10 replies to this topic

[David]

Sounds a really daft question- but seriously, was there something in old British fireworks (drifting with the smoke) that gave it a distinctive smell that we don't get any more?

I can remember quite a distinctive smell, doesn't seem to be part of Chinese fireworks nowadays.

There was even a distinctive smell when you opened a box of british fireworks.

[GZ22]

Most likely the hydrogen sulphide in the smoke, wonderful eggy smell!

[MDH]

Yeah. I think the sulfur they have now is a bit more purified.

[crystal palace fireworks]

I remember the smell distinctly, The sulfer (slight rotting egg smell) from the BP combined with blue touch paper fuse was special.

Also I believe the letter press printing inks used in the 1960s & 70s to decorate the fireworks had something to do with it (bit like getting residue newsprint ink on your hands) along with the more porous cardboard tubes the fireworks were made from (absorbtion/impregnation of cardboard from firework compounds).

[Arthur Brown]

I suspect that the glue used for the tubes has changed and may have been a smellier organic glue from boiled bone or fish and evolved into a mineral or polymer glue. Also the sulphur used was mined from the ground so would have had characteristic impurities, the S now used comes from the oil refining industry (low sulphur fuel - so sell the sulphur elsewhere) so it will have different impurities.

[Firefiend]

To go a stage further, I remember that even the different makes had different smells in their boxes.

I've had the good luck to obtain a few old complete boxes from the 60's and 70's and there is definitely a different smell to Standard, Astra and Brock's. This has become quite strong after so many years. I suppose each had their own manufacturing techniques, which points more to the printing, glue, etc, rather than just the chemicals alone, which I guess would have been pretty standard.

Even the little display cupboard which I use to display a few single items has started to develop a 'firework' smell nicely..... Reminds me of my frequent trips to shops selling fireworks in those days. They usually had a unique smell.

[David]

I've had the good luck to obtain a few old complete boxes from the 60's and 70's and there is definitely a different smell to Standard, Astra and Brock's.

Wow- thats rare indeed! Where had they been all this time?

[Firefiend]

I've been collecting firework memorabilia for about 5 years now and they are some of the items I've come accross. Some bits off eBay, but the boxes have all been ad-hoc items, stashed away in loft, cupboards, etc. I've sent a few pics to the online firework museu. I assume you have seen that site.

Boxes in question are here:

Astra Box - Size F

Brock's Box - £1.00

Standard Box - Size 30 Aerial Display

[wjames]

i used to love the astra bangers......ten to a pack...with the large round fuses ?

[Mortartube]

With touchpaper, a small amount of the composition would leak out into the boxes. I susupect some of the smell was red gum etc.

Also, certainly with Standard, many of the fountains had a small amount of red resin holding the base plug in, I think this was similar to fibreglass resin. I recall seeing the girls at Standard doing this operation. They had a small tubular gun with a trigger on it, a bit like an artists airbrush and a pipe went from a tank of resin to the gun. There was about a gross of inverted finished squat fountains and the girls just squirted resin all day. Probably one of the most boring jobs at the factory.

[Potassium chlorate]

Old Swedish fireworks also had a special smell, probably also from impure sulphur. The biggest allowed crackers in Sweden when I was a child were the China/Maxi Crackers, that contained 0.8 grams of hardpressed meal powder. Sometimes they didn't bang but went "fzzzzz...", other times there were small pieces of burning sulphur left for several seconds after the bang. I loved them though.

And like your stuff, old fireworks often leaked powder into the box. The rockets were pretty shitty though; they're much more powerful today. The limit for pyrotechnic mixture in publically available pyro in Sweden is 1 kg, though it excludes mortars over 3". The 4" were publically allowed until this year and they are still alllowed as long as there are any left in the stores, but then they'll be banned.