8 replies to this topic

[Alan Fox]

Ive been wondering and trying to work up a safe formula to produce a BP rocket motor for use in Pyro display that will also provide a colored flame from the motor. Has anyone worked on this?

[adamw]

You can make a nice orange

With BP alone - good luck. If you search the forum you will find a few discussions about making colours (or not as it transpires) with anything less than KCLO4

[Chaz]

An additional 5% of aluminium should give the rocket a silver tail, other than that, I'm not sure what else you can do. *Maybe* the addition of zinc would turn the flame green, but you would most likely still have the typical orange charcoal sparks.

[BigG]

Well ? again ? this will be difficult with a BP based fuel. Kimbolton produce fountains, which have green flame and are called ?green quicksilver?. The name might suggest an inclusion of magnesium or magnelium based formulations. However, those fountains do not create spray as strong as BP based ones ? and I can only guess that they produce low amount of gas and will not operate as rocket motors.

The one trick you can apply is build a BP based rocket and include a layer of coloured fire at the end. Such a device will start as a regular motor ? and will finish with a couple of seconds of coloured fire. The coloured fire will not contribute to the rocket thrust ? but might create an unusual effect at its peek.

Please note you cannot make your own motors and then use them in public displays ? unless you got a manufacture facility.

Edited by BigG, 20 May 2005 - 09:17 AM.

[pyrohawk]

Whats the formula for Kimboltons Green Quicksilver? I would like to have a good green fountain formula..... I assume it uses some sort of Barium salt?

[Mortartube]

Some years ago I saw some Spanish flight rockets that had a small colour case glued to the side of the motor. This was designed to light at the same time as the motor. I know this isn't exactly what you're after but I would imagine a good willow or Kamuro star would leave a nice effect on the way up.

[BigG]

pyrohawk, on May 30 2005, 05:04 AM, said:

Whats the formula for Kimboltons Green Quicksilver? I would like to have a good green fountain formula..... I assume it uses some sort of Barium salt?

How would I know that ? It's a commortial formula - and I don't expect them to tell everyone how they do this

[mcfluffin]

Although I've never tried this, I believe that if you where to add a copper salt(probably copper nitrate) it would color it green. I've got only a little bit(testing out nitric acid ) and as yet don't have good enough charcoal to make decent gunpowder. Wouldn't hurt to try, although you would have to play around with the proportions as earlier stated, other mixtures might not have enough kick to get off the ground.