Old composition formula

[Doc Wally]

A question for anyone that may know. Back in the 60s we made a mix of composition that I haven’t heard about for many years. It seemed to be a fairly common formula back then but it looks as if it has gone by the way side. It was a comprised of the following:
4 PBW Potassium Perchlorate
1 PBW Unwashed Sulfur
1 PBW German Aluminum
1 PBW fine dry sawdust
3% PBW of the above Antimony Trisulfide
1 to 2% PBW of the above Potassium Carbonate
It worked very well in 2 inch to 8 inch Maroons and reports but wasn’t the greatest in small salutes like M-80s, Cherry Bombs and the like. The cutoff point was about a 4 inch long by 5/8 inch diameter cannon cracker. For smaller salutes we would use Potassium Chlorate based compositions. Does anyone still use this formula?

Thanks, Doc Wally

[rocky99]

Seems like an overly complicated formula. A simple 70/30 mix of potassium perchlorate/dark aluminum would work just fine in small-large salutes. You can add sawdust/rice hulls/ bran or whatever as a bulking agent in larger devices. I would shy away from adding sulfur or ant. sulphide to flash powder mixtures....it is not worth the added risk and increased sensitivity.

[displayfireworks1]

I see sometimes the Chinese use rice hulls in the their salutes. The rice hulls they use look coated with something? Or are they just absorbing some of the flash composition?
These old timers always liked adding that antimony in salutes. This one guy told me it "Sharpens" the report. I never really noticed any difference. I heard and saw a chlorate, sulfur, black aluminum salute a few times. The release of energy was impressive. Most people feel the 70/30 combo is safer and works good enough.

[Doc Wally]

Thanks for your input on my post Rocky. Over the years in the business I have made countless thousands of pounds of what we called “Mustood” (the Italian word for Flash). Once every two weeks or so I would (by myself) bring all of the components down to the flash mixing building that was located a good 300 feet away from all the other buildings and mix composition. Each batch was about 15 pounds and was mixed same as we do today by the paper rolling method. I would then wrap the flash in the same paper it was rolled in and tie it with string. I usually made 8 t0 10 batches in a long day. When I was done it was all taken straight down to the magazine. I did this for over 25 years! The reason we made so much is back then we made, sold and used a lot of 3,4,5,6 and 8” Maroons and man did it soak up the flash. Way back in the day we also made the consumer products which used a lot of material also. You are absolutely right about being a lot of work and time consuming, I wish management would have let us switch to the 7/3 mix but as they say, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. It would have saved me a ton of work.
Thanks Doc.

[Doc Wally]

Yes, I’ve seen that also I really don’t know the purpose of the glaze but the only thing that would make any sense would be some type of a binder to make the flash adhere to the hulls and allow open areas around the hulls for the flame front to progress faster.
In large items like 4” maroons and up, we used a tremendous amount of flash, actually it was kind of scary if you know what I mean. I’ve been around “High” for many years blasting for construction projects etc. but you know what you are dealing with. With flash, you always have it in your mind, Careful, Careful. I most always tried to mix on a humid or rainy day to keep the possibility of static down. The Antimony did add a brisance to the flash but most only in the larger maroons. In the smaller items it didn’t seem to do much. The Potassium Carbonate acts as a buffer. Being high in pH in the 11 to 12 range it would adsorb any sulfur derived acids and neutralize them before there was a chance of a spontaneous ignition. This was especially true when we used Potassium Chlorate as our oxygen donor. The truth is that all of my years in fireworks I haven’t personally known one instance where flash has caused any injuries through true spontaneous ignition caused by sulfur compounds, but always better safe than sorry.
Thanks Doc.

[Doc Wally]

I see in your profile you shoot for the Santores, great people and some of the best in fireworks. I knew the older generation well, matter of fact my old boss (who has passed away recently) rented property from the Santores in NJ for a short time while he was moving his facility. I also use to visit Ralph in Florida back in the day. I haven’t talked to them in years.

[rocky99]

Sorry, I haven't been on the site in awhile. I work for Chris and Augie Jr. Santore, who recently took over the Alonzo operation near Albany. I started working for Alonzo's back in 1983. What company were/are you with?
This past July 4th season, I had 3 undetonated Chinese Ti salutes come back to the ground. In an effort to try to diagnose what was going on, Augie senior asked me to cut them apart, as well as some unfired ones. Interestingly, their method of manufacture differed greatly... some had black powder coated rice hulls over the time fuse and the flash in a bag, some had uncoated hulls mixed with flash in a bag. Some had red microstars mixed in with the flash. And get this, all were marked with the same date and lot number of manufacture!! Leave it to the Chinese! We theorized that while making the time fuse, the black powder ran out, so some of the fuse was made without a BP core. That didn't stop them from using it to make salutes!

[RalphieJ]

Doc, in a previous post you mentioned a friend from NY who had property upstate and relined cannon barrels. Was his name Bernie, son named Ken?