Peret

I've been playing with something new (to me) recently. Known as Bees, I think. It's a short rocket with a core and a nozzle, but lit at the wrong end through a hole in the side. It spins around on the ground briefly, then when the fire reaches the core it shoots off, curves up and rises more or less vertically with a startling sound. The initial direction is of course random, so it needs a bit of space. I made a tool and pressed a few -

That's a 3 inch, 1/2 inch ID (sorry, 75mm, 12mm ID) tube. The core is about 32mm long, 4mm at the base,  and there's 18mm above it for the spin-up fuel and a solid clay bulkead. I used 60:30:10, and fireproofed the top hole with a little sodium silicate - don't know if that was necessary, because I haven't managed to recover one yet to examine the hole.

These are quite, um, exciting. A pretty good backyard firework, as long as you don't have a greenhouse or large windows overlooking. I wouldn't want to make one any bigger. I don't remember ever seeing these as a kid. Has anyone else seen them before?