcium-magnesium replacement, boil, filter, etc. Someone in the comments also suggested using activated charcoal to further purify the results.

  • @1stFlyingeagle
    @1stFlyingeagle 2 роки тому +2

    Cement mixer then screening sure seems like you could wash the dirt clean to get the strongest liquid out.

  • @mundanestuff
    @mundanestuff 2 роки тому +3

    gives a whole new reason to keep my roofed-in chicken run around... to supply the union army.

  • @maxlinck9037
    @maxlinck9037 2 роки тому

    putting those videos on UA-cam "Could be a little bit challenging"? I would be surprised if this video wasn't removed by tomorrow - glad I stumbled onto it while it's still on

  • @PKMartin
    @PKMartin 2 роки тому +3

    Good and Basic is a fantastic channel - they're a great follow if you like HTME, Cody's Lab or any other low tech science channels

    • @GoodandBasic
      @GoodandBasic 2 роки тому

      Thanks man! Good to see you here! JB

  • @glenliesegang233
    @glenliesegang233 Рік тому +1

    Would mixing with wood ash help make potassium nitrate?

  • @frylock6403
    @frylock6403 2 роки тому +1

    maybe you can release full uncensored footage on another open platform while having a "safer" one on youtube

  • @waffleblitzkrieg1765
    @waffleblitzkrieg1765 2 роки тому +2

    For the gunpowder you should work with Brandon Herrera he has experience with making black Powder and is a registered FFA dealer and manufacturer and as such is a govt certified gun builder.

  • @vikramkrishnan6414
    @vikramkrishnan6414 2 роки тому +1

    Here we have a madman boiling chicken poop, and the comment section is telling him how to improve the process, "the next time he does it". The internet is truly a wonderful thing, populated by you beautiful, beautiful weirdos

  • @CasadeLindquist
    @CasadeLindquist 2 роки тому +2

    "Honey, have you seen my good soup pot?" Uuuhhh.... no?

  • @tuseroni6085
    @tuseroni6085 2 роки тому +1

    I remember reading about this technique in the anarchists cookbook as a kid.

  • @seanweaver3485
    @seanweaver3485 2 роки тому +1

    Can you make something called a slingshot bow? You basically make a slingshot but it's narrower on the head sides basically they're closer together and you make one on one side of the boat the top half and the back side of the bow the bottom half. And then you put the strings on the one of the sides you twist them around one another and then you draw one end and then the other end. I was a bit curious on how it's functioned? So if you can make a video on one of your channels that be very happy making for me thank you.

  • @toejam4sale
    @toejam4sale 2 роки тому

    Genuinely the cleanest sub plug I’ve ever seen

  • @TheSaxon1321
    @TheSaxon1321 2 роки тому +1

    imagine, at poop factorys where they collect human poop and process it, that they started doing this to supplement gun powder

    • @SCUBAdfq
      @SCUBAdfq 2 роки тому

      We are experiencing a fertilizer shortage at the moment so, in theory and probably theory alone, that could help with that.

  • @SurvivormanVR
    @SurvivormanVR 2 роки тому +1

    You learn something new everyday 🐓

  • @dennislock3415
    @dennislock3415 Рік тому

    Would vacuum drying work the same, or does the heat play a part in the crytalization process?

  • @psocretes8183
    @psocretes8183 Рік тому

    In the middle east they have pigeon towers. They are usually tall cone shaped structures with poles through so pigeons could roost there. And of course they would deposit their waste at the bottom for fertiliser. Not only that they're homing pigeons so the towers were also used as communication towers between cities. So they had a double usage.

    • @skr9
      @skr9 Рік тому

      I have cow dung that has decomposed and become like ash. It has been sitting for a long time in a hot climate in the summer near cows. Does spraying urine on it increase the amount of nitrates?

    • @psocretes8183
      @psocretes8183 Рік тому

      Yes it does. Urine is high in nitrates.@@skr9

  • @FrauWNiemand
    @FrauWNiemand 2 роки тому +1

    This is mindblowing. I never knew that.

  • @googleuser3760
    @googleuser3760 2 роки тому +2

    I would love to see more of this process.

  • @Pike737
    @Pike737 Рік тому +1

    These crystals formed really well in barns and stables.

  • @AdricM
    @AdricM 2 роки тому +1

    the conditions may have been to dry in the coop. probably moistening the dirt and leaving it covered for a month or two in a container would have increased the conversion. but still way cool collaboration, and cant wait for the Cerrro Gordo collaboration.

  • @LordBaldur
    @LordBaldur 2 роки тому +2

    Personally, the last thing I would do is make a gun. I'm not just saying that for algorithm reasons, but for safety reasons. If you plan on turning that into black powder and firing it, I would use a musket that's already been made.

  • @ragnorockcookie2868
    @ragnorockcookie2868 Рік тому

    lol as someone who loves explosives. i knew about these historie but i love seeing someone doing the proces

  • @bobofreddy1171
    @bobofreddy1171 2 роки тому +1

    You guys need to write a book on how to do this stuff

  • @erictaylor3496
    @erictaylor3496 2 роки тому

    Using heated rain water may help with the solubility of the salts. To increase yeald.