What's inside artillery shells?

[SamGurdus]

Stupid question, but I have heard people saying different things. What are artillery shells filled with? I have heard people saying things like silver gunpowder, but rockets have flash, or that shells also use flash. My current understanding is that all rockets can use flash, and only salute shells use flash. I'm just wondering what's in shells if it's not flash.

[PyroManiacs]

Google and Youtube are your friends.

[SamGurdus]

Google and Youtube are your friends.

I have found a couple articles, but they refer to professional fireworks with a separate burst charge. I found one thing saying that it's gunpowder, another saying black powder, and other people saying it's flash. I was just wondering if somebody on here with more experience than me could fill me in.

[cptnding]

Black powder.
Some professional fireworks have flash powder.

[Steve]

There are hundreds of YouTube videos of people disassembling fireworks. Search YouTube.

[PyroJoeNEPA]

A basic 1.4 consumer shell [ball or canister] has a lift charge of black powder, a time fuse, stars for the effect, and a burst charge, The burst charge can be black powder or, in some cases, flash powder. Sometimes black powder coated rice hulls are used for the burst charge since they take up more volume and use less black powder for a burst than just plain black powder. This is the very basic construction.