Fireworks Materials( I )

 The followings are the materials which usually are used in fireworks manufacture and their functions.

                               Aluminum
Over the last seventy or eighty years aluminum has added tremendously to the last brilliance of fireworks, and yet the great variety in production techniques has caused problems in the production of uniform effects. The powders are prepared in hammer mills, in ball mills, or by atomization.

Flake aluminum in mesh sizes is known as “ flitter ” and there has been a tendency for manufacturers to sell this to the firework trade under the categories of “ fine”, “middle” and “coarse”.

The so called Dark p y r o  Aluminum consists of a very fine flake powder that is produced in varying shades of dark grey.
Atomized aluminum is being used increasingly in fireworks. But up to the present time only limited use has been found for this material.

      

                       Ammonium Salts
In the past , white smokes have been made with potassium chlorate and ammonium chlorate, and it has to be admitted that mixture appears to be reasonably stable, though at first sight theoretically this should not be so .

 

                           Ammonium per chlorate
In recent years ammonium perch orate has been used extensively, not only in fireworks for the production of rich blue and red colors, but also in the manufacture of propellants. It can be safely mixed with pure potassium per chlorate but must not be used with chlorates, and it is unwise to mix ammonium per chlorate stars with other chlorate stars in the same shell or rocket.

                         Anthracene

The  pure form occurs as fine blue fluorescent crystals which melt at about 213c. it is insoluble in water and rather sparingly soluble in most organic solvents.

Anthracene is mainly used in combination with potassium per chlorate to produce black smokes.

                              Antimony, S b

Antimony is mainly used to produce white fires in combination with potassium nitrate and s ulph u r or it is used in combination with aluminum to aid ignition. Antimony is also responsible in part for the well known glitter effect which is basically a combination of gunpowder, antimony and aluminum.

       

                           Antimony Tri s u l p h Id e , Sb2S3

As a fuel, its uses are much the same as the metal powder, though it ignites more easily. It has disadvantage also that it is more dirty to handle than the metal powder.

Synthetically produced material is not usually used in fireworks and it can be difficult to get good glitter effects from it.

                     Arsenic disulphide,As2s2 Real gar

The native ore, real g a r , is sometimes ground to a fine powder and used to make white fires. It has also been used for making smokes.

  

                      Arsenic T r I s u l p hide , As2s3 Orpiment

The commercial powder has two forms, one yellow and one red . the yellow form changes to red on heating to  170 c.

The red form is often used to make white stars which have the advantage of being easy to ignite when moving at very fast speeds. A part from the occasional use in smokes, orpiment is used in combination with carbon black for making. Flower Pots with their characteristic golden spur fire.

Arsenic is safe to handle, of course, provided that precautions are taken to keep it out of the nose and mouth.

Fireworks History

Working with fire probably began about half a million years ago when patriarchal cavemen realized that they felt cold and began rubbing pieces of wood together until the friction caused an ignition.

It is only within the last 200 years or so that fireworks was correctly interpreted as being a form of energy where the flames are defined as regions of luminous hot gas.

By about the eighth century AD , the Chinese alchemists, amongst others, were preoccupied with discovering the elixir of life . Concoctions were made containing all manner of substances including oils, honey and beeswax, but among the most significant, were the ingredients sulfur and saltpeter.

A bout 1000 AD the Chinese were using a propellant similar to gunpowder in crude forms of rockets fireworks(Flying Fire),together with grenades and even toxic smokes. For example, a recipe in the Wu Ching Tsung Yao dated 1044 describes a mixture, containing sulfur, saltpeter, arsenic salts, lead salts, oils and waxes to give a toxic incendiary that could be launched from a catapult.

The pyrotechnic art has been remarkably slow

In Europe, pyrotechnics for military purposes saw an early peak of achievement in the form of Greek fire. Old manuscripts suggest several ways of attempting to combat the fireworks, especially the application of wine, vinegar, sand and even urine.

More peaceful uses of these crude articles appeared in the form of firecrackers-the first fireworks? One mixture corresponded quite closely to modern gunpowder in that it contained saltpeter, sulfur and willow charcoal. The firecracker was said to consist of a loosely-filled small hole to accept a match or fuse.

Firework manufacture has a long history, but the development of the pyrotechnic art has been remarkably slow.

The Chinese may have made fireworks of sorts over a thousand years ago; displays have been fired popularity, now worldwide, seems undiminished. Nevertheless, basically, firework displays have changed little over the centuries, with rockets, shells and roman candles, in various forms, remaining the main display components.

Firecracker

The Chinese, however, had employed pyrotechnic mixtures long before this date. Ancient manuscripts describe explosive bombs, which were fired from giant catapults, and burst on landing or in the air. Similar missiles were merely dropped on the enemy from fortress walls. Firecrackers were often in early times, just as they are now, to scare away evil spirits from wedding and birth celebrations and from funerals, and they were also much in evidence at various religious festivals. These crackers were often made by packing gunpowder in to bamboo cases or rolled paper tube, so laying the foundations of modem firework manufacture. They exploded when thrown on to the fire, hence the origin of the name “firecracker”.

It is probable that first gunpowder was formed when, quite by chance, charcoal, saltpeter and sulphur were brought together. Traditionally, the Chinese are credited with the discovery at a time well before historical records. Certainly the evidence suggests that gunpowder originated in the east.

Firework manufacture

Considerable opposition has been directed against the sale of fireworks, or even their manufacture, in almost every country where they are made. Certainly in the U.S.A. and the European union, governments have often reacted vigorously, and sometimes with almost hysterical haste, in response to campaigns for greater control. In the united states, different legislation applies in the separate states. Some administration ban the sale of all types of firework, while others allow only “safe and sane” types, which include flares, candles, fountains, wheels, sparklers, etc., but not those with explosive elements.

Firework manufacture is an art, but for the manufacturing companies it is also a business. As such, it faces the multitude of problems which confront all other businesses in the modern, competitive commercial world. Above all, the work must show a profit, and with rising costs of materials and transport, increasing wage bills, higher insurance premiums, the escalating costs, expenses of various overheads, the expensive safety regulations imposed by the authorities.

Fireworks were introduced to the united states by immigrants

In the nineteenth century, many American manufacturers were branches of European companies. The earliest known manufacturer of fireworks for pleasure in the U.S.A. was the Du Pont family near Wilmington,Delaware in 1809. the business thrived until the 1940s and continued to supply powder for the industry until the 1970s.

China is usually considered the birthplace of black powder and firework making. Hundreds of factories supplied material for fireworks display celebrating religious festivals and public events, marriages and funerals.

Recent political changes in china have meant that many manufacturers are now allowed to invest private capital and trade unhindered across the world. Certainly, china leads the world in the volume of production and export. A large number of small companies,especially in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan,Jiangxi and Hebe provinces, feed the large exporters and display companies, which operate under such group titles as temple of heaven of Beijing or red lantern,and brand names like sunny, Vulcan and an ping.

A large percentage of the fireworks produced in Japan used to be exported, but this is no longer the case;the bulk of them are used internally. This is because they require so much expensive hand labor that the finished products are very costly.

Firework Display

Firework displays were seldom seen in England before the end of the sixteenth century. Shakespeare refers to “fireworks” on several occasions in his plays, suggesting that the term was in general usage in England in Tudor times. Other literature of the head often mentions the “green man” whose function was to walk at the head of processions carrying “fire clubs” and scattering “fireworks”(in this case probably meaning sparks)to clear the way.

The origin of this character and his title are a mystery, but we are told that he was usually made up to appear very ugly, and he certainly survived well into the following century.

The earliest record of a firework display in England was in 1572, when a large fireworks show was put on at Warwick castle to mark the visit of queen Elizabeth I .