# How difficult is it to kill yourself in prison? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 6, 2005, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-difficult-is-it-to-kill-yourself-in-prison/334390 "2005-12-06T19:13:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2005, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-difficult-is-it-to-kill-yourself-in-prison/334390/41 "2005-12-08T11:37:04Z")
> [@The Sausage Creature](#): > > I read that turn of the century playing cards contained nitro\*. Specifically, the dye used on the suit symbols\*\*. All you’d need then is glycerine – quite easy to come by – and then fashion the pipe bomb in that way. The “nitro” in nitroglycerin comes from concentrated nitric acid, and concentrated sulphuric acid is required as well. There is no way to convert glycerin into an explosive using playing cards. If playing cards have any explosive properties at all, it must be contained entirely in the ink. Besides, I doubt that glycerin is “quite easy to come by” in prison. ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2005, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-difficult-is-it-to-kill-yourself-in-prison/334390/42 "2005-12-08T12:43:00Z")
While I’m willing to concede that the pipe bomb story may be wholly manufactured, I stand by my statement that glycerin would be pretty easy to come by in prison, in one form or another. Personally, I’d love to see the MythBusters tackle this one. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2005, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-difficult-is-it-to-kill-yourself-in-prison/334390/43 "2005-12-08T13:54:43Z")
> [@The Sausage Creature](#): > > While I’m willing to concede that the pipe bomb story may be wholly manufactured, I stand by my statement that glycerin would be pretty easy to come by in prison, in one form or another. Are you thinking of the plot of a certain film where they turn the glycerine in soap into Nitro? ---
**Author:** ![Rhinocerous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f14d63/32.png) [@Rhinocerous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhinocerous)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2005, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-difficult-is-it-to-kill-yourself-in-prison/334390/44 "2005-12-10T00:01:30Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Are you thinking of the plot of a certain film where they turn the glycerine in soap into Nitro? I watched “Fight Club” in it’s entirety with the director’s comments turned on. I was always curious about the recipe for nitroglycerine in the movie. They talked about that, and said that the recipe shown in the movie was somewhat close to the actual recipe in real life, with a few ingredients/procedural steps excluded. I wonder how many people tried to make nitro after watching that movie? ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2005, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-difficult-is-it-to-kill-yourself-in-prison/334390/45 "2005-12-10T00:20:25Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > Yeah, but the only thing missing is a closed container to allow the pressure to build. A pipe with one end open would only produce a relatively low, sustained pressure like a rocket, not an explosion. It might cause a nasty burn, but I seriously doubt it would be capable of propelling pasteboard fragments through the skull. If it happened, somebody got the details wrong. I read the article to mean that one end of the pipe was blocked with the broomhandle, and the other was blocked by the prisoner’s head. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2005, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-difficult-is-it-to-kill-yourself-in-prison/334390/46 "2005-12-10T02:37:05Z")
> [@cckerberos](#): > > I read the article to mean that one end of the pipe was blocked with the broomhandle, and the other was blocked by the prisoner’s head. Unless he was a pinhead and jammed it into the pipe, it still won’t create the pressure necessary to cause an explosion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-difficult-is-it-to-kill-yourself-in-prison/334390.md?page=2)