That was a classic that got passed around our high school... My favorites were the ones that started with practically nothing. IIRC, they made gunpowder from campfire ashes, a 5 gallon bucket, and a t-shirt filter. Another one - was it rocket fuel? - was made from urine! I think you could even progress that one from urea nitrate to nitric acid, and with the improvised sulfuric acid from elsewhere in the book, make actual dynamite! but our high school teacher warned us that many high school geniuses had blown themselves up making dynamite. Anyway we actually didn't care about blowing things up, really.... we were into fireworks!!!! So we enjoyed concentrating the powder from zillions of sparklers to make an "artificial sun." We also made humungous smoke bombs that went on for a long time making the neighbors antsy.