Antique snap question

[N3OQO]

Was just watching Dave's video of the PGI and the antique firecrackers for sale and I remembered a firecracker like snap from my childhood. They were colored balls maybe about the size of a cherrybomb, but you threw them and they exploded when they hit something. There was a BB or something inside that set off a pretty good explosion as I remember, well like a very decent firecracker anyway. Anyone remember em?

[PGH_Pyro]

cracker balls ? that ' chemist45 ' guy on youtube has videos about them and what they're made of .

[PyroJoeNEPA]

I remember these. They used Potassium Permanganate based flash powder with sawdust & [the ones i remember dissecting back then] small grains of coarse stone like material. Potassium Permanganate flash is very unstable & was replaced over the years with much more stable compounds.
These also came in small sizes--about 2/3 the size of a marble. They were packed in small boxes with coarse sawdust around them. They were a white tissue like paper ball twisted shut on one end.
And, yes, they did have a punch to them!

[countryboy7978]

There were several different versions of the torpedo. The most stable version was the Globe Torpedo which used potassium chlorate and antimony trisulfide with some quartz gravel to set off the mixture. They were tumbled like a Cherry salute or made in safety versions without the sawdust coating.

The Japenese later made what was called a cap ball or cracker ball. They were made of paper mache and had a red phosphorus and chlorate cap formula. These were more mild than the Globe variety but were banned due to their similarity to food products. Today's super snaps are the closest we get to these.

[N3OQO]

[QUOTE=countryboy7978;26981]There were several different versions of the torpedo. The most stable version was the Globe Torpedo which used potassium chlorate and antimony trisulfide with some quartz gravel to set off the mixture. They were tumbled like a Cherry salute or made in safety versions without the sawdust coating.

Yes, these are what I remember from the 60's. I remember them looking similar to small jaw breaker and came in individual packets, I assume for safety sake, but the were pretty damn loud, more than a firecracker, but less than a cherrybomb of the time. I can still see the shoebox under my bed when I was a kid, filled with m80's, firecrackers cherrybombs, and these torpedoes, though I don't remember what the ones we got were called.

[NWPA]

Had many, many, boxes of the cracker balls when I was young. 30 bags of 10 pcs. in a box. Loved em. They looked like candy I thought.

[Elisabeth]

I scored an unopened box if these from the pyrobilia vending area at the last PGI convention. Of course I had to try them. While some were very weak (not surprising being 50 years old), some still packed a wallop. One thing I learned is where they explode, they leave a orange-brown stain. I'm this from the Realgar (arsenic sulfide) that's also the same color.