9 replies to this topic

[Matt Bear]

Hi, I'm new to the forum and to pyrotechnics in general. I'm not even sure if I'm actually involved enough with pyrotechnics to even qualify for being 'new' to it.
So yeah, I'm Matt.

Long story short; my interest in pyro. is for this qualification they do, 'EPQ'; Extended Project Qualification and I'm looking at learning some basic pyro. for a small display or something, being taught it by the Theatre Tech dude at school. Since I'm a complete novice, n00b and otherwise dopey fool, does anybody have any advice, ideas, or recommendations of where (and where not) to do some research?

[Arthur Brown]

Domestic fireworks and professional fireworks require you BY LAW to be 18 years or older to buy, possess or operate them. SO it's highly UNlikely that a school technician would/should give you use or control of pyrotechnics til you are 18.

[Karl Mitchell-Shead]

You say that Arthur mate, you do have to be 18 to purchase fireworks and posess them in public however they use of them in private is down to I guess parents discretion. Very similar too with professional fireworks, while many companies prefer / will not train you unless you are 18 plus. There is no 'law' stating you must be and in fact one or two companies I know have Junior members of staff

[phildunford]

My suggestion (given the financial and time contraints of school projects) would be to plan and organise a small CAT 3 display. Maybe attempt to fire it electrically.

The places to do research would be here, UKFR, and the sites of reputable retailers. eg Fireworks Crazy has a very nice site where they film all the fireworks. That way you get a good idea of effect, timings etc.

If you have a helpful tech, you are half way there. If you are under 18, he will have to buy the material and be nominally in charge, but I'm sure you could make this work with a bit of good will...

[Matt Bear]

Hi;
Thanks everyone for your replies. I'm going out this evening so I don't have time to do any proper research on your leads, but I'm so glad that you said you can be any age to operate fireworks privately; I had a look at some very amiguous regulations the other evening, and that was my (eventually) conclusion too.

[JonW]

well it completely depends what experience you have/haven't had so far. I still work in both theatre and outdoor fireworks events, main difference being the theatre is so small a space a lot of problems that you face in the field, like current drop etc you will never face in theatre.

So a few things to note is that if you want to electrically fire you need to keep your firing modules near to the fireworks as possible, i once knew a guy who wanted to op a display from about three hundred metres away and for some reason he decided to extend all his igniter cables to his control position.....no firework got fired that night ;-) Why he did that i have no idea as it was controlled by wireless anyway, but shows what happens if an idiot enters the firework field. Also keep in mind the weather, i cover everything if it is dull day which means everything usually gets fired even if it is hammering it down during the display, a lot of people find they go home with a lot of soggy fireworks through lack of foresight.

Thinking about electrics again, if you are firing commercially bought fireworks then they are going to have visco fuses, which means you will need to use talon igniters which is a bit dull, unless you use the old extend the visco with quickmatch then you can use ordinary pyro igniters which are cheaper - well if you buy in bulk ;-)

Anyway, this post is getting a little dull now, have fun!

[Maxim]

Im doing the EPQ too but on something a biiit different "How do periods of geopolitical instabilities affect the global price of oil". lol.

An EPQ is generally rather a demanding task as an essay would be about 6000 words or so, depending on the level. Other forms of presentation are also possible such as a video, presentation, play etc. and the qualification is worth half an a-level. Just to quickly outline to those who havnt heard of the Extended Project Qualification

ANYWAY. Id like to ask Matt for some more details about what he plans to do for his EPQ. What form are you doing it in? For all of those who worry about his age, he does not technically even have to lay hands on pyrotechnic materials in order to do the EPQ

Matt, what area of pyro are you most interested in? Your post was a bit vague... perhaps you would like to explore the different constructions of aerial shells and other pyrotechnic devices? Maybe the chemistry of the colours of fire or other things is where you would want to base your primary interests? (Im doing a talk at this years AGM on the chemistry of it all, so maybe attending that would help somewhat )

[Matt Bear]

As I understand it, an EPQ consists of either;

- 6,000 word essay
- a sort of diary thing about how you went about your research
- a presentation about what you did

or

- 1,000 word essay
- a sort of diary thing about how you went about your research
- a presentation about what you did
- an 'artifact'; that is to say, something to show for yourself or to have actually accomplished. This could include (for example) a fireworks display, a sculpture, a musical composition, etc.

The second option is a better choice for learning something practical, or something new, whereas the first option is more for people doing a specific study into something.


Part of the reason of doing the EPQ for me is that I really need to practise getting off my arse and actually getting stuff done, so to organise a display or something, and to juggle everything that goes with it is beneficial to me, even without the half-A-level to go with it. I wasn't joking about when I said I'm a complete beginner to pyro; I know very little about it, so I'm not currently certain that I will definitely use it for my EPQ. On the other hand, it seems to be a good idea because it's a skill that seems to work well with the EPQ, I get on well with the Theatre Tech dude that mentioned a few weeks ago he could teach me some stuff if I wanted, and that it also bleeds into my interest for theatrical design and technical theatre. While doing some pyrotechnical effects for a school play would seem to be the most obvious answer, I can't rely on the production in question to have room for pyro effects, and I couldn't trust the bolshy director as far as I could throw him not to completely stamp on the project halfway into it. As a result, doing a fireworks display seems like a decent second choice.

As yet, I really don't know enough about pyro to say there's an area in which I'm particularly interested, but for the 'artifact' version of the EPQ, I don't think I need to do so much academic study into it as you do for yours, so I don't think that it really matters (at this point), anyway.

Im doing the EPQ too but on something a biiit different "How do periods of geopolitical instabilities affect the global price of oil". lol.

An EPQ is generally rather a demanding task as an essay would be about 6000 words or so, depending on the level. Other forms of presentation are also possible such as a video, presentation, play etc. and the qualification is worth half an a-level. Just to quickly outline to those who havnt heard of the Extended Project Qualification

ANYWAY. Id like to ask Matt for some more details about what he plans to do for his EPQ. What form are you doing it in? For all of those who worry about his age, he does not technically even have to lay hands on pyrotechnic materials in order to do the EPQ

Matt, what area of pyro are you most interested in? Your post was a bit vague... perhaps you would like to explore the different constructions of aerial shells and other pyrotechnic devices? Maybe the chemistry of the colours of fire or other things is where you would want to base your primary interests? (Im doing a talk at this years AGM on the chemistry of it all, so maybe attending that would help somewhat )

[Arthur Brown]

Before you get too involved, please run the ideas past your tutor. You need to get all the marks you can so work out how your project will get you the learning outcomes and the final mark that you need.

[JonW]

couldn't trust the bolshy director as far as I could throw him not to completely stamp on the project halfway into it

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