^
The comment in the "October Sky" piece about the de Laval Nozzles in rocket engines reminded me of the "Terry Nozzle," which is still used by beginning DIY amateur rocketeers.
It consists of of a 1/8" hole (+/- 1/16") drilled in the plaster plug at the back end of of the clotheshanger cardboard tube rockets.
On occasion, the "Terry Nozzle" was drilled off center or not parallel to the axis of the rocket, or both. In addition, the smaller sized Terry Nozzles tended to generate bangs instead of thrust.
This imprecision resulted in somewhat erratic flight, which the neighbors could not help but notice when one landed in their rain gutter, with residual smoke still coming out of the Terry Nozzle --and perhaps some of the dried leaves trapped up there. Just perhaps.
This resulted in a garden hose being squirted up there by the aforesaid neighbors.
This, in turn, resulted in the Parental Units, upon through investigation, instructing the local butcher to not sell any more KNO3 to the inventor of the Terry Nozzle.
This also resulted in Terry no longer investigating the properties of exhaust nozzles of any type, let alone the Terry Nozzle.
The occasional bangs associated with the research into the Terry Nozzle were merely contributory to the KNO3 ban, and not a proximal cause.
Nevertheless, the meat preservative, KNO3, could still be purchased at the butcher shop by Terry's Research Assistants, and research along the bang phenomenon continued, albeit surreptitiously, and with some success.
I'm not signing this one so nobody will know who posted it.
That, regardless of the facts that (A) the statute of limitations has expired, and (B) the principle research scientist involved was a minor anyhow.
