Fountains Formulas

Alan, Winokur lists some colored glitter. It's a subtle color in my experience and it depends upon the viewing distance. Magnalium is substituted for the alum. which washes out any chance for color. Experimenting is fun though. I might suggest a combination of alum. and magnalium.

Excerpts from PI "I have been unable to obtain even faint green flashes; however, I have had limited success with pink and red. Pinkish flashes have been produced using strontium carbonate, oxalate and nitrate."

I've seen a pretty fair colored glitter using lithium salts.

I would be happy to post Winokurs #1-5 if they are not available to you. A good starting point me thinks.

BigG:  I've never seen Bismuth Trisulfide used in crackle cores, I think you might be thinking of the Trioxide or Subcarbonate which is used in place of Red Lead?

Yes, my mistake of course.

In any case, bismush salts are expensive compare to alternetinves.

Note, that very good glitters can also be obtained from the metal antimony. I?ll post a good resource in a suitable thread.

See the star formula thread for Winokur's formula's #1-5. Cheers Bernie

Does anyone have any good glitter formulae using antimony? (I only have a small ammount so can't afford to experiment too much!)

I get a lot of success from just using BP, and adding some fine iron filings. It works wonders, with a nozzle of about 5mm I get a 10/15 foot fountain.

You can get a really nice long burning glitter from this:

Sulphur 5%
Charcoal 20%
Aluminium Powder 15%
Potassium Nitrate 60%

I've had a small, unchoked one of these shoot sparks 7 - 9' high!


Tris

Technically............it ain't glitter.

What is it then? It looks like sparks to me. Whats the difference between the two? Does glitter linger longer? Do tell...

Tris

Technically............it ain't glitter.

Bernie, you don't need to be so sensitive. You can simply say it's not glitter.


Taj. It is unfortunate that that the best way to know what the difference between glitter, fliter and strobe is actually someone pointing you each of the one and tell you what they are. From that moment on, it’s easy to note.

Glitter/Flitter are not simply aluminium sparks, but sparks that actually sparkle – giving sort of tiny on/off effect in quick secession. In Glitter, the spark usually starts as a “dull spark” like the one of aluminium, and it suddenly explode into a bright branching spark and extinguish. Imagine 100’s of those explode and extinguish one after the other and you can see how you get a nice glitter. Flitter is similar, but each individual spark seem to last longer and leave a bush of tiny sparkles behind it. In strobe, the sparks actually go on and off at a certain Hertz, for a few times.

When you look at a hand held sparkler – you get a similar effect to glitter – which I’m sure you’ll agree is quite different for the effect your fountain produce (Well, not all sparklers, I am talking about the one that give you sort of large branching sparks when they leave the stick).

The chemistry behind the effect has been discussed in number of literatures – and it’s enough to look at the formula you have posted to know it will not produce glitter, flitter or strobe. Glitter use delay agents that “delay” the branching explosion of the spark – such as Sodium Oxalate/Bicarbonate, Strontium Oxalate and Barium carbonate. Flitter uses large amounts of flake aluminium to reflect/deflect the light off it (with or without delay agent) and Strobe uses the unique qualities of magelium (which under certain conditions got a “vibrating” burn).

Edited by BigG, 26 January 2004 - 01:29 PM.

Thanks, thats cleared quite a few things up. Someone could write a book on pyro lingo alone! You mentioned barium carbonate being used in glitter & flitters. Do you have any such formula, particularly for flitter.

Tris

P.S. In reference to iron sulphide on the previous page, if you live in the right plae you can get it off the ground in vast quantites. Its called iron pyrite or more commonly fools gold. It looks a sort of metalic, goldy silver colour and can be found on mine dumps all over the country (particularly cornwall). When it has been exposed to the elements it is very brittle and can be crushed quite easily. Then mill it for a while and i'm sure you'll have quite adequate iron sulphide powder.

Edited by tajmiester, 26 January 2004 - 12:58 PM.

This one is from Winokur (Silver Grebe):

KNO3 52
Antimony Tri-Sulphide 14
Barium Carbonate 10
C (AF) 10
S 7
A (Atom) 7

Please note that too much mixing may destroy glitter. Best result would be to use finely powdered KNO3, S, and C with about 200-250 mesh Antimony and just mix everything together using a screen 5 to 6 times.

With regard to my last mail, some noted that flitter could be achieved with atomised aluminium rather then flake. I agree, my description comes to give the general formulas. Some formulas do use atomize aluminium, but then other materials are usually incorporated. (for example, flake titanium/magnesium/magnelium).

Great Posts in this area you guys,

My Hats off to you, I have been looking for a dragon eggs formula utilizing Bismuth Subcarbonate, I know my stuff However I can't make it work, via The Chemical equation route or through careful, experimentation, if anyone has any reference or resource for the Bismuth Subcarbonate, I would Appreciate the help. I know this is not in the realm of Fountain Formula's But Had to ask, as it was mentioned, I will repost in the Formula forum Richard.

Thanks,

Stay Green,

Bear

C.J. White has an article in Pyrotechnica XIV but it's bismuth subnitrate.

Edited by bernie, 26 January 2004 - 11:39 PM.

Thanks Bernie,

I don't have that one (Pyrotechnica) Could you possible forward the Formula to me, I might be able to grab an Idea or three from it. Still waiting on the shipping charge for the Water Melon... , Anywho.... hehehehe, If you could Forward the article or and commentary you think would be useful I'd be most appreciative.

Thanks Brother,

Stay Green and Warm,

Bear

Shimizu does a big thing on dragon eggs in Pyrotechnica 13. Mostly lead related though. Took a quick glance through # 13 and didn't see any references to the subcarbonate.

Edited by bernie, 27 January 2004 - 01:45 AM.