In 1930, William Kogut committed suicide while on death row at San Quentin. He did so by cutting out the hearts and diamonds symbols from several decks of playing cards, soaking them in water, sealing the mixture in one of the metal legs of his bunk, and placing the leg next to the radiator in his cell. The watery paste composed of the red dye and the paper from the pieces of the card contained our old friend, nitrocellulose. The nitrocellulose, while relatively intact while wet, became highly unstable when it dried out, and it exploded.
Modern playing cards are usually coated with plastic and contain far more benign dyes, which makes this trick much harder to perform today.
For more information about Mr. Kogut's spectacular demise, click here.
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