Daft items...

[pandos]

I inflated a liferaft from 1980 which had been knocking around the shed glasshouse garden for the last 15 years... It fired and inflated perfectly... Fabric and seals are all fine and it stayed inflated for several days...

Today I read the instructions for a pack of patches that were packed with it...

In simple terms...

" Deflate raft. Dry area. Apply glue...put on patch... Wait 24 hours before inflating..."

Chocolate teapot comes to mind....

 

[Catalina36]

I once decided to test an out of date red handflare. I thought I'd do it in the garage so the neighbours wouldn't wonder what the bright red light was. It fired up first time, no problem and no danger, it just burned safely for a surprisingly long time. Never realised how much smoke they produce though....

The neighbours noticed but fortunately checked with me before calling the fire brigade. Don't do this at home.

 

[duncan99210]

I attended a Coastguard flare demonstration, where they had handheld flares and smokes for folks to set off. Well run lesson but for one thing: the red smokes produced, well red smoke but surprisingly small quantities of it. The red flares on the other hand produced so much smoke in addition to the bright light that half way through they decided not to use any more flares as it was causing a traffic hazard on the adjacent road....