I have postive recollections of a book I read as a child but I can remember almost nothing about it distinct enough to identify it. However, I remember that the main protagonist was a boy who liked doing experiments and quasi-scientific stunts only one (maybe two) of which I remember.
The one I remember clearly was that he heard that if you soaked a crusty loaf of bread in water for a few days the crust would hold it together but the inside would have turned to slurry. If you then took it to a height and dropped it, it would splatter most amazingly. He tries this but accidentally drops it on someone’s head (a schoolmaster?) and knocks them unconscious.
He might also have tried that trick of inserting a hose into the side of a tin, putting some flour in the hose and a stub of candle in the tin, then blowing the flour in so it exploded, blowing the lid off the tin.