8 replies to this topic

[aapua]

Just a short comment / question. A fireworks symposium will be in 18-22 April, in Japan, Otsa. I just wander if somebody of this forum's people is going to go there? I hope I personaly will...

[Richard H]

Alas, sadly not. However I will be attending the Pyrotechnic Chemistry Course:

http://www.pyrochemi...rse UK 2005.pdf

[alany]

Looks like it is based on Kosanke one, I've got the textbook for theirs.

[aapua]

Hello everyone, I'm back from Shiga, Japan, from the 8th of Symposium. First, it could have been a chance to meet personally mister Shimizu himself, sadly because of his age, he didn't show up.

Anyway, if devide this into parts, I could say that the main attention was about safety aspects. Few accidents - in Australia, USA, France, China and Japan - were discussed.
Then, about the dangers of mixing some chemicals and the mixing process itself. The static electricity and the static caused by desired or not desired friction are the common problems. It was shown how small is the energy that can ignite different mixtures.
What plastic bag can do - it's a miracle. You just hold your stuff in plastic bags, and all you have to do is just mix things together (even wooden bowl and spoon won't help you) and the "bang" happens.
About few interesting chemicals and technologies, also some papers.
Many papers were about different displays, how the problems were solved, what ignition systems they used etc.
And few papers about making some special effects and the making of the world's largest shell: 120 cm in diameter, weight about 840 kg!!! Sadly, this shell wasn't fired on the closing evening. But we saw a video.
On one evening we had a round-table meeting in different groups to talk about different topics. The 2 I chose were about self-ignition hazards and problems with perchlorates.
In every evening we could see a fireworks shows, presented by italians (2 companies), british (1), chinese (3 or 4), taiwan (santai) and japanese (the closing evening). You believe me, there was what to see! Especially I looked at the special effects. The cat's face, the jellyfish, the saturn of saturns are just few to notice. The cleanness of colours, the symmetricy of effects - I felt where I am and what a huge step is to be taken to reach where they were.
And last but not least - I met really nice people. Two to remember especially - Rainer Davies from UK, he's a owner of a fireworks company, and a student of Shimizu - the guy who worked in Santai, Taiwan, and who is now working with the Thailand's company. He told me things that I guess are worth every single dollar I spent to fly there. It was - don't wait anything special, the surprise is, how simple the things are - it was: just keep on going on your own way. If you are lucky to have knowlidge, it's good. If jou have also skills, it's better. And if you happen to have fantasy, it's the best you might have. Of course, test everything, but you have to move on, don't stop at the final page of a book, there are much-much more hidden behind all of this. Just be a man and find it. There would'n ever have been any special effects, but peonys and chrysantemums when just one day someone didn't decide to do something different. These were the words of Shimizu itself, and the guy said one reason why Santai became so famous was his courage to overcome the limits.
But, everything is up to you.
These were just small thoughts and comments. If somebody finds some topic interesting, I don't mind to talk a bit more, I'm not gonna promise to print all the proceedings, but the part of it would be absolutely possible.

Aapua

[Richard H]

Thank-you very much for not only being there but for posting this! I attended a pyro chemistry course last week in England, and we learnt the best way to develop those really great effects is to get out there and do some experimenting!

Wise words.

[alany]

Did you do any practical, or was it all theory?

aapua: There is so much I'd love to ask, I'd keep you talking about it all day What's this plastic bag miracle thing? Do you mean for mixing?

Edit: I forgot to write about my recent experences. I did the General Permit course run by Acme. It was in Lismore NSW, about 10 km or so from the QLD border. There were 8 students and over three days we did two of theory at the local Tafe and one of practical at the showground (about 140 m diameter and lots of space around it).

The theory was mainly the regulations of storage and transport. I was quite suprised that NSW has some excellent regulations, quite a bit less extreme that I expected, and a cake-walk compared to QLD. There was no technical details of firework construction, just the names of the effects, etc. It wasn't a bulders course, so I expected none, but I know one or two of the other students were interested in a more detailed course on that kind of material. Apparently none such exists in AU? I know the Kosankes have done them before in AU though, Bonnie told me so herself.

The practical was fun! The weather gave us hell though. We managed to setup and hand-fire candles up to 1", cakes to 50 mm, and shells up to 3" in the morning (so we could observe the smoke and fall-out) before it started bucketing rain. We were then broken up into teams of two and each given a fairly large quantity of shells, cakes, a few candles and a "special" device or two each. My group's specials were three Fe gerbs and a waterfall. Other group's got such goodies as large Ti gerbs, a wheel, a set piece, and a cracker string. We all got a go doing the set piece, nothing special purple lances spelling out "HAPPY". After waterproofing and setting up all that stuff in the rain the weather broke just in time for us to all share in setting up electrical-fired 4", 5", and 6" shells, barage cakes, and some indoor/effects fireworks.

Once dark each team took turns shooting their mini-display, then we did the indoor fireworks using an RF remote system, and then we got to fire the big stuff! My group's gerbs sucked, but the waterfall more than made up for it. One lance in the falls held-fire for a while because its match got soaked, and one of the 3" shells I lit didn't go either, probably because the leader got wet too. Everything else went off well, better they the daytime display where a few cake shots blew up. In general though the fireworks were of excellent quality.

Everyone passed and had a great time. Most arrived there pretty gun-hoe about fireworks, and many left having second thoughts. Hehe, those who had not worked displays before were somewhat unprepared for all the hard work and a bit scared by the red tape. Most of us exchanged contact details, so we may work together in the future.

Edited by alany, 25 April 2005 - 01:37 PM.

[aapua]

Did you do any practical, or was it all theory?

aapua:  There is so much I'd love to ask, I'd keep you talking about it all day   What's this plastic bag miracle thing?  Do you mean for mixing?

No, the symposium wasn't meant to be for training, it's more like people come and talk about their experiments and works, the new trends or big discoveries. Like: into a whistle mix you can add 10% almost everything you have in lab, the whistle effect remains. So, it can be used for adding coloured flame to whistle (the guy demonstrated that effect).

The "miracle" actually was zirconium powder in a plastic (trash) bag. It was shown that depending on how many grams of Zr-powder was in the bag, 15-25 times of shaking was needed to ignite the powder (only Zr, no oxydizer in this experiment). And on: after holding your Al-powder in such plastic bag, then walking with it and finally mixing it with perchlorate may cause a self-ignition, because Al already would be charged.

[italteen3]

I would love to continue the flash accidental ignition discussion in here but I will post all questions in the FP thread in the Formulas section.

Questions about the Symposium .

Any of the new special effects you wouldnt mind discussing?

Also the 48" Shell. I believe I saw a video on that too. Was it a shell of shells with red pistol shells and a golden outer shells? If so it was AMAZING!

[aapua]

Questions about the Symposium .

Any of the new special effects you wouldnt mind discussing?

Also the 48" Shell.  I believe I saw a video on that too.  Was it a shell of shells with red pistol shells and a golden outer shells?  If so it was AMAZING!

Just ask!
The effects new for me may be well known for you - because I haven't seen many shows. But - still my favourite of them was "saturn of saturns". I guess you imagine how it looked like. the red inner sphere with blue "ring" around. Then, every star making the blue ring gave anothere saturn, again, the inner red and blue making a ring around it. I believe it must have been 42 cm diameter at least.
The cat's face is just funny thing, although very hard to make. The outer ring, imagining the face, had ears as well. It was first. Then the eyes - not just single star, but a ring with a single star in the centre! The mouth was regular, one curve. All the details were made of different colors and the stars were absolutely without tale. But the most amazing: the cat had moustaches!!! The silver tale stars. I almost fell from the balcony I was.
And the jellyfish. One hemi full of stars, then the single ring in the centre of the effect, and finally long "legs" or whatever you might call them. The important - it wasn't symmetrical at all, this is the thing that makes making of these effects so difficult. To guarantee the burst to act in asymmetrical way. This is art.

They have 2 types of 48'' shells. "The shell of shells" - giving 2 different time delays bursts. In first, there is a huge amount of different color peonys, and immidiately after they have burnt another half of small shells, sort of golden effect (probably kamuro) will appear. Wow. It was beautiful.
The another one is not so nice in my opinion, but not bad anyway. It was called "brocade over red flowers". A huge brocade crown, inside it with different delays many-many red peonys appear.