Dr Boom Posted June 3, 2007 Posted June 3, 2007 Wow, hellooooo APC! It has been a while since I've posted anything here hasn't it?! Well, as life goes, I left Korea and i'm now in Aviano, Italy. Of course what is Italy known for besides the wine?? Fireworks!! I will be doing a study of all the pyrotechnics I can get my hands on here- Of course some the devices that are most readily available are firecrackers. Almost every ma and pa store here sells various sizes and amounts. I bought a few to try out and wow! Some of these things are diffinately illegal in the States but so sweetly and perfectly legal here. http://www.apcforum.net/files/Italian_Fireworks001.jpg Here are a few items I picked up. http://www.apcforum.net/files/Italian_Fireworks002.jpg http://www.apcforum.net/files/Italian_Fireworks003.jpg http://www.apcforum.net/files/Italian_Fireworks004.jpg The small firecrackers are relatively inexpensive but as you move up the scale of loudness and size, the price jumps from a few Euro ($1= .70 E) to nearly 60E (around 80 bucks!) a pop. http://www.apcforum.net/files/Italian_Fireworks005.jpg http://www.apcforum.net/files/Italian_Fireworks006.jpg http://www.apcforum.net/files/Italian_Fireworks013.jpg Ok, so you're thinking- hm, I see these firecracker devices but what makes them so different other then the unregulated amount of flash they use? I did some dissection on what I bought and here's the scoop- of flash that is... Like all precision instruments of fun and excitement, what pyro can resist opening a device to see how it works so he can fabricate his own. http://www.apcforum.net/files/Italian_Fireworks008.jpg The "two-bang" fire crackers are builts quite well as you can see from the break down: http://www.apcforum.net/files/Italian_Fireworks1.jpg The Blue smoke to bang firecracker is interesting as well, it could actually be a bit bigger so it could offer more smoke before the finale. http://www.apcforum.net/files/Italian_Fireworks015.jpg The good "middle of the road" firecracker here is the No.7 firestar- similiar to a 12ga. shotgun blast. http://www.apcforum.net/files/Italian_Fireworks011.jpg http://www.apcforum.net/files/Italian_Fireworks010.jpg All in all I'll have to say that Italians know how to rock out with fireworks in a celebration. Many nights here I've seen flashes out of my window followed by a small earthquake as the neighbors have a birthday party or wedding. As soon I can get my mits on more of these wonderful color and noise makers I'll add another post to the Study of Italian Fireworks- Ciao!
Pretty green flame Posted June 4, 2007 Posted June 4, 2007 You forgot the mother of all firecrackers, the Cobra, when it goes off it sounds like a freeking grenade. http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a374/AVP2/cobreqh3.jpg Fortget M-80's, this stuff is the real deal.Ok, so from left to right, the first one is called a cipollo, basicly a bottom shot on the ground. The other ones are dirrenent types of cobras, the only difference is the ammount of flash in each one. http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/9965/cobra33ww2.jpg This is the newest type of cobra, it has 18g!!!! of flash in it. Scary stuff, i've never let on go off myself but for NYE you can hear em going off throughout the city, scary stuff. Cheers
fight fire with fire Posted June 4, 2007 Posted June 4, 2007 When our fami.y goes to france we go into the beach shop and they have a huge range of fireworks, rockets, firecrackers, roman candles, hummers, firecracker strings and these huge firecrackers. Probally equal to a quart stick. apparently they can blow of a car bonnet.
optimus Posted June 4, 2007 Posted June 4, 2007 Nice crackers there DrBoom. Dyou know if the delay is Glusatz? it looks quite powdery and I've always seen it in pressed delay columns. Have you burnt any of the flash in the open? "vietata le vendita al minori di anni 14" so do the smaller ones have a smaller age limit? PGF, that cipollo looks really cool! It's hard to tell from the picture - is it spiked? Does the quickmatch produce smaller bangs before it hits the bottom shot or is it just taped up like that? I remember the first time I let off a spiked flash salute. Didn't quite realise how loud they were so I let one off in the garden around Nov5th. My brother heard it a good few kilometers away and thought I'd blown myself up : P
Pretty green flame Posted June 5, 2007 Posted June 5, 2007 *Snip* PGF, that cipollo looks really cool! It's hard to tell from the picture - is it spiked? Does the quickmatch produce smaller bangs before it hits the bottom shot or is it just taped up like that? *Snip* Yes i belive it is spiked and pasted. The quickmatch produces bangs when it burns so it's basicly a jumping jack (I think that's the correct term). So you've got several bangs before the main charge goes off. Mind you, this cipollo is a smaller one, i've heard of some having as much as 1.3kilos of composition, i don't remember the italian name but i think the english equivalent would be "Saddam's head" or somehting like that.
Mardec Posted June 5, 2007 Posted June 5, 2007 Haha, has any one of you ever heard of "La bomba Maradonna"? There is only one every year, probably someone builds is himself. It is the size of a football (Duh..) and it fired in Napoli (Italy) every year. It has enough power to smack 1 meter diameter crater in a road. The police is still trying to catch the man that makes/lights them. They are fired at new year. At least, this all is being told to me by a fellow pyro from Napoli PS: It is not me, I am form Belgium PS2: Is this what you mean Pretty green flame? PS3: Where the fuck do you get those cobra's?
Pretty green flame Posted June 5, 2007 Posted June 5, 2007 *Snip* PS2: Is this what you mean Pretty green flame? PS3: Where the fuck do you get those cobra's? *Snip*Nah, it probably isn't. Saddam's head consists of several smaller cipollo's and 1 massive ground salute. Hmm...to be honest i don't know where to get cobra's (Legaly). Also, i've never heard them anywhere esle than Italy and Slovenia. Austrians and Germans seem more keen on Turbo pirat's, Zeus's, Magnums etc. EDIT: A clipf of a cobra going off, note, this is not the strongest type and it was let off in the open, not in the city.
weknowpyro Posted June 5, 2007 Posted June 5, 2007 As 'fight fire with fire' mentioned french fireworks. Heres a picture of some fireworks i bought. They came in a pack i think the whole lot cost be 1 euro.By the end of the holiday I believe I had over 150 bottle rockets,10 roman candles and loads of helecopters and firecrackers. I think the total cost was about 10 euros.
treelover Posted June 5, 2007 Posted June 5, 2007 Here are some pdf-sheets about these types of fireworks, in Dutch, but the pictures say it all I think. Kalium = Potassium and zwavel = sulphur.Click,and click. Shown are (in the same order, in the first pdf):branddescription composition mass composition Note some of the crackers (even the 66.1 gram flash cracker) contain KClO3/Al/S. The strike-crackers are notorious for going off too soon, this sometimes happens when the delay-powder is cracked. BTW, if you can find them in Italy, you should try the "Trueno Ricasa No4".
optimus Posted June 5, 2007 Posted June 5, 2007 The strike-crackers are notorious for going off too soon, this sometimes happens when the delay-powder is cracked. Adding an external fuse is always a good idea with these type of crackers - I don't trust them! They're great for threading onto a fuse and hanging them up. I've done this before with ones that spin before they explode - was a cool effect!
fight fire with fire Posted June 5, 2007 Posted June 5, 2007 Weknowpyro, those helicopters are the same as we get as are the candles, but we get the Le tiger fire crackers.
Mardec Posted June 5, 2007 Posted June 5, 2007 Dahm I want blue some delay crackers too :-( Just think: Scratching off most of the striker comp, putting a few stokes off black match against the remaining striker comp with some tape. Putting them in a shell, fire it. Blue smoke to salute daylightshell, nice
crazyboy25 Posted June 5, 2007 Posted June 5, 2007 you guys are soo lucky do you realize how hard it is to get commercial fireworks in southern california? the largest commercial fireworks i have ever gotton was a brick of 200 firecrackers pathetic. plus the sale period for fireworks is one week long right around fourth of july. i have seen people seting of some big stuff on the fourth not sure where they get it. mexico aparantly has crazy awesome fireworks around chritmas but i wouldn't like to try smuggling them across the border.
Dr Boom Posted July 11, 2007 Author Posted July 11, 2007 Jeez, took me long enough to get back on here since the 4th is almost a week away now. Managed to get my paws on nearly 100 Euro of fireworks for our great independence day and let me tell you... You just don't know how refreshing a loud (nearly detonation loud) firecracker can be when you haven't heard one in a while. I regret to say that I didn't get any pictures of these epic explosions, of course not all my fireworks were loud. My comrades in arms and I managed to get some really desent roman candles, whistler rockets and small fountains. I found that quite a few stores in my town in Aviano have few fireworks and I'll try to get those items again to pass on the info pictures like I did above. Might take a few days but it'll get done...
Dr Boom Posted September 7, 2009 Author Posted September 7, 2009 It has been 2 years since I put a post here and I regret that I didn't do this sooner.While in Italy doing the fireworks research on the side of my career work, I heard some rather bad news concerning the cobra 33's and other "Fuoci di artifecci". (sp?) Two Airmen from Aviano AB were discharged from military service due to extensive damage to their person and other administrative actions. They had purchased "many" cobra 33's and other Italian fireworks in order to construct a pipe-bomb (or other such large ground salute). They neglected to use a long enough safety fuse and the device exploded while both were very close. One man lost most of his hand, the other (at the time) was still to be determined whether he would lose a leg due to shrapnel. Not only is this a black eye (again) for pyrotechnics on an international scope, it prompted the local governor to pass a ruling that all fireworks (in that area) must be signed for and certain types could not be sold to Americans. Furthermore, the US Air Force lost two trained airmen that will no longer be able to perform their duties- and discharged because of bonehead-stupid actions. As responsible pyrotechnists we should be sensitive to warning signs that lead to the above action and discourage them if/when possible. Just maybe one of us can discourage someone from the "k3wl" status to actually learning about pyrotechnics and being responsible.
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