It went horribly wrong when a father of young children to light a firecracker in a manhole cover in Xiangtan, China.

what happened, methane buildup in sewers?

:/ unlucky, his arm looks like it got hammered a fair bit

haha that is AWESOME

wouldn't even want to guess how bad their sewerage system is there for that to be able to occur

rofl, f***ing epic. I've done that a couple of times with the car radiator cap

Some ppl claim the manhole cover on a Nuke Test in the 50's was the first man made object in Space beating Sputnik. (others claim first in space was one of Hitlers V2 rockets in WW2)

Alot of ppl claim your fos.

mad footage. the dude's jacket gets shredded.

Glad it didn't hit any innocent people walking past.

Holy f***ing s***. That guy got owned.

LOL

Some ppl claim the manhole cover on a Nuke Test in the 50's was the first man made object in Space beating Sputnik. (others claim first in space was one of Hitlers V2 rockets in WW2)

What. Also someone needs to dub over the Fus Ro Dah

these images may help you out eorl ;)

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/9626/faceman01.jpg
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/3821/faceman02.jpg

mad footage. the dude's jacket gets shredded.

I was about to post 'Why does his shirt change colour mid asplosion?'

also, I don't speak Spanish or whatever, did the guy die?

Was actually a sheet of metal rather than a manhole, but it covered a hole.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Plumbbob#The_first_nuclear-propelled_manmade_object_in_space.3F

"Stand back kids"...

jebus, I wonder if that cover weighs as much as say an 'amurrcan' manhole cover...

Pretty spectacular footage... I wonder if Mythbusters could replicate it... (pretty specific set of circumstances which I'd find hard to believe if not staring at the footage...)

The plate was never found, but Dr. Brownlee believes that the plate never left the atmosphere (it may even have been vaporized by compression heating of the atmosphere due to its high speed).

Pretty spectacular footage... I wonder if Mythbusters could replicate it... (pretty specific set of circumstances which I'd find hard to believe if not staring at the footage...)

They have in the latest series, it worked.

What did they use as propellant?

(and was it Methane or natural gas to launch it in OP?)

This is why I use a Gas Detector before I hop down any Manholes :o

Also note, dont f*** around in China..there are cameras everywhere!

Re the nuking of the manhole cover:

After the event, Dr. Robert R. Brownlee described the best estimate of the cover's speed from the photographic evidence as "going like a bat!"[5][6] The use of a subterranean shaft and nuclear device to propel an object to escape velocity has since been termed a "thunder well".

That's fairly awesome.

Re the nuking of the manhole cover:

six times exit velocity.... that's a fair amount of energy to be exerted on a 900Kg steel plate...

Whilst I'm no chemist/physicist, I'm familiar enough with mechanics of how an EFP (Explosive Formed Projectile) works... makes me wonder what the impact of said metal plate would have been had it struck a target.