Visco fuse

[Doc Wally]

Hello Dave and my Fellow Fireworks enthusiasts. My name is Walter and I’m 69 years young and I’ve worked in the Fireworks trade for over 52 years. I’ve been involved in about every aspect of the business from moping the floors in the work buildings to making every type of fireworks one can put a port fire to. I‘m a Chemical Engineer and machinist by trade, but my specialty in the fireworks business is designing and building the industrial Visco fuse machines that produce the American made Visco fuse on the market today. I would like to thank Dave for his hard work in the fireworks business that he has shared with everyone and also to all of you young fireworks enthusiasts for keeping the hobby and business alive. If you have any questions about Visco or vintage display fireworks please feel free to ask.

[chriskrc]

Welcome to the forum and great to meet you. This is awesome having a fuse maker aboard.

[displayfireworks1]

Thank you for joining the discussion forums. Doc Wally and I shared some emails and I am pleased he brings his knowledge and history to the Pyrotalk forums. We probably need a Visco fuse make now more than we ever did. Wait until you hear some of the stories this guy has.

[Doc Wally]

Welcome to the forum and great to meet you. This is awesome having a fuse maker aboard.

Thank you chriskrc;38077] glad to meet you! I'm looking forward to the forum. Yes, I guess you could call me that! I've made a lot of fuse!

[Doc Wally]

Thank you for joining the discussion forums. Doc Wally and I shared some emails and I am pleased he brings his knowledge and history to the Pyrotalk forums. We probably need a Visco fuse make now more than we ever did. Wait until you hear some of the stories this guy has.

Thank you very much Dave, you have a wonderful and highly informative site plus so many talented people! I'm really looking forward to meet them. Please bear with me on the computer, I grew up in an time of manual typewriters and pencils but I'll settle in quickly.

Doc.

[displayfireworks1]

Here is a picture Doc sent me. I hope you don't mind if I share it.
.
http://pyrotalk.com/wp-photos/wp-content/gallery/united-states-pennsylvania/fuse-835d3257a348a612acb742a6ba9df1b9530bb91f.jpg

[Doc Wally]

Not at all Dave, thank you. Following is the little story I sent you. I would like to share it with the group.

Just a quick intro to Visco fuse and some of its physical property’s. The standard Victoria green Visco has a burning rate of 30 to 35 seconds per foot. Our standard American made Visco is 3/32” in diameter, (approximately 0.094”). Green is the most popular color used in the US. The second most popular is the Rhodamine red and then it would be the red, white and blue for third place.
A quick story, I use to supply American Visco Co. with parts for their machines for several years. They made an excellent product using the state of the art equipment. About 15 years ago they had a fire which destroyed all of their machines and the building they were in. The owners decided that was enough and shut down the business. We were running several machines at the time in Pennsylvania and about a year later in mid-December, the heating system for the building we were in went on the fritz. To make a long story shorter, the service company replaced the fan motor. It was the wrong motor for the system and set fire to the building. It took out all of the machines, several 55 gallon drums of NC and several rolls of Visco. Needless to say there was a shortage of American made Visco for about 18 months until I replaced the machines and we built a new facility.

[displayfireworks1]

I still have some Red White and Blue Visco fuse I am afraid to use because I may not be able to replace it. Doc can you tell us the origins of word "Visco" we now use generically to describe all slow burning green fuse. I often wonder where the word "Visco" originated from. Are you aware of where term came from?

[vegassalute]

Dave, if there was ever a dynamite (no pun intended) Skype interview to be done, here it is. I'd love to hear some of Doc's stories and experience through the years! Maybe consider hosting a recordable google hangout where you can do the interview and perhaps the interviewee can take questions from the live audience. It can still be recorded and posted within your library for those that can't watch live to enjoy. Just a thought. Welcome to the forum Doc!

[PyroJoeNEPA]

Welcome to the PyroTalk Forum Doc. I'm sure you will settle in here comfortably & enjoy the chat time. There are many levels of Pyros here--from novice all the way up the ladder....but we all have one thing in common--we love to "smell the smoke"! [now, if you were in Colorado or California that would mean something entirely different!] :rolleyes:

[displayfireworks1]

I knew this new member posting would get PyroJoe attention. It pleases me tremendously to have the support of the very people that are part of pyrotechnic history here in United States. It was my video of the old M-80 machines that captured Doc Wally attention. It is the video someone someone tagged for removal.

[Doc Wally]

Sure! This is a short story on the history of "Visco" and how it got its name from those wonderful people I worked with. Oh, no need to worry we produce the red white and blue Visco in Pennsylvania on a regular basis.

Working with the old timers in the fireworks business while making thousands of components like Gerbs, Lances, Spoolette time fuse, stringing shells, we had hours upon hours to BS with each other and discuss the old days. Now I mean their old days! This is going back to the early 1900s. I remember the first time I heard the word Visco. I never paid too much attention to it but the product became a very big and important part of my life.
Visco has been around for a long time. The first time it appeared on the fireworks seen was in the early 1900s. It was a spinoff for the need of a reliable slow burning fuse for blasting. Ensign Bickford Co. out on Connecticut developed some beautiful weaving machines in the mid-1800s that produced a fuse product for the blasting industry. It was called Bickford for short or Bickford fuse. It found its way into the fireworks industry and proved to be an excellent source of timed ignition. Unfortunately there was an accident and a lawsuit which put an end to sales of Bickford fuse to the fireworks industry. Two American brothers one an engineer and the other a fabricator developed a smaller version of the Bickford machines and started producing a smaller diameter fuse for the fireworks business. Along about the same time, an employee of a British fireworks company came up with a very similar machine using a coating of Gutta percha. A few years later Nitrocellulose was substituted for the Gutta percha. The chemical manufacture in England called the Nitrocellulose lacquer they produced “Visco” (short for viscous coating)! The two brothers built many fuse machines that were bought up eagerly by fireworks manufactures. Most every fireworks company in the U.S. had 1 or more machines producing Visco fuse for their consumer fireworks as did the company I worked for and I still do. Over the years the name just stuck for the completed fuse product as “Visco fuse”!

[Doc Wally]

That's right Dave, I heard about your site and found it easily enough. All of the great info and members really hooked me. I have always stayed in the shadows of the business but after seeing your site I decided it was time to share what I know and learn more from you and the members the modern approaches to fireworks art. You did a great job on the M-80 machine video, but it almost made me cry to see it in that condition. It should be preserved! Thanks so much for pulling me in with the group.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Dave, if there was ever a dynamite (no pun intended) Skype interview to be done, here it is. I'd love to hear some of Doc's stories and experience through the years! Maybe consider hosting a recordable google hangout where you can do the interview and perhaps the interviewee can take questions from the live audience. It can still be recorded and posted within your library for those that can't watch live to enjoy. Just a thought. Welcome to the forum Doc!

Dave should be doing a weekly or bi-weekly Podcast with people like Doc and other experts in the field. That would be the bomb!

[djsmurf]

Awesome post to read so far, Welcome Doc! I agree a Skype interview is needed.

[Doc Wally]

Hi djsmurf! Thanks for the nice comment. Once I get my feet wet here I'll give it a try!

[Rick_In_Tampa]

That's right Dave, I heard about your site and found it easily enough. All of the great info and members really hooked me. I have always stayed in the shadows of the business but after seeing your site I decided it was time to share what I know and learn more from you and the members the modern approaches to fireworks art. You did a great job on the M-80 machine video, but it almost made me cry to see it in that condition. It should be preserved! Thanks so much for pulling me in with the group.

Hey Doc, believe me when I say this. It's truly our pleasure and an honor to have a treasured resource such as yourself on this board. The historical knowledge and context you bring to the table is truly fascinating and up to this point, unavailable to the younger pyro community. Its a pleasure meeting you and I hope to learn a great deal from your experiences and your stories in the days and years ahead!

[Doc Wally]

Thanks Rick_in_Tampa! I'll give it a try once I get some post time behind me. Oh the short story I posted above was a reply to your question about the name Visco. I think I posted it in the wrong spot.

[Doc Wally]

Rick, Ide Love to discuss my experiences with anyone who wants to listen!

[Doc Wally]

Thanks for the great welcome Joe, Yes I can see there are lots of great fireworks people who gather here! A wonderful place to be and about "smell the smoke" yes its magic! There has always been an attraction to the wonderful smell of the smoke. I will be leaving on a business trip but when I get back I'll post my first experience with the smell of fireworks back in 1956. I was only 8 years old!

[Pyro Paul]

Hi Doc and welcome aboard, I'm new here too. I'm happy to see someone of your experience joining as well. Tell us about your experiences all you want, I'd love to hear all about it and I'm sure many others share that sentiment as well.

[Doc Wally]

Hi Paul, thanks for the welcome! What a great bunch of people here and all interested in the art of fireworks. Well, I have more than 50 years of stories so I hope you don't get board LOL. Ide love to hear from you also, I love to listen and learn too. I may have burned a lot of powder in my time with fireworks but you have some really good young people taking the art to a whole new level. I'll be reading till I'm falling asleep many nights to come!

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Thanks Rick_in_Tampa! I'll give it a try once I get some post time behind me. Oh the short story I posted above was a reply to your question about the name Visco. I think I posted it in the wrong spot.

Actually, it wasn't my post about the origins of the word Visco, but I'm glad whoever asked it, asked it! I had no idea myself. It seems so simple now it's almost embarrassing I didn't realize it sooner. Oh well. Live and learn!

[vegassalute]

Sure! This is a short story on the history of "Visco" and how it got its name from those wonderful people I worked with. Oh, no need to worry we produce the red white and blue Visco in Pennsylvania on a regular basis.

Working with the old timers in the fireworks business while making thousands of components like Gerbs, Lances, Spoolette time fuse, stringing shells, we had hours upon hours to BS with each other and discuss the old days. Now I mean their old days! This is going back to the early 1900s. I remember the first time I heard the word Visco. I never paid too much attention to it but the product became a very big and important part of my life.
Visco has been around for a long time. The first time it appeared on the fireworks seen was in the early 1900s. It was a spinoff for the need of a reliable slow burning fuse for blasting. Ensign Bickford Co. out on Connecticut developed some beautiful weaving machines in the mid-1800s that produced a fuse product for the blasting industry. It was called Bickford for short or Bickford fuse. It found its way into the fireworks industry and proved to be an excellent source of timed ignition. Unfortunately there was an accident and a lawsuit which put an end to sales of Bickford fuse to the fireworks industry. Two American brothers one an engineer and the other a fabricator developed a smaller version of the Bickford machines and started producing a smaller diameter fuse for the fireworks business. Along about the same time, an employee of a British fireworks company came up with a very similar machine using a coating of Gutta percha. A few years later Nitrocellulose was substituted for the Gutta percha. The chemical manufacture in England called the Nitrocellulose lacquer they produced “Visco” (short for viscous coating)! The two brothers built many fuse machines that were bought up eagerly by fireworks manufactures. Most every fireworks company in the U.S. had 1 or more machines producing Visco fuse for their consumer fireworks as did the company I worked for and I still do. Over the years the name just stuck for the completed fuse product as “Visco fuse”!

Terrific story Doc! I can't express how excited I am that you're here and to hear more of your insights & stories!

[JmFnG]

Welcome, Doc! Thanks for joining. Really looking forward to reading more of your posts.

[Doc Wally]

Thanks for the welcome JmFng! Its great to be here and I'm looking forward to some great stories from you also. Lots to share!

[Doc Wally]

I think I got balled up with my posts, sorry about that. I'll get the swing of things!

[Bazerk]

Welcome to the forums Doc. Knowledge is priceless and thus I am looking forward to learning more about the industry. Just out of curiosity, whats your take on the electric match and the impact it has and will continue to have on the fuse industry? Are fuse manufactures interested in keeping up with the times at all and joining the electric match end of the business? Im assuming that with the price of electronic firing coming down and the knowledge of the consumer rising, it has to effect them in some way by now.

[fatcat]

Welcome aboard Doc, I had always wondered about visco and you just satisfied my curiosity. Thanks, and again a big welcome.

[infante0216]

Hello there Doc.

[Doc Wally]

Thank you Fatcat, (cool name!)! Its great to be on board with a really great bunch of people. I'll up late at night just reading posts. Lots a of great reading!

[Doc Wally]

Excellent question Bazerk! Unless you are involved in the fuse business you wouldn't know but the fact is we sell very little Visco type fuse to the professional fireworks manufactures. Visco is predominately used by the the "C" products businesses and some to the distribution market here in the US for hobbyists and over seas markets. Our biggest customers by far are the Military and foreign governments.
We have been looking at a fast growing electronic ignition company over seas already tooled up for producing initiators and other electric ignition products but to bring the process and equipment here to the US, would be quite costly. Then you have regulation, high labor and material costs etc. It would be best to just leave location as is and run it here state side. The imported effects fuse "Flying Fish" ect. is really a small part of the market and mostly focused towards the hobbyist. But to answer your question, the electric ignition systems has little effect on the Visco (safety fuse) business. Thanks for your question.

Doc.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

The military is one of your largest customers?? Wow... I wouldn't have guessed that. What on earth would they use it for?

[Doc Wally]

I apologize for being so tardy in my reply xxxxxI just returned from a business trip and it took longer than I expected. Yes, foreign and our own government have purchased an unimaginable amount of fuse over the years for training of the troops in all sorts of demolition situations, simulators etc. I don’t know if they still use M-80 type simulators for training any more but if they do they keep it very quiet. Some Governments “south of the border” contact us, send us a purchase order, we send them back a quote and if they like the price, they place the order along with the payment and that’s about all I know. I wouldn’t imagine they use Visco for anything serious, but probably more along the lines of training and simulation. Although Our Visco has been tested by the U S National Bureau of Mines for consistency and safety, it still is only a pyrotechnic device.
Doc.

[displayfireworks1]

Doc will i have your attention, some people are reporting to me there may be future restrictions on fuse for the average consumer in the future. Do you have an opinion on that?

[Doc Wally]

I understand that there is an agency looking at restricting all fuse to be used in 1.3 products and also fuse such as Flying Fish etc. You would then need a permit to purchase these products. This would kill the Chinese market here in the US because the vast majority of this type of “Colorful fuse” is sold on the open market to just about anyone. Safety fuse is not included in the proposed law. As of now it’s all quiet but as you know things happen overnight!
Doc.

[johncharlse1]

Welcome Doc.... i am a new member my self and a young member of the pyro community.... i do how ever have a lot of experience as for cannon shooting.... i always have to buy an extra box of the single firecrackers so that we have some sort of fuse to shoot it because using a sparkler isn't always the most consistent way of ignition.... i would love to here more of your stories... as i believe hearing some ones experiences is always more helpful then just looking something up on google
here is a link to our cannon fireing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f8ySXmomSA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f8ySXmomSA

[Doc Wally]

Hello Johncharlse, yes I’m new to the forum and I love it! Seeing so many new young people interested in the fireworks and related fields. I just wish I had more time to read all of the experiences and new tec info they post. I love that first shot from your cannon, WOW that was a load and a half! Ok I have a short story for you. Going back oh some 45 years ago a good friend and I spent a weekend at his farm in upstate NY. He had been working on restoring an Iron cannon with just under a 3 inch bore. He did a beautiful job on it. It was one of several he and his father had collected over the years. Well, I use to supply him with different grades of black powder for shooting them. It would just handle a Campbell soup can filled with cement. YA! Crazy right! Well we cranked it up on a trailer he had built for his toys and off we went down the road to the lower 48 of his farm. We stopped just short of an old abandoned farm house that was part of another plot of land he had purchased and the previous owners just up and left after receiving the money. Well, perfect target! We off loaded the cannon and he set it up aiming directly at the front door of the old house. We checked out the place to make sure there was no one in or around and then loaded the cannon for the shot. He lit the cannon fuse and wham, just about like the shot on your video. We walked about 100 feet up to the house and there it was, a slightly oblong hole right through the front door. We went inside and the projectile had torn through the railing going up the staircase, through the riser of the stairs then through the wall behind the stairs, through the kitchen inner wall and then exited the outside wall of the house. I don’t know how much further it went after going through the house but I’m sure it was a ways’. Ya, cannons are a lot of fun!

[johncharlse1]

i love it doc.... a funny story about our cannon was we had built a stand for it to make it look like on old civil war cannon well kinda of.... any ways one shot and it completely destroyed our stand.... we usually use 1lb and up of smokeless black powder.... we were at a buddies house and his neighbor had a bond at least 700 yards away and we were able to hit the far bank with it.... we could have went with a bigger bore but my dad wanted to leave a bunch of meat on it.... he milled it out of a stainless steel fan shaft it at least 6" wide we have also had the local sherifs department called on us because we forgot to call the neighbors and they thought we were lighting off dynamite. that was by far the most eventful time we have with shooting that.

[Doc Wally]

Hahaha, great story! Ya, I cant do anything like that around here. Thank God I have friends that live in FREE STATES I can visit where you can still have a little fun! Great story! johncharlse1, stay in touch.

Doc.

[johncharlse1]

will Definitely do that doc.... thats kinda of the nice thing about living in Kansas. you Dont have to go very far to be in the middle of know where. my buddy live 8 miles away from town and his house is the only one on that side of the road on the mile section.

[Doc Wally]

Thanks for the welcome PyroJoeNEPA. Sorry it took so long for me to get back to ya, I've been in the Great state of Ohio on business and this is really the first day I've had a chance to have some good conversation and fun! Stay in touch!
Doc.

[Steve-O]

Hey Doc Wally! I am in the fireworks business and would love to touch base with you and pick your brain about the possibility of my company making their own fuse. I'm not sure what ties you still have but I am very interested in buying or building a visco making machine. I have private messaged you and would love to here back. Thanks