41 replies to this topic

[Tinderbox]

Hi,

 

after having a quick look through this part of the forum I didn't really see much on formulas from the magical age of UK manufactured shop goods. I'd be most excited to hear from anyone who has access to coppies of original formulas used at during the manufacture of british garden fireworks. Most of all those which were sold during the 80's but anything older would be great too.

 

I have an urge to replicate a few from scratch. Making the tubes to the same dimensions, printing off a photographed wrapper and completing the device with touchpaper and then videoing the ignited result.

 

Can anybody contribute to this exciting little project?

[Mortartube]

You can print lots of labels here and many will be original size. http://www.cyber-her...lery6/main.html

 

I have no specific comps but I can tell you that Standard and Brocks cheapened the mix they used as fuse powder in things such as single shot airbombs and the floodlight etc, by the addition of a percentage of woodmeal (probably about 8%),. Otherwise the fuse powder was a simple slow burning BP mix hardly compressed at all.

Edited by Mortartube, 03 February 2014 - 07:31 PM.

[helix]

There were some comps listed here a year or so back.

 

The snowstorm formula and a carnival spray formula were listed from memory,

[Mortartube]

Search through this thread http://www.pyrosocie...carnival spray

[phildunford]

Quite a lot on my website & I do have some more tucked away somewhere... Will try & find them & publish them some time.

 

There are very few 'magic formula' out there. When you finally get down to it they are very similar. However, the state of refinement, how finely they were ground etc, all make a difference & generally are not recorded.

 

Love recreating these old fireworks myself - far better than modern stuff!!

[Mortartube]

I agree with you about the old fireworks being far better. Chinese shop goods in a selection box seem to be crackles, followed by more crackles and maybe the odd jewelled fountain. I used to like the old crackling cauldron as a kid when you only heard one, once a year. Standard snowstorm evokes great memories and the little Standard tourbillions in box selections were one of my favourites.

[phildunford]

Here are a couple of real ones from the 60's/ early 70's - you might want to start with smaller batches!

 

General purpose red stars

Potassium Chlorate 3lb 15oz
Strontium Carbonate 1lb 2oz
Accaroid Resin 4oz
shellac 60/80 mesh 3oz
lactose 8oz
charcoal dust 2oz
dextrin 2oz

dampen with water/meth solution

 

Green Hand light

Potassium Perchlorate 10lb
Barium Chlorate 7lb
Barium Nitrate 4lb
Shellac Grade 3 3lb

Sieve three times

 

No - I don't know what grade 3 shellac was - but I'd imagine quite finely powdered...

[Tinderbox]

Aha. Spot on. Not that many original formulas are divulged yet. Surely they must have been recorded somewhere? I'll give the listed recipies a go for sure. Would be fantastic to know what Standard used for their sky rocket motor comps.

 

Cheers guys!

[phildunford]

Glad you like...

 

Surprisingly, people are still very protective of the old formula. I have quite a few and will get them into the public domain gradually.

 

Think it was Ron Lancaster who said "if anyone ever made a fortune out of a 'secret' pyro formua, he'd like to meet them". Mind you, it's also him that has most of the old notebooks and I don't see them getting published

[starseeker]

There are also a large amount of comps in the Rev Lancasters book, Fireworks,Principles and Practice.

[phildunford]

There are also a large amount of comps in the Rev Lancasters book, Fireworks,Principles and Practice.

 

There's an urban legend that he left the best ones out...

[starseeker]

There's an urban legend that he left the best ones out...

Cant say i blame him 

[Tinderbox]

I just can't comprehend why one would want to keep formulas a secret though. What would one gain from being so guarded over a mix of fizzly powders? You certainly wouldn't be getting rich from it unless it's something akin to the Philosopher's Stone or the elixir of life. Come on you silly stick in the muds, let's 'ave 'em!

Edited by Tinderbox, 05 February 2014 - 11:59 PM.

[Mortartube]

I can recommend the Shimizu Mg/Al gliiter from Rons book.

[PaulM]

I did keep all the old compositions from Astra with all the tube sizes etc. I will try and dig them out. I actually had records of Wizard and Brocks too, "Lent" them to someone.....never do that, trust me. I never saw them again.