The elemental properties and the resulting combustions
...ally, stopper allows the explosives to be contained so that they create a pure reaction. To produce the Roman candle, there are many small explosives to produce a nice show of 8-12 bursts. The casing of the Roman candle is made up of a thick solid cardboard. The wicks in roman candles are very long and are filled with black powder. The black powder allows the wick to burn all the way through the Roman candle. Without the black powder, the lack of oxygen wouldn’t allow the combustion to occur all the way through the firework. The Roman candle is filled with a wood shaving and black powder mix, which allows the evenly spaced capsules to be ignited and fired. Each capsule is composed of 3 materials. Just like the bottle rocket, the individual capsules are composed of a blast cap (propulsion), the explosive, and the stopper to compress the explosion. The last capsule is not a real capsule. It is a small cylinder that is there to stop the reaction. The mortar shells are very large fireworks that are launched out of a tube. The wicks are about one and a half feet long and burn very fast. Like the roman candles, the wicks are thick and have black powder pact into them. The wick has to pass the shell of the mortar in-order to get into the shell. The shell walls are very thick so that the sparks from the wick don’t set off the contents. When the wick enters the bottom of the mortar, the propulsion compound is ignited. This compound is very different from the powder in the bottle rockets and roman candles. It is more of a gritty solid than a powder. It also ignites all at once to generate one strong blast to send the mortar high up in the air. Once the propulsion is lit, the flame hits a small blasting cap attached to a wick further inside the mortar. This wick lights the small balls of color. A grain or grass coated in black powder keeps the combustion around long enough to ignite all of the colors. The sand that you feel fall back down from the artillery shell is the metal residue that is left over from the reaction. CONCEPT # 2 The packaging of the products varies as to what the product is and how dangerous it is. The small kids fireworks like poppits are packaged with sawdust to prevent them from rubbing together and creating friction and combusting. The poppits and sawdust is stored in a thin easy to open plastic bag and that bag is in a small cardboard box. The fireworks that are more dangerous like the mortar shells and large rockets are encased in a thicker cardboard box and secured with ties and cardboard cutouts. The mortars have cardboard holes cut out of a center piece in the box to prevent the mortar shells from moving around an accidentally creating the smallest amount of friction that could light they’re sensitive black powder wicks. The packaging for bottle rockets is a very simple design. The heads (explosive side) are rapped up in a layer of sticky paper to prevent them from moving. The sticks float freely off of the rockets. For some of the smaller air shows such as the “missile silo,” the small rockets are set in rows as part of the box. The wick is taped to the side of the box. All you have to do is un-tape the wick and its ready to fire. ...