Original subtitles

On this episode of Mythbusters, Adam and Jamie take a swing at

disposable lighters.

Are they just petite, harmless sources of flame?

Or plastic peril in your pocket?

And meanwhile, you looking punk?

Deputy Tori, Carrie, and Grant ride into town to put gunslinger myths on trial.

Could famed outlaws of the Old West really shoot with astonishing accuracy

speed?

Are you kidding me? Or is it just a bunch of hogwash?

Who are the Mythbusters?

Adam Savage.

Ants are all over my head. And Jamie Heineman. Gets me all worked up just

looking at it.

Between them, more than 30 years of special effects experience.

That was heavy.

Joining them, Grant Imahara. Go get him, boy.

Tori Bellacci.

Somebody order some exploding pants?

And Carrie Byron. Oh, God.

They don't just tell the myths.

They put them to the test.

Adam, what's with the lighter?

Ah, it's the next myth.

Disposable lighter explosion.

Apparently, there are many circumstances under which one of these simple

disposable lighters can explode and potentially become deadly.

I've heard about that. It's like if you're welding or something, the flag

up in your pocket and up goes the lighter. Absolutely. That is probably

well -known and the most popular, and it's a perfect place for us to start.

Absolutely. A welder's workshop is potentially the ideal environment for a

disposable lighter mishap. And here's why.

To make fire, you need three things.

Fuel, an ignition source, and oxygen.

If a lighter ruptured while someone was welding, the fuel inside could escape,

mix with air and heat, and presto.

To set up for their blue -collar test, Adam puts a steel bar on some boxes and

faces a welder towards it.

Then he hooks it up so it can be triggered remotely.

I've got a MIG welder here. It basically feeds wire out, creates an electrical

arc, and lots of sparks and hot flags.

Beautiful! It works perfectly.

Now, which lighter to choose?

I've got a whole bunch of disposable lighters. I think you can try all kinds

this. Okay, sure.

They set the lighter right under the welder tip for maximum fallout.

There's no telling how volatile the lighters might become.

High speeds ready?

Okay. So the guys stand behind a ballistic shield.

In three, two, one.

As the sparks rain down, they melt the plastic.

Oh, got something.

We got burning. And the lighter catches a light.

I can actually see the liquid butane bubbling.

There we go.

Oh, yeah, I see it shooting out.

Things look like they're about to boil over.

I could feel that one.

Yeah, that was good.

That was a good little poop.

Your favorite flannel shirt just went up in flames.

What happens when you drop hot slag in a lighter is exactly what you would think

would happen. The plastic melts, and it releases the gas, and if there's

sufficient temperature in that hot slag left, then it could ignite, and it does.

All right, I want to try another kind of lighter.

High speeds ready?

All right. Three, two, one, here we go.

Things heat up real fast.

Oh!

That was definitely...

The most energetic.

That was an explosion.

It actually didn't just go poof, it propelled itself.

In a spectacular mini -movie fireball, our little guy jumps off the burning

building.

Well, here's the next to the last time we have.

Well, I said the light is lighter, isn't it?

This is for all you female welders out there.

Do you know something I don't? How come you're standing on a bar?

Just get out of the way of the light. Okay.

I was just getting nervous. Are you ready?

I'm ready.

Okay, here we go.

Oh, come on, baby.

They're getting more energetic.

If a little welding flag goes in your pocket, hits the lighter in the right

place, causes the case to fail, boom, it blows a plume of fire over your head.

That's an explosion.

So, welder, be warned. Leave your lighters in the locker room.

So I know what this next story is, and I just want to be clear here. We are so

asking for trouble.

Trouble's my middle name. What's the problem?

I thought it was Earl.

Well, every time we do one of these weapons myths, you know, archery,

ballistics, anything like that, No one will ever believe us. You're not

I mean, think about Archimedes' death ray. Yeah, how many times do we have to

that anyway?

Too many. And then blown away? People just don't want to believe Newton's

And then there's our favorite, splitting an arrow. Don't even get me started on

how much email I got over that one.

Yep, whenever we do weapons myth, we get attacked by viewer rage and

indignation. You blast our approach, shoot apart our technique.

and fry our finding.

Well, we're about to stir the hornet's nest once again.

So, what are we going to apply our so -called dubious skills to this time?

Gunslingers. Oh, no, this is all wrong.

We cannot attack the Old West. That is a legend that's the cornerstone of

American history.

Beg your pardon, little lady, but yes, we can.

The gunslinger, one of the greatest symbols of the American West, is steeped

folklore.

But is it Simon Pure or just stretching the blanket?

Now that's cowboy talk for truth or fiction. What is the first gunslinger

Quick draw. This one comes from Harvey Logan.

A .K .A. Kid Curry who used to ride with the Wild Bunch? Yep.

That's the guy. He claimed to be able to take a poker chip or a silver dollar,

put it on his wrist, and turn it. Before that hit the ground, he'd draw a single

action revolver and fire off five shots.

That ought to be pretty straightforward to test.

With reflexes that fast, you wouldn't want to mess with the likes of Kid

He was one hot -headed son of a gun.

In the early 1900s, he and his Wild Bunch crew were the most feared outlaws

the land.

To test the tale of his speedy draw, Tori and Carrie go to get themselves

firepower.

Yeah, what would be a nice pump -action shotgun that would match my outfit?

They pick out replicas of the exact kind of hardware cowboys would have used.

I hope we don't wreck this. And before you start growling at us, yes, they've

already waited the compulsory 10 -day waiting period in California to purchase

firearms. Are these the only two we're getting?

That's okay. You bought it. They're tough.

These are tough guns.

Do me a favor. Try not to do that when it's loaded.

Y 'all come back now, you hear?

Back at the ranch, Carrie introduces us to her little friend.

1873 Colt Peacemaker. This is the classic cowboy pistol.

It's single action, which means you have to pull the lever back every time you

want it to fire.

I'm sure you've seen all the Clint Eastwood movies.

And it does take a .45 caliber bullet.

Next in our...

Little gun -toting list. We have our 1851 Navy Colt single -action. This

little bit older, so it still uses the lead ball percussion cap and black

powder.

The guys suit up cowboy style.

Grant needs to eat some more pork and beans.

What the heck's going on here, partner?

You got a problem with your gear?

Well, Tori goes for the high -waisted look.

Look at you, Howdy Doody.

All kitted out.

Playtime is over.

Howdy Doody time.

Jamie and Adam are putting disposable lighters to the test. Are these little

gadgets as innocent as they look or mini tools of destruction?

What's next? Next up is... Clothes dryer.

Apparently, if you leave the lighter in the pocket of your pants and you run it

through a cycle in the dryer, it can get hot enough to blow that lighter up and

maybe some of your property and maybe you.

Great. Let's do it.

I'm sitting on our test platform here, a bonafide dryer. We're going to hook it

up, and we're going to put a lighter through the drying cycle, see what

Adam replaces the front door with laminated safety glass.

All right.

It's basically got a gum layer between two layers of glass. So if there is an

explosion and the glass shatters, it's just going to shatter like a car

windshield. The glass won't go anywhere.

He adds a temperature gauge, puts in the lighter, and is ready to tumble.

There we go.

Ready to go.

Darn, he forgot the dryer sheets.

They make things so much fluffier.

This is kind of like watching paint dry, isn't it?

Getting hot.

Yeah, it's in thermometer.

It's already at like 160 degrees.

That's pretty good.

Now all there is to do is wait.

And wait.

And wait some more.

Let's look at the high speed for any sign of a spark.

Nope, nothing.

But it is quite spacey in a Kubrick kind of way.

Look, Adam, I can see you're really upset about this.

The ladder's been in for over an hour, but all it's done is go for a ride.

What you need to have for a disposable lighter to explode is two things.

You need to have enough heat for the plastic in the lighter to melt, and then

you need to have an ignition source.

Now, I'm not terribly sure we have either of those things in this case.

I think we're done here.

Nothing's happening.

Mythbusters. Or you just want to take another nap for a while.

So it's good news for absent -minded lighter leavers, but no fun for

employees.

I'm going to pull the plug!

With the drying done, it's time for another round of Disposable Lighter

I know that sports don't make any sense to you, but have you ever, ever played a

round of golf?

Yes. Really?

Yes. All right. The next one is, can you cause some significant damage by

smacking a disposable lighter with a golf club?

I don't know. Golf clubs go pretty fast. I think we could probably do some

damage to a lighter, but we probably shouldn't be next to one, so maybe we

to build a mechanical rig.

I agree entirely.

Imagine how teed off you'd be. You're out on the links for a relaxing game of

golf when your swing is so sizzling you blow yourself up.

Kid. Never try at home what we're about to do.

I thought there was a spark.

Where there's a spark, there may be hope.

Jamie is no sports nut. Making mechanical devices gives him a power

His golf machine's muscle comes from two pneumatic actuators connected to an air

pump.

As the air rushes in, their valves will open, and the force will push a golf

club fastened to a swinging arm.

Meet RoboBro.

Prime directive, erase the lighter.

I think there's a lot of power here, so it's possible this could all just fly

apart and the golf club ends up exploding against the wall or something.

know. We just have to try it.

Four.

Three, two,

one.

I don't have a clue what happened.

The club swings at 85 miles an hour. That's about the speed of your average

human golfer. But RoboPro almost launched.

The whole thing is jumping in the air.

It's got like 300 or 400 pounds on there.

I guess we just need more weight.

700 pounds should keep its feet on the ground.

Let's tee off again, shall we?

You know, the only thing that differentiates you and me from a couple

-year -old pyromaniacs is ballistic glass.

Or... Three, two, one.

That's just awesome.

Reset!

I think we should put a bowling ball out there and see whether it throws it.

All the elements are there, but there's no spark.

And without that, may as well just be friends.

I mean, you've got the release of the gas, and there is a creator of a spark

the mechanism.

But we could do this a hundred times and not just hit it exactly right.

What's your problem with that? I don't think the machine will take it,

is what my problem is. Let's just keep going until the machine fits.

And by the look of it, it's not going to be long, guys.

Better think fast.

All right, I have an idea.

Let's put the lighter in there, but glue down the thing so that the lighter is

lit at the moment we hit it.

If that don't do it, I don't know what will.

To fast -track the lucky shot that would get a spark, Adam glues down the

striker so the flame will be on as the club hits. Okay.

Are you ready, Jimmy?

Four, three, two.

One. Yeah!

Nicely done.

White boy high five.

That was awesome.

Now that's what I call chemistry.

That's cool. There's a whole delay.

The gas expands enough to mix correctly with the air and then it goes up. It

doesn't go up immediately.

Awesome.

So, is it time to go to the clubhouse now?

What do you think?

Well, I think that's pretty well confirmed. I mean, if you're going to do

and you're out there in your polyester golf suit, you're in for some trouble.

Hitting a disposable lighter with a golf club's high potential of explosion and

fire. This stuff is scary as hell.

Howdy there, cowpoke. The Mythbusters posse is exploring gunslinger myths.

Famed outlaw Kid Curry claimed he could draw and shoot five shots before a

silver dollar hit the ground. To put his boast to the test, Curry lays down the

law. What you're supposed to be doing here is you have your silver dollar on

top of your hand.

Now, in the time it takes the silver dollar to hit the ground, you want to

how many rounds you can get off.

So... It's like, drop.

Are you feeling up to it? You feeling up for it, partner?

Sure, little buddy. Let's do it. All right.

Brad steps up with a Navy Colt, a replica of a cowboy -era gun.

Don't fret. We're using blanks.

Ready,

partner? Go ahead.

Make my day.

Hey, this is a really long gun.

Not used to a gun that long.

Fumbles here didn't even clear the holster before the coin hit the ground.

Grant, that sure ain't how the West was won.

Um, I don't think you're gonna be making deputy.

Next, Carrie gives it a shot.

Ah!

Ah!

Hi.

Ah! Gonna keep firing.

I have trouble with my trigger finger.

Maybe the gun is jammed.

It's not jammed.

It's not jammed, no. No, I thought maybe, no. No, I have a hard time with

trigger for some reason. I can't do it.

Okay, Valechi, you're our last chance, or we're all goners. Better get this one

on high speed. You might not see it in real time.

Hey, that's pretty good. I got a shot off.

Real smooth, Tory.

They check out the speed of his draw on playback.

From the time Tory had his hand in place and got a shot off, it was

.280 seconds.

Not bad.

What's the record?

Current world record for an open style standing blank is .208.

Dude, you almost broke the record. Wait, that can't be right.

Also, you have to understand that not only do they have to hit a target, they

have to react to a light.

That makes more sense.

Okay. Tori the Kid goes again.

Yee -haw! This time a series of shots rings out. The high speed confirms it as

two before the coin hit the dirt.

It's not bad, though. You got two off before the coin hit.

Yeah. It's tricky, man. It's a lot trickier than you think.

Maybe a different gun will make it easier.

Why don't we try the Peacemaker? I mean, it's a little bit shorter of a gun.

You're probably going to be able to pull it out of the holster faster.

We might be able to get a few more shots off before the coin hits the ground.

All right. Yeah. Sounds good.

All right. High speed. Ready?

Ready.

The Peacemaker is anything but.

The area's real estate value is dropping by the second, and our neighbors are

plum mad.

Yeah, we already talked to the police.

I thought we told everybody in the neighborhood.

Once again, making friends with our neighbors here at Mythbusters.

They go inside to lay low for a while.

Grant may not be a sharpshooter, but he's taking on the kid the only way he

knows how, by building a quick -draw robot.

What I'm working on is figuring out if the gun can even mechanically fire that

fast. So I've built a motor.

and a test stand for the gun. The motor's got a little arm on it, and so

rotates, it cocks the gun.

Perfect. Now hold the trigger so that every time it'll go... The amount of cha

-chitches Grant's machine can fire off as the coin is dropped will determine if

the curry camp was just telling tall tales.

Great. Okay, ready? Three, two, one.

Did you get them all?

Very nice.

I believe that was six. I'm pretty sure I counted six.

Mama, don't let your babies grow up to be animatronics engineers.

Yay!

Firing like a bionic bandit, they take it outside to test it with the coin.

In three, two, one.

Well, one, two, three, four, I heard, at least. Let me go out on a limb here. I

think that was faster than any of us shot.

The time it takes for the coin to drop to the ground is 0 .5 seconds, so four

shots is impressive.

But the robot has an unfair advantage over a person.

You also have to allow for human reaction time, so it's going to be even

because that's about 0 .2 seconds. What you're saying is we have to... Do all

five shots in under 300 milliseconds?

That's exactly what I'm saying.

So with human draw time taken into account, it's all about the gun's

speed. One.

The gun chokes.

Yeah, we're missing on the barrel. Three, two, one.

Sure enough, the old -time gun isn't built to fire at such a rapid rate.

And gives up the ghost.

I don't know if these guns are designed for this much wear and tear.

The gun is now incapacitated, so it's not advancing anymore.

I definitely think that is a result.

Dear viewers, if you're about to shoot off an email doubting our methods, you

might want to hold your horses.

To test this myth right, say howdy to Lightning Larry, a competition fast draw

expert and cowboy action shooter.

I guess it's pretty obvious, but could you explain why they call you Lightning

Larry? Well, they don't call me Lightning because I'm so fast, but like

Lightning, my bullets never hit twice in the same spot.

Larry's a straight shooter.

Are we using the correct cowboy era gear?

Can you confirm for us what we've got in here?

Yes, those are the holsters we have. The holsters are authentic. The belts may

not be, but the holsters are authentic.

Well, but the main part was getting the gun out of the holster, right?

Okay, so as far as weapons go, we've got an 1851 Navy Colt cap and ball, and

we've got our Colt Peacemaker.

When you think of all these cowboy myths, are these representative of that?

would be, yes.

Yippee -yi -yay!

Okay, enough of the yicking and yakking. Larry is ready to show us how he got

his name.

Are you kidding me?

You're kidding me, right?

This is blurry. You can't actually see it.

Dang. Never did a name suit a man so well. Good thing we've got the high

You see the coin? That's the coin right there. There's the coin.

He could have shot the silver dollar. It's before it even passed the gun.

Now to attempt the rapid fire.

Only one cap goes off, but you can see on the replay he re -cocked his gun more

times than that.

High speed says that if all the shots had fired, you would have gotten three

off. before the silver dollar hit the ground.

So does Lightning Larry think Kid Curry was just stringing a whizzer?

I think that the problem is you've got to come down from a handheld position

then fan the hammer five times before that silver dollar hits, and that's

fast and pretty unable to do, I think. Three, I can see three, possibly four,

but five may be extremely difficult to do.

So this is an old Western myth you don't think it's possible? I would think it's

an old Western myth.

Little disposable lighters come with a long list of warnings.

Never puncture or put in fire.

Never expose to heat above 120 degrees Fahrenheit or to prolonged sunlight.

So I believe that each one of these items is here because probably of a

lawsuit, but each one of them also is a test that we can do.

So I got one for you.

Okay, what is it? A lighter is sitting on a dash of a hot car, and it explodes.

We've done tons of hot car stuff, and that is perfect. The question would be,

how hot can they get, and would that make a lighter potentially fatally

Yeah, they get pretty hot in there. Let's do it. All right.

In Biscuit Bullet, the guys got the interior of a car hot enough to burst

packs of biscuit dough.

Whoa! It wasn't a Martha Stewart -approved recipe.

But they found out baking sure can be fun.

Wow! That just went everywhere.

However, unlike cardboard cookie containers, plastic lighters aren't

to... This time, instead of heating up

an entire car, Jamie has an oh -so -convenient alternative.

Okay, Adam, I got the toaster oven. That's our car?

That's our car.

That's perfect.

This isn't exactly a dash of a car, but it is a controllable thing that we can

get the correct temperature.

Dashes of cars actually get surprisingly hot. They get up around 180 degrees,

give or take.

So we should be able to set this at that temperature, put a lighter in there,

and see what happens.

In goes the passenger.

Now it's another stupefyingly boring Mythbusters wait fest.

You get to watch it all just happen.

You're going to cut to the explosion inside of...

Five minutes, but I've got to wait for like three hours.

A super finely boring hour later, the heat hasn't affected the lighter at all.

It's been at 140 degrees for that entire hour, and I'm not getting anything, so

I'm going to ramp it up.

He dials up the temperature.

It's climbing.

The toaster oven is now at 190 degrees.

Adam and his little nemesis are having a standoff.

It's just a waiting game, and it's exhausting. I've been working on this

three hours now, and I still don't have what we're looking for here, a

catastrophic failure of a lighter in a hot car.

Even at the highest temperature the dash of a car could ever get, the lighter

still hasn't lost its cool.

But Jamie is confident he can put Adam out of his misery.

I can get this thing up to about 500. I know my toaster oven.

500 degrees?

That's hot.

Now we're up to 350 on our way to 400.

This shouldn't take long. In fact, I can already see the cracks forming.

Oh!

Well, that was an explosion.

No fire, but that was a bang.

Oh!

Actually,

there was fire.

Jamie got the lighter to blow in just five minutes.

This end piece shot out like a bullet and actually blew a hole in the tray.

How about another just for the heck of it?

You got your plan.

Yeah.

It sure looks cool, but in the real world, cars don't get that hot.

The minimum temperature that we were able to get one of these lighters to

to the point that it released its gas was about 350 degrees.

And I don't know of any cars that get into 350 degrees even in the desert in

summer. So as far as I'm concerned, it's not happening unless there's something

else at play.

So to recap, we get buckets out of the dryer. We got nice explosions out of the

golf club hot car and the welder.

Yeah, but these myths are about whether or not this is a lethal situation, and

we don't know what kind of injuries you'd sustain.

We don't really know whether it's lethal or not. Right.

Well, I mean, that leads to the next step here, which is to get a human

and try out the most common one, the welding, on that human analog and see if

the explosion of the lighter next to it causes any visible or significant

damage. Pork.

Yeah, I suppose it's more pork.

I like a pork butt.

Adam and Jamie attach a welder to a C -stand and put a steel plate in front of

it. Wait, wait, wait, wait.

Next, they dress a ham hock in working man's overall and put a lighter in the

pocket. Now that's one rugged bore.

All right.

What will be very telling about the level of damage is if we get a like, and

of a sudden the whole area is bathed in flame.

Right. In three, two.

The hot slag rips onto the jeans, and about 15 seconds later, they catch fire.

That would seem like more than blue jeans just burning there.

I would imagine.

But even though the denim is flaming, the lighter doesn't pop.

We got some burns in our pig. That was only from the welding. Yeah, that's only

from the welding slag.

They reposition it and try again.

You got a working lighter and the vertical pocket this time.

Three, two, one.

Hey, that was quicker.

Yeah, it was a lot quicker.

Now you're starting to hop around.

You're like, jeez, oh my God, ah, shoot, shoot, pull me out.

Once again, your favorite jeans would never be the same.

But you would walk away to weld another day.

Again, I think it's a hot metal burn, but not a lighter burn. And these just

aren't exploding.

Yeah. They're slowly releasing their gas.

That ball of flame, it just goes kind of poof.

And unless you're wearing plastic clothing like polyester or something

that, it's not going to go up in flame. It's going to deflect most of it.

Looks like the guys have extinguished this myth.

Look, you're going to want to put some burn salve on it when you're done. But

you're also going to be dealing with the rest of your pants are on fire because

you've been welding like an idiot.

Can't do fatality on this sort of thing. Absolutely zero.

Place your bet. The reality of gunslinger myth number two, holding a

dollar is a toss -up.

For this test, the team will put a silver dollar on one stand and a gun on

another. Then with the whole kit and caboodle inside a container, they'll

trigger the gun remotely and see if they can turn the dollar into a donut.

Carrie's not putting her money on this one.

I think there's one major problem with this myth, that being that a coin in the

air, it's really not going to have enough resistance to just sit there and

hole poked through it. It's more likely going to be hit and flung aside.

For the first test, they're using the 1873 Colt Peacemaker replica, using real

.45 caliber bullets, hence the heavily reinforced steel bunker.

They do a test fire to center the coin.

Fire in the hole!

All right, so here's the hole in the card. So now what we're going to do is

we're just going to place our coin holder in that exact same spot.

The stand has been designed to balance the dollar nice and loose, like it's

floating on air.

I'm going to try to give it as little resistance as possible while still

balancing it straight up, which means that everybody exits the container.

tread very, very, very lightly.

And for ultra -authenticity, we're using genuine cowboy coinage.

We are not only in the fortunate position to have silver dollars, which

written on the back says 99 % silver, but silver dollar from the era. This one

here is 1879.

It's high noon at the OK Container.

Wire in the hole.

In 3, 2, 1.

Smokey. So, who won the showdown?

It tried really, really hard.

It sure did. The bullet hit the dollar dead center, making a mighty dent.

Made a tiny little shield. That is cool.

Next up, the Navy Colt Black Powder Pistol.

Three, two, one.

Again, Tori has a tiny shield for his action figurine, but there's no hole.

That is amazing.

Good shot.

Their aim was true, but the old -time cowboy guns didn't have enough punch.

Maybe a modern -day gun that shoots at a much higher velocity will.

We have one more handgun that we want to try, and that's the modern double

-action .357 Magnum.

Here we go in 3, 2, 1.

Whoa. There it is.

Look, dude.

Whoa.

Oh, yeah!

Wow! I would have to say that's a perfect hole.

Bullseye. That's a donut with sugar on top.

You can make a necklace out of it.

That's a real silver dollar, and that's a real hole. That's it.

But they didn't get a real hole in a real silver dollar using any of their

period guns.

I would say that this myth is busted.

To see if it's even possible to shoot a coin tossed in the air, once again they

pay a visit to cowboy action shooter Lightning Larry.

Using a period gun, Larry is going to aim at some lead coins.

Lead is much softer than silver, so this might give him the edge he needs. Go.

How about in front of you? Right in front of me would help.

There it is.

Larry is the boss.

That shot was as fine as cream gravy.

That's lead.

That was the lead one. Yeah.

That was good.

That is a badge of honor right there.

There's no denying Larry is one sharp shooter, but the team proved the stunt

can't be done with a silver dollar.

Looks like we shot that one down.

With unwavering gunpoint, that cracked marksman of Hangman's Hill takes steady

aim. Our posse's final gunslinger myth is the Hangman's Noose.

To save you from swinging from the California color, you'd sure want a

who's a sure shot who hadn't been hitting a prairie dew down at the

It's the classic Western last -minute reprieve. With the noose around his

partner's neck, the gunslinger had to shoot it down with a single shot.

To put this myth on trial, the team is going to hang a dummy from a noose and

weight it to 150 pounds.

Then they'll put a gun on a stand.

and fire at the rope to see if it snapped.

Torrey builds your basic down -home rustic hanging contraption.

Oh, we're going to have fun today.

Then he makes a silhouette of an outlaw.

The cutout is weighted down and lifted up.

Okay, perfect.

Now we just have to shoot that out.

So for this setup, we have our human stand -in, 150 pounds, and we're going

start off with our 1851 cap and ball black powder pistol, and then we'll move

from there.

I sure hope help comes soon. Our cutout can't hang on much longer. Fire in the

hole! Three, two, one.

There was a bag, but no thud.

Do you see the circle on the rope? I mean, that's the ball.

It looks like it was a hit.

I thought it would do more damage than that. Maybe the rope's just deflecting

and turning. Yeah.

Absorbing that energy.

Sure enough, the bullet hit the rope and just grazed it.

But the three amigos have a plan.

Maybe we should move it in. Point blank.

Point blank.

Right up in the rope.

So that way there's no doubt in our mind that we hit it. You can't miss.

I like it.

They move the gun up close and personal.

I think we're going to hit it.

Here we go. In three, two.

One.

Now that's what I call rope burn, but it isn't cut.

Why don't we move up to the 45 Colt? Yep, the Peacemaker.

And see what that does to this.

Is this the gun that won the West?

Apparently.

In three, two, one.

Looks like the dude's still hanging.

I cut into it.

Oh, yeah. Look at it.

That's better than the other. We shot it right in the center of the rope, and

the .45 caliber wasn't able to cut it. The period guns just ain't cutting it.

The guy's still hanging.

I mean, this is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. I mean, you

at those movies, the guy pulls out his gun, takes a shot, the guy falls.

Meanwhile, over at M5, Jamie and Adam have been testing disposable lighters.

Are these tiny tykes potential life threats?

I don't care what anybody says. The explosion from one of these lighters is

lethal, and that makes all of these myths, at least in terms of deadliness,

busted. Well, that was a single lighter. We just need more. We have this thing

from a British newspaper that says a salesman's car burst into flames in

Brussels when liquid gas in 500 cigarette lighters exploded in the hot

Let me see this.

You just read the whole article. I mean, there's not much to go on here.

It's right down our alley.

I guess we don't need any more information than this. All right, let's

The plan is to get a car and put a heating element and 500 lighters inside.

As the lighters melt and release their gas, the guys will trigger a remote

ignition source, and hopefully the vehicle will take a trip.

Skywood.

So where better to conduct this potentially highly flammable myth than

water control plant?

Good.

And who better to have on hand than the City of South San Francisco Fire

Department?

Howdy, guys.

How are you?

How are you?

Adam explains the setup to the guys.

As long as you don't blow up the city, we're fine with it.

That's always our goal, controlled explosions.

And this one should be...

Well, we're hoping it's major, but even if it's major, it's still pretty minor.

Yep, there's some major insight into the workings of the Mythbuster's mind right

there.

Adam positions the vehicle chosen for the sacrifice in a high -walled concrete

bunker.

That ought to do.

Then he fills up the interior with 500 disposable lighters, stacking them in

rows. When all this is expanded, this is over 1 ,000 cubic centimeters of butane

gas.

Just for flavor.

Bye.

A series of holes are drilled into the top of the car and wire inserted through

it. Then the heat source, a vacuum form machine, is raised above the lighters.

A vacuum form is normally used to make molded plastic packaging and gets up to

scorching 800 degrees.

The heat source here are three bulbs that get quite hot, and the way this is

up is to specifically create a very hot heat to evenly heat plastic, so it's

actually perfect for our use.

A generator will supply the power.

That's good. We got it. Go ahead and turn it off.

And just in case the vacuum form doesn't ignite the gas, they have a backup

plan. In trying to hedge our bets, we're trying to create a flame bar. Ignition

will occur at the start with a neon transformer that will create a spark.

spark will ignite a gasoline -soaked rope, which will travel down inside the

car. This rope will continue to burn down to the point where it sets off the

ignition.

When prepping to blow things up, it's good to have a positive attitude.

Whatever happens, we're igniting some gases, and we're burning down a car

It's also good to be safe about it. Ballistic glass shields and fire hoses

just a few must -have on -hand essentials.

A whole host of people can galvanize into action immediately if we run into

trouble with it. And they actually seem pretty psyched by the prospect of seeing

some hot fire car burning action.

Everyone and everything is in position and ready to blow.

Attempting an old gunslinger myth, the gang tried their darndest to shoot down

hangman's noose in a single shot, but to no avail.

To save their buddy, the Magnificent Three head back to the range.

They set up some real fancy gallows, complete with trapdoor.

The charges our outlaw silhouette is falsely accused of are mighty serious.

Being too drunk in town, cattle wrestling.

All -around offensiveness to a lady.

That's right.

If anyone's going to save him from the cold meat wagon, it's veteran cowboy

action shooter Frank.

How many shots do you think it would take you to get that down?

You could do it in two, probably, if you're good, if you're lucky. There's a

of luck involved in this, because once you hit it, it's going to start moving.

He's healed with an authentic 1888 Winchester rifle.

He hit it. Yeah, he hit it. Smoking.

Eagle -eyed Frank hit the rope, second shot.

Trying to get the stone spot. That's tough.

He hit it.

I'll tell you, that's tough.

Yee -haw. Frank didn't get it in one, but five shots was a sensational display

of shooting prowess. Our cowboy will live to ride another day.

We were able to knock that down. I hit it a couple of times before it was

a little.

Yeah, you know. It took me like five shots.

So if the bad guys ever get you, Frank's a good friend to have.

I tend to think that by the fifth shot, the people who were hanging the guy

probably would have caught on to where you are. Or they'd have left. Yeah. I

mean, probably in reality, the best thing to do would be shoot the five guys

there with him.

Okay,

it's time for the whole Mythbusters gang to cut loose and have themselves a

little fun.

Let's finish cutting that two -by -four in half. Yeah, let's do it!

And the gallows all fall down.

Ah!

Get the guy!

No!

All right, so gunslinger myths, where do we stand?

Quick draw myth is totally busted.

You can't draw your weapon and fire off five shots before a silver dollar hits

the ground.

Silver dollar, completely busted. We couldn't put a hole through a silver

with any of our period weapons.

And shooting out the hangman's noose, busted.

You can probably shoot it out in maybe three or more shots, but to shoot it out

in one shot is not possible.

So that sounds totally definitive.

I will alert the Discovery webmaster for the onslaught of complaints that you

guys screwed it up somehow.

That sounds perfect.

Yep, they know where to find it.

Jamie and Adam have already proved that a single disposable lighter can go off

with a poof.

But they're looking for more of a kaboom. So to up the ante, they filled a

with 500 and are about to see what happens.

I think what we're going to see is a fireball, and then this thing's going to

nice and crispy, caged, and fried within five minutes.

Sounds delicious.

The heating element is switched on.

Okay, we're at three minutes.

We just start to see somebody start to blow their fuel out.

Under the extreme high temperature, the lighters cook fast.

Oh, there we go. There we go. We just lost one. One went. Oh, there goes

one. We can see ignition any time. Oh, there goes another one.

They're just going about every second now.

Just like popcorn, one after another, they burst and release their butane.

Anyone got any melted butter?

It's working like clockwork. I love that. And there should be plenty in

get ignition.

It might be time for me to hit the sparker. You think so? It's going to be

close to an optimal mission ratio.

I'm going to go for it. All right.

Jamie mans the switch for the sparker. Count it down.

Three, two, one.

Yeah!

That was beautiful.

Dude, it blew out the back window. And the rest of them are starting to go now.

Poop, poop, poop.

Dude, that was so cool. That construction was magnificent.

It knocked the windows right out.

If you needed one more reason to give up smoking, there it is.

I saw the fire leap across the lighter.

Boom! And then I looked over here just in time to watch that back window flying

off the car. That would be what I would call a car explosion.

You know, it blew the windshield out or the rear windshield out. Yeah, yeah. It

blew stuff up.

Worked perfectly.

It did.

I'm really glad.

This is my favorite part, checking out the burnt husk of our experiment.

The teeth are gone.

Really? Yep.

That.

Look at that. It blew out all the glass.

So if you ever want to take 500 disposable lighters for a drive, turn up

conditioner.

I want to steal this and hang it on the wall. This is magnificent.

This is just what I was hoping to end up with, a little modern art charred and

burnt.

And where does all this impressive debris leave our exploding lighter bits?

Okay, well, how are we going to wrap this up?

I think quite handily. The idea that a single lighter could blow up and kill

under any circumstances, that's fine. We took care of that. I agree.

But with 500 lighters, now you're talking a big explosion. And it could

It is absolutely plausible, provided you've got an ignition.

Now, I think we've wrapped this one up quite nicely. Let's go. Okay.