Books

[JMA375HH]

Hello everyone extremely new to all this and want to learn as much as I can, Any good Books on Pyrotechnical making and Chemical use for the beginner? I am starting my new hobby making smoke devices (candy smoke) any suggestions on good books or other learning material would be great thanks.

[Swede]

One of the better beginner books is Tom Perigrin's "Introductory Practical Pyrotechnics" For BP Rockets: "Amateur Rocket Motor Construction" by David Sleeter. He's more into model rockets than fireworks, but the information is excellent. Shimizu's classic "Fireworks, The Art, Science and Technique" is a must-have. For other energetics and just an all-around cool book, Tenney Davis, "The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives." Those are four of my favorites, and many of the guys here have all of them. There are others...

 

Good luck, books are a great thing to have rather than relying on the internet for all your information. A subscription to Passfire is worth every penny.

[50AE]

My favorites are The best of AFN III, IV and V, I don't have the first and second edition. Also, Fireworks the Art Science and Technique by Takeo Shimizu should definitely be read. Chemistry of Pirotechnics by John Conkling is very interesting too.

Ian von Maltitz - BP manufacture testing and optimizing is mainly a book for black powder, you can find some very useful info there.

And I have some books with scratched titles, but the author is A. Fulcanelli and they explain a very good can shell construction.

 

So many tell me that passfire is Alice in Wonderland for pyrotechnics. I start considering to buy an account

 

Admins, is it allowed to give the downloading links of scanned books here ?

Edited April 27, 2009 by 50AE

[TheSidewinder]

You may, but ONLY if the books are in the Public Domain.

 

No links to pirated materials of any sort. Period.

[50AE]

That's what I thought. I think most of my books are pirated. Edited April 27, 2009 by Mumbles

[JMA375HH]

Thanks everyone this is very exciting

[Aimlesspayload]

the three books I have are: Tom Perigrin's "Introductory Practical Pyrotechnics", "pyrotechnics" by Alexander Hardt, and Fireworks the Art Science and Technique by Takeo Shimizu.

 

I'm a beginner aswell.

 

I found that "Introductory Practical Pyrotechnics" is great in that it explains, in a simple way, the mechanics and basic techniques of fireworks. It leads you from project to project in a way in which the next project builds on the last. I strongly advise making a ball ill before even really getting started with the hobby, and ignoring the methods of making black powder advised in this book (the precipitation method aka CIA method).

 

"pyrotechnics" by Alexander Hardt is great, every question I can think of is answered in this book. although, half of it is stuff you'll never really use. As in the author talks about things like military flares, and primers, or like graphs of the amount of light given off if whatever variable is changed in whatever comp. this book is probably expensive. it was lent to me.

 

Fireworks the Art Science and Technique by Takeo Shimizu, I didn't find too useful... but I haven't read it thoroughly though, just skimmed.

[Arthur]

Fireworks Principles and Practice (ISBN: 0820603546 / 0-8206-0354-6)

Lancaster, Ronald; Butler, Roy E.A.; Lancaster, J. Mark; Shimizu, Takeo

 

is possibly my favourite book on fireworks. He keeps to fireworks, doesn't get into military pyro, doesn't get into HE.

 

Shimizu's book is hard to read because of the art/philosophy at the start. Keep dipping in to the formulations and methods then go back to the first few chapters.

 

Search www.Abebooks in your country for local and world vendors.

 

A St.H Brock wrote some great books about the firework industry as he was both an established author and a member of the UK Brock family firework dynasty. But they can be expensive and are written more about the industry than about making fireworks and formulations.

 

Pyrotechnics by Weingart is an old and respected text but uses a lot of chlorate mixes which rather date it, certainly it's not a book for beginners. Beginners should consider totally avoiding chlorates (for their chemical incompatibilities).

[Mindphreak]

There's a cool book not so much on fireworks but on all the sciences. Its called "The Young Man's book of Amusement" and you can see bits of it online at the lateral science website. Its got all sorts of experiments, although some are half crazy and fully daangerous.

I have a hard copy, and, as I doubt its against copyright laws to make copies, since it was printed around 1850, I could hook you up with some of the sections that are not online.

[TrueBluePyro]

Yeah I wouldnt mind a read , I will read anything decent pyrotechnics.

[Swede]

I found that "Introductory Practical Pyrotechnics" is great in that it explains, in a simple way, the mechanics and basic techniques of fireworks. It leads you from project to project in a way in which the next project builds on the last. I strongly advise making a ball ill before even really getting started with the hobby, and ignoring the methods of making black powder advised in this book (the precipitation method aka CIA method).

 

I agree with this. Tom's book is clear, well-written, with plenty of photos and diagrams. Shimizu assumes a certain amount of expertise, and there is definitely a Japanese slant on things, which isn't bad, just different. On the ppt BP, the "CIA Method"... I still have about a pound of that precipitated BP I made from the book. The method actually works, but the BP is nowhere near what it could be with a proper milling. Since it is weaker than normal BP, I really don't have a use for it. I've been using it in my star guns, a little at a time, but beyond that, I don't have much use for it.

 

Hmm, I could always toss it in the mill with the next batch of BP's raw ingredients. I wonder why I never thought of that before!