chemicalwazi

Saturday 29th April

We arrived in Valletta, after a maniac taxi driver tried to tell us that our hotel was closed and took us to another. After a bit of a discussion we were delivered to our correct hotel and checked in. Next up, head to the harbour (after a couple of ‘Al Fresco’ beers) to find the action. When we arrive there are barges full of foiled pyro in the harbour, and nine mechanical wheels 5-15 feet high erected on the quay.
We had some time before the show, so a circumnavigation of Valletta was in hand. This revealed the pub where Oliver Reed had his last pint and died after a drunken arm wrestle. At the foot of the wall outside Fort St Elmo there was a tunnel, which we only ventured in a small way because we lost natural light. Being pyro tourists there were lights in our luggage, so this tunnel warranted further investigation later.
The time came to head for the show. First we met up with Toni (Malta fireworks) and then ‘Bigbang’ (UKRA).

Showtime:

First pyro-musical competitive display: ‘Majestic Power’ by the Jubilee Fireworks Co. Ltd. of the United Kingdom
Fine display of incredibly timed ariel and barge based pyro, including some really nice crosettes and six Girendolas flying over the harbour.

A display of traditional ‘One-by-One’ Fireworks
“Multi-break cracker-shells ( murtali tal-beraq ikkuluriti) by Our Lady of Consolation Fireworks Factory – Gudja, Malta
“Multi-break coloured shells (murtali tal-kulur) by the St. Mary Fireworks Factory – Mosta, Malta and the 19th March Fireworks Factory – Rabat, Malta.
All these traditional Maltese shells were fantastic, they lift to an incredible height, with three breaks followed by a bottom shot which shook the harbour

Mechanical ground fireworks by the 15th August Fireworks Factory, Mosta – Malta and Our Lady of Consolation Fireworks Factory, Gudja – Malta
These were just amazing huge structures comprising cogs, wheels, chains, lances and drivers, all within touching distance of the audience. As they rotated, twisted and turned, pieces of flaming quickmatch and exploding drivers flew through the air. The crowd simply parted to allow a fallout area.

Second pyro-musical competitive display: “Dancing Stars over the Water” by the St. Mary Fireworks Factory – Mqabba, Malta.
A brilliant Star wars set with star shells breaking, and writing the word ‘MALTA’ with 40ft mines across the waterfront. But the highlight of this set was the ‘DARK FLASH’ really weird. Just like a normal load flash BUT no visible explosion. Just a black sky with noise.?????

Third pyro –musical competitive display : ‘Reflexus’ by Luso Pirotecnia of Portugal.
Fast paced display with lots of candles, shells, and mines. Nice falling leaf shells and a loud finale.

What a fantastic night! But now was the unenvied trek up the endless slopes and steps to the hotel.


Sunday 30th April

Up at 7am for breakfast, and then out to catch the coach to the firework factories. We would like to give a special thank you at this point to Toni, his son Clint and Joe for organising the trip. Also on the coach were Bigbang and his partner, the boys and girls from Jubilee Fireworks, Orzella, and two really nice guys from Pyrotechnics Guild International San Francisco.
Our first journey lasted only about 20 minuets and took us to St Joseph Firework Factory, Ghaxaq. The welcome we received was fantastic; lots of smiling faces keen to talk pyro. We were free to wander around with our videos and cameras, and talk pyro with the volunteers. The factory comprised of two open compounds, a covered area, a tearoom and six lockups.

For those who don’t know ‘Beraq’ (lightning) is a cylinder about 1” dia by 1.5” long spiked and pasted, side primed with delay and usually filled with chlorate flash.

Lockup 1. Mechanical and set pieces. Girandolas, Maltese cross lance work, wheels, drivers, up to 12” plastic and card hemispheres, one of which was half filled with ‘Beraq’ and 500feet of chain lance work.
Lockup 2. 200bar press, star pumps, drying racks, shells and stars, star sizing tooling and pattern templates.
Lockup 3. 3”-8” mortar shells, 4”-7” cylinder shells, compositions and bags of stars.
Lockup 4. Large finished multibreak shells fitted with pistons and lift charges. The Maltese make a lift charge like a can shell and spike it. Half finished shells with rings of ‘Berak’ for us to look at, and a 15 by 6 foot shelf packed with 3” and 4” finished shells bundled in tens.
Lockup 5. In excess of 4000 finished fireworks in here on shelves and benches.
Lockup 6. Construction materials
In the compound areas there were pasting tables, drying racks (old metal bed frames), priming operations, mortar and frame storage. Not to mention the shed with the noisy cockerel.
Karl and myself split up, but kept bumping into one another to discuss Maltese technique and detail. Karl made good friends with one of the crew, Sam. Sam then arranged a 6” by 2.5ft ‘Berak’ multibreak shell demonstration. A steel mortar fashioned from an old oxygen cylinder was positioned with rocks piled up around it. The shell was inserted and lit. Superb multibreak with large reports. Wow!
It was time to leave St Joseph Fireworks, but not before swapping details with Sam, who said he would come and pick us up tomorrow for a more thorough look around.

Our next stop was Our Lady of Consolation Fireworks Factory, Gudja. Here we found a very similar set-up but a little smaller. One compound with three lockups.
Lockup 1. A massive 19” hemisphere with twenty-four 4” Blue shells inside. This was only one half there were to be forty-eight shells in total. Also here were 7”-8” cylinder shells and 6”-8” ball shells all spiked but waiting pasting.
Lockup 2. ‘Berak’ drying room and multibreak storage.
Lockup 3. Drying room with 2” flash comets, 3”-4” charcoal comets, drying blackmatch, chemicals, stars of various sizes, half finished cylinders with stars wedged in, serpents, time fuse, spoolettes and flash inserts.
In the compound was burst and filler drying in the sun, tube storage pasting facilities and 12” ball shells drying.
We left Our Lady of Consolation Fireworks and headed back to Valletta. Once there it was a case of pick up the lights and head back to the tunnel. We made our way down to the fort and entered the tunnel with headlights on and video running. The first chamber we came across was a disused WW2 gun emplacement, with only a small shaft of light penetrating. It was then down the main tunnel for about 200m, climbing over rocks and old cable. We emerged to dogs barking in a large courtyard, and then realised we were inside Fort St Elmo. We made our way to the upper levels very warily because there was not a sole in sight. After a good look around we emerged from the main gate to a Gatekeeper who was not happy and shouting “No Entry” at us. We made our apologies and went for a beer . After the beer it was down to the harbour, where stilt walkers and marching bands performed. We meet up with Bigbang and bump into Sam, Jesmond and the rest of the St Joseph crew to watch the show.

Showtime:

Fourth pyro-musical display: ‘Illuminating our Grand Harbour” by the St. Michael Fireworks Factory – Lija, Malta
Hugh shell breaks, deafening bottom shots and superb blue comets with gold glitter tails. Multibreak shells with three colour rings ‘Berak’ and micro star rings. We were standing near the boys who made these shell and they were more than happy with the results.

A display of traditional ‘One-by-One’ Fireworks “Multi-break cracker shells” (murtali tal-beraq ikkuluriti) by St. Catherine Fireworks Factory,
Zurrieq, Malta and the Lily Fireworks Factory – Mqabba, Malta
Another fantastic display of traditional Maltese shells.

Ground fireworks by the Lourdes Fireworks Factory of San Gwann, Malta
Mechanical ground fireworks by the La Stella Fireworks Factory – Gudja, Malta
Just as good as yesterdays, nine mechanical wheels. Absolutely amazing engineering. Every part of these is handmade, even the cogs and universal joints. They just look like Kaleidoscopes.

Fifth pyro-musical competitive display: “Flaming flowers over the Mediterranean” by the15th August Fireworks Factory – Mosta, Malta
Red strobes, comets, lovely multibreak shells timed superbly well.

Final and non-competitive pyro-display: “The Power of Fire” by Orzella Fireworks Company, Italy
Ozzella put on a fine display, including parachutes with stars on string suspended beneath, even the parachutes were illuminated with a lance inside. They also floated pyro balloons across the harbour in front of the crowd. Just to top it all, after a breathtaking finale, the tyres on the barges were alight in about for places.

Monday May 1st

May 1st in Malta is Labour Day. We emerged from our hotel to find people everywhere waving red flags and sounding air horns. Huge speaker stacks were erected in Freedom Square ready for the afternoon and evening party. After a walk around and lunch we met with Sam in his pickup truck. Off back to St Joseph Fireworks to talk some pyro. We arrive to find all the boys busy at work pasting, nosing and priming. We walk around taking notes, drawing diagrams and taking measurements. From the factory we can see Sams village which has its flags flying. Sam suggests we go to his village club and we agree. The building is fantastic, all marble, painted frescos and ornate grand entrance stairs. In Malta the villagers are very proud of their heritage, the club was entirely built by volunteers, as are all the fireworks. The firework styles and techniques have been handed down through generations since the 16th century.
Sam then took us off to a party on the NW point of the island, which turned out to be a massive outdoor Rave, with about 8000 people. Karl was ok, but I felt a little old Here we met the guys from Unionband who we had a great time with. Apparently this rave happens once a month with some of the worlds top D.J’s performing. We make our way home about midnight when we finally find the truck, and hit the sack for the last time.

What an amazing weekend. It was great to meet Andy ‘Bigbang’, the people of Malta were fantastic, friendly and most hospitable. We would like to thank everyone who made this a superb holiday.

Paul & Karl

(Photos and video will be uploaded in this section from Karl’s server shortly)

I have been asked by my good friend, and Pyro buddy RegimentalPyro if i would upload a fantastic trip he is about to undertake. Gladly i agreed, and here is his first installment:

Introduction

Well this is the start of my pyro travel blog. Some time ago, as I heard stories about Liuyang from various sources, I realised that as a dedicated pyro, this was really a place I really ought to go and see.

Lots of things drew me to this conclusion. The culture. The love of foreign travel. The pyroshops. The fact that I was finally in a position to afford it, and above all the stories about how they test twelve inch shells every night. How could I stay away?

Now the first thing to explain is that I am currently a gentleman of leisure. Usually this phrase is a metaphor for "unemployed", but in this case it actually means what it says. Last year as I got more and more fed up with my job [I usually work as a consultant for a largish faceless corporation] I decided that I needed a serious break. Rather than quit there and then, I saved like a demon and took one years career break, [also known as a gap-year or sabbatical]. So there you have it - for me, 2006 is my year of fun. Top of the list is this trip to China, although I'm also trying to go to Malta to see how things are done there.

Now, as I discovered, it's not that easy to go and tour firework factories in China. The first thing you need is a chinese visa. Ironically these are relatively easy to obtain if you want to visit forbidden palaces or see terracotta warriors. All you need in those circumstances is a tourist visa which requires an airline booking and ?30!

To go to Liuyang however , (which is off the tourist trail) one requires a business/research visa. These require a letter of invite from a chinese government accreditted company. These are *not* so easy to come by and I had been having tremendous trouble getting one.

All that changed last November when I happened into my local firework shop for the first time on the advice of a good pyro buddy [thanks sizzle!]. I got chatting to the owner and told him a little about my plans for the forthcoming year. It turned out that he was looking for someone who knew their fireworks to go over to China and speak with his exporter. He especially wanted someone with a knowledge of firework construction techniques so that they could also work with the firework manufacturers to suggest new effects and ideas.

It was immediately apparant that this was a marriage made in heaven - I had fallen into a vat of wine! I got my trip to Chinese firework companies. My local shop had access to my skills and background and the exporter got to showcase their products and suppliers. In addition my connections with the UK amateur pyrotechnic scene enabled me to suggest new products and supplies that are cheap in China, but much sought after in the UK. This could be an opportunity to direct import much needed tools and chems after all!

As the months rolled by I managed to get the vital letter of invite from the exporter. This enabled me [after a trip to the Chinese embassy in Manchester] to gain a Chinese research visa. The ticket was then purchased and I was set. Contacts and an itinerary were arranged, as well as interpreters, guides and hotels.

So there you go. Your very own RegimentaIPyro is to fly out to Guangzhou tomorrow! I'm going to try an upload a post a day, although this depends on such banalities as GPRS/WiFi coverage.

Pictures and video *will* be taken although you might have to wait till I get back to see those.

Karlfoxman and myself were a little bored on Sunday and decided to try something a little different.

The Aim: to put a wireless cam into a rocket header, which at the peak of its trajectory, ejects the cam on a parachute and takes lots of lovely, nice video

What happenes: The rocket takes off, slightly top heavy. We lose contact with the cam. The rocket returns to earth without ejecting the cam, and 2ft above impact point (which is the only dyke for miles around) ejects cam and parachute into the dyke

We need to have another little go at this, when a. the cam is dry or b. we get a new one

The video story, so far can be found here: Rocketcam

Onwards and upwards!

Hi folks, a very interesting lecture going down in Cambridge

Title: Pretty, Pretty, Bang! Bang! - The Science of Fireworks and Explosives
Subject Category: All other (including general chemistry and socials)
Organisers: RSC Mid-Anglia Section
Date: Thursday 03/11/2005
Time: 19.00
Venue:
Venue name: Cambridge University Chemistry Labs
Address: Lensfield Road, Cambridge

I went last year but they forgot to dissable the fire sensors in the theatre.
We had to evacuate, while the fire service made it safe

A little more on it


Main themes: This meeting is open to guests
Main speakers: Dr Jacqueline Akhavan (Cranfield University)
Registration fees: free - no prebooking required. Event is a joint one with the CAGE section of the SCI
Organised Social Programme: The ever-popular pyrotechnics lecture, suitable for all ages (note there may be some loud bangs!).
Dr Akhavan will explain the science behind modern fireworks with a series of vivid demonstrations, and will explore what may be possible in the future.

Could one of you kind rocketeers enlighten me to the difference between Estes and Quest igniters?

They seem to be the same thing, but Quest are soooo much cheaper.

Cheers

Waz