Naphthalene Charges

[Gunzway]

Naphthalene charges are a good device for the beginning pyrotechnician due to their simplicity of their construction but they still will produce a satisfactory result when fired.They can range from small enough for the backyard and large enough to impress a drunken crowd. It produces a fairly attractive fireball with a decent amount of black smoke which also makes Naphthalene useful for black smoke compositions.

 

Materials needed:

- Naphthalene (A easy source for this would be mothballs)

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb95/Gunzway/PIC_0104.jpg

Make sure it is the type which contains naphthalene! They generally have 'Contains Naphthalene' on the packaging. I purchased this bag for $1 AUD, it contains 5oz of moth balls which is equivalent to 141.7grams. This is fairly cheap from my experiences, I purchased it at one of those miscellaneous $2 shops.

 

- Cab-O-Sil may be used to keep the Naphthalene in a nice fluffy powder.

- A container, I use a cardboard box and I recommend you keep the container as cardboard.

- Black powder/Green mix/Pyrodex/A charcoal based composition anything which is similar to these; it’s to ignite the Naphthalene and give it a bit of lift in the sky. The amount you use and the quality of the flammable powder will alter the type of fireball you will get. Greenmix would cause your fireball to just come out of the box a bit and burn whilst good quality meal would give a bit of a 'punch'.

- Hammer coffee grinder or mortar and pestle to crush and grind the mothballs into a powder. I don’t recommend ball milling it as it can be down without doing so and you’ll find out why that’s a bad idea later.

- A piece of fuse, visco would work just fine.

 

Warnings/Cautions:

- Even though this is a safe device, it’s always recommended to wear the necessary safety equipment and maintain the proper precautions. It's a good habit to get into and will make sure you Prepare for the worst, anything can go wrong.

- I highly recommend using a respirator and even goggles, there’s been a significant amount of people (particularly children) which have had their health affected due to Naphthalene. Hence the many warnings they place on the packaging now. It’s mainly from eating it, but if you’ve got the safety equipment you might as well use it.

- The stuff stinks; I recommend you do it outside as it will stink up your workshop fast.

 

Procedure:

1. Crush up your moth balls. Do whatever suits you, as mentioned do it outside. I generally place them in a sturdy plastic bag or two and just crush them up with a sledgehammer (just gently hitting them). Add some cab-o-sil in the process to prevent clumping, I’ve read about people using some air float charcoal for the same purpose. Haven’t tried that but I’ll let you know about the results when I do.

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb95/Gunzway/PIC_0105.jpg

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb95/Gunzway/PIC_0107.jpg

 

2. Put a hole at the bottom of your container and an appropriate length of fuse.

3. Place a layer of your flammable powder (black powder, green mix etc.) covering the fuse. I generally put 10% - 20%.

4. Now insert another layer of composition which is a mixture of both naphthalene and your flammable powder. I generally put 20% as it’s not over kill and it does the job . From personal experience, I use a 1:3 ratio of black powder to naphthalene and I’ve achieved fairly good results. But varying on what you’re using, it’s mainly trial and error for best performance. 30% black powder and 70% naphthalene should be a good starting point.

5. Fill the rest of the container with naphthalene. Generally I only fill mine a bit above halfway of the container before stopping, this is to ensure the naphthalene catches fire and it doesn’t come out unlit.

 

The instructions of how to prepare the container with naphthalene and black powder in the correct ratios may be slightly confusing. I drew a diagram on the basis of another which may make it easier to follow.

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb95/Gunzway/Napdiagram.jpg

(You can alter the ratios of the mixture to your liking. One could add more blackpowder at the bottom to achieve a more powerful fireball exciting the container etc.)

Taadaa! The finished product. Now there's only one last thing to do, make some milkshake. Oh, and lit the fuse on the naphthalene charge of course.

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb95/Gunzway/PIC_0108.jpg

 

--- I've obtained a poor video of this, my brother decided to film a vast majority of the ground instead of the fireball and he missed the top (and obviously the most attractive part) of the fireball. I will make another soon and post it here.

 

Feel free to discuss, comment or whatever.

Edited July 14, 2009 by Gunzway

[inonickname]

Sweet, I might go buy some napthalene tomorrow seen as I'm using too many of my expensive chemicals up recently..

 

The odor is horrible.. Some of the kids did a prac on the melting point of mixtures and did napthalene to see the point it melted, became viscous et cetera. I have form in that room, and it stinks like crap. I tipped all of the napthalene (it was left open in vials) out of the window a week before holidays, and it still stank on the last day. God, awful.

 

How does it go compared to other "fireball" effects- gasoline, flour, sawdust, airfloat charcoal, non dairy creamer et cetera?

 

As a solid fuel, is there any fallout after the fireball (I guess not).

 

I'm gonna guess when it goes off it stinks..Can't be as bad as the fireball I did with 300g of sulfur surely.

[Gunzway]

Sweet, I might go buy some napthalene tomorrow seen as I'm using too many of my expensive chemicals up recently..

 

The odor is horrible.. Some of the kids did a prac on the melting point of mixtures and did napthalene to see the point it melted, became viscous et cetera. I have form in that room, and it stinks like crap. I tipped all of the napthalene (it was left open in vials) out of the window a week before holidays, and it still stank on the last day. God, awful.

 

How does it go compared to other "fireball" effects- gasoline, flour, sawdust, airfloat charcoal, non dairy creamer et cetera?

 

As a solid fuel, is there any fallout after the fireball (I guess not).

 

I'm gonna guess when it goes off it stinks..Can't be as bad as the fireball I did with 300g of sulfur surely.

Yeah, it has a distinctive smell which some claim to smell like 'old people' or a 'retirement village'. I don't believe there's any fallout after the fireball, it burns fairly cleanly. I've seen a few videos and some people's tubes/cardboard boxes they've used catches on fire so I recommend a bucket of water just incase. The one I did caught fire a little, but then went out quite spontaneously so I assume it's just the material you choose.

 

I haven't done many fireball effects, I've done airfloat charcoal and small gasoline tests. Naphthalene fireballs in my experience are quite attractive ones compared to others due to their black smoke and colour. I've heard about these being used in movies, but I can't clarify that with proper evidence. It's probably more expensive than most fireballs, especially if you don't have a good find.. It is a lot safer than liquid fireballs which is a good pro. I believe FrankRizzo and Tentacles have a good video uploaded here about different types of fuels for fireballs which helped me a lot with discovering the different properties of each.

 

The smell isn't as bad when it goes off. There's a faint smell, but it's nothing compared with what you would of had to put up with previously. The smoke isn't too good to breathe in as I've read, just don't try and breathe it in.

[inonickname]

Yep, black smoke often = cancer.

 

The main reason I didn't do many fireballs was because liquid left lots of fallout, which is bad in a residential area and that powder balls resulted in apocalypse explosions and were very short lived.

 

I may give napthalene a go, I just hope the combustion odor isn't too bad.

 

With an average meal BP lift, and primed well how large a fireball could you expect from napthalene? The largest fireballs I've gotten so far were from shooting pressed non dairy creamer from the barrel of my (homemade) airgun at 400 psi.

[Gunzway]

Yep, black smoke often = cancer.

 

The main reason I didn't do many fireballs was because liquid left lots of fallout, which is bad in a residential area and that powder balls resulted in apocalypse explosions and were very short lived.

 

I may give napthalene a go, I just hope the combustion odor isn't too bad.

 

With an average meal BP lift, and primed well how large a fireball could you expect from napthalene? The largest fireballs I've gotten so far were from shooting pressed non dairy creamer from the barrel of my (homemade) airgun at 400 psi.

It may be a concern if you had a job like special effects and you used naphthalene fireballs regularly thus you breathe a lot in. But considering you are standing a fair distance away anyway, I don't think it's a problem. Just don't go huffing it in hoping you'll gain super powers or something.

 

Naphthalene fire balls in my experience burn a bit longer in my experience, but I've only down small scale devices with it. It depends on how much naphthalene you use, I don't recommend it for it's 'quantity' (largeness) as it's fairly expensive and I'm sure there's better alternatives.But it's a good quality fireball and it's got a good colour to it and can produce a neat effect when mastered correctly. Average meal BP lift sounds fine, I've used numerous different types of compositions including Greenmix and even 60/30/10 rocket mix and it all works. The combustion odor is not bad, I didn't notice anything or maybe I was just overwhelmed with the heat and/or grinding them up. But yeah, naphthalene is reasonably safe to construct and the device doesn't leave a bunch of grass fires behind it's an appropiate fireball if you live in residential area. Check your PM also.

[flying fish]

So...Any reason that napthalene couldn't be used for an Aerial fireball?

 

I know they generally use liquid fuels for those, but I find those to be a bit scary due to fire hazards...

[Mumbles]

I found that solid fuels just don't cut it for aerials. The fireball is so tiny at the correct heights. I've tried both cremora and naphthalene, and the effect is dismal. I'm always worried about blowing them blind, which was real easy with the cremora. Not something you have to worry about with liquids.

[Yafmot]

I've got lab grade Naphthalene crystals, and all i need to do is stick some in a Ziplock and scrunch it around in my fingers. Takes it down to powder with surprizing ease. But it is hard to get it all to light. As long as it all burns, the smell keeps down to near nothing. But if the burst scatters some around, it will make half the block like a Goddamned urinal. (That's what those soapcakes in there are primarily made of.) This tends to piss off the neighbors (and I'm not too crazy about it myself).

 

Hey, Mumbles. why not a mixture of solid & liquid? Put enough gasoline in it to make it kind of a semisolid mass, and just lay the bag on top of the lift charge. Maybe toss in a little flach with the lift, just to warm things up & add a little shock to the dispersion, so you don't blow a bunch of unignited clumps all over.

[Gunzway]

After reviewing the video and doing a minor naphthalene fireball using mothballs that clearly stated:

"99.9% Naphthalene" a month or two ago...

I've came to the conclusion that the mothballs I was using were not of high purity, although the smell was still distinct. My hypothesis would be they were still predominately naphthalene, but probably contained another chemical added to it that might have affected its performance. With the naphthalene that I was sure was of high purity, it produced a much larger and 'fiery' fireball and the quantity used was much less than that I was using before. Whatever the reason may be, the moth balls I purchased from a different store worked better. I'll eventually get around to doing this with a different source of naphthalene, won't be for a while but I'll get around to it one day...

 

Hey, Mumbles. why not a mixture of solid & liquid? Put enough gasoline in it to make it kind of a semisolid mass, and just lay the bag on top of the lift charge. Maybe toss in a little flach with the lift, just to warm things up & add a little shock to the dispersion, so you don't blow a bunch of unignited clumps all over.

 

Not Mumbles here, but that sounds like it could work and could produce a very nice fireball. It's definitely worth a try as the results could be very favorable. Someone should give that a try, unfortunately it can't be me .