Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there,
Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland.
Speaker 1: I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio and how the Tech Area.
Speaker 2: It is the fourth of July all over the world,
Speaker 2: but in the United States we celebrate the fourth of July.
Speaker 1: We associate that with the.
Speaker 2: Signing of the Declaration of Independence, although that that in
Speaker 2: itself is not entirely historically accurate, but that's part for
Speaker 2: the course with the way we observe stuff here in America.
Speaker 2: But yes, we are off today because of the fourth
Speaker 2: of July holiday, and so we are bringing you a
Speaker 2: classic episode. We ran part one of this episode yesterday,
Speaker 2: so if you miss that, you may want to listen
Speaker 2: to that first. This is called Fireworks Part two because
Speaker 2: the previous one was called tech Stuff Lights Some fire Works.
Speaker 2: Originally this episode published July twenty eighth, twenty fourteen, and
Speaker 2: at that time, Lauren Vogelbaum was my co host. She
Speaker 2: now is host of brain Stuff and other things of
Speaker 2: that nature. So she's been doing lots of podcast production
Speaker 2: and is killing it. But back in these days she
Speaker 2: was a fresh faced podcaster joining me to talk about fireworks.
Speaker 2: I hope you enjoy this classic episode and let's listen in.
Speaker 3: As of about the Italian Renaissance, Yeah, people started adding
Speaker 3: different metals into the gunpowder to make it burn in
Speaker 3: different colors, right, And I suspect that this was tied
Speaker 3: into the fact that also around the Italian Renaissance, people
Speaker 3: were starting to make brilliantly colored paints of many different kinds,
Speaker 3: and the same metal compounds that were being used for
Speaker 3: those paints, I'm guessing is what got ported over into fireworks.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Yeah. They also found, you know, if you were
Speaker 1: able to get a metallic salt and say burn it,
Speaker 1: it would burn with a particular color of flame. So
Speaker 1: you would get a flame that would be green or
Speaker 1: blue or whatever based upon the metallic salts that were
Speaker 1: in that mixture. And that's when they said, hey, this
Speaker 1: firecracker stuff, if we were to put this in combination
Speaker 1: with the firecracker stuff, we'd get these different colors of
Speaker 1: light that would go off because the explosion could ignite
Speaker 1: a secondary charge that would have a mixture of these
Speaker 1: metallic salts in them. So we just mixed together the
Speaker 1: right way, we get the right color. Now, the important
Speaker 1: thing to remember is that these ingredients they don't change
Speaker 1: the chemical reaction of the explosion itself. It's more like
Speaker 1: adding a little flavor. So your basic ingredient is still
Speaker 1: the same. It's that black powder, but it's what you
Speaker 1: mix with it that gives you the bright, pretty colors.
Speaker 3: Right, And to explain what creates those bright pretty colors,
Speaker 3: we need to get down to an atomic level of
Speaker 3: how photons are created.
Speaker 1: Yeah or not? Well, yeah, given off, given off? Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So if you have an atom, one of the things
Speaker 1: that one of the sub atomic particles that make up
Speaker 1: that atom is the electron. Right, You have electrons that
Speaker 1: surround the nucleus with neutrons and protons or in the
Speaker 1: case of hydrogen, just a proton. And if you were
Speaker 1: to add energy to that atom, you would excite the electron.
Speaker 1: And I don't mean it'd be like ooh, I cannot
Speaker 1: wait until Avenger's two age of ultron comes out.
Speaker 3: Actually that's kind of I imagine that the dance that
Speaker 3: the electron does is very much like that dance that
Speaker 3: I do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the little little arms are at shoulder height and
Speaker 1: clenched in fists if you want to envision it, And
Speaker 1: then you just kind of wiggle a little bit. So
Speaker 1: these electrons, Yeah, they get excited from their normal energy state,
Speaker 1: which is called the ground state. That's the one that
Speaker 1: they naturally inhabit when they're just hanging out exactly.
Speaker 3: So that excited state will kind of push the electron
Speaker 3: further out.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So the thing is this is not sustainable. For
Speaker 1: if you take the energy source away, then the electron
Speaker 1: will gradually come back down to its ground state, but
Speaker 1: it has to give off all that energy it accepted
Speaker 1: in the process, all.
Speaker 3: Right, So when it snaps back, it gives off energy
Speaker 3: in the form of a photon.
Speaker 1: Right, And depending upon the element, you will get a
Speaker 1: different color of light, different.
Speaker 3: A different wavelength of photons exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah. The photon's light is dependent upon its wavelength.
Speaker 3: The amount of energy that it has equals the color
Speaker 3: that you see.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, and the thing is, once you know which
Speaker 1: elements are generating a certain color, it's going to be
Speaker 1: that way all the time.
Speaker 3: It's pretty dependable.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. So we have a list of colors and
Speaker 1: a list of the elements the metallic salts that are
Speaker 1: commonly used to create said colors in your typical fireworks display.
Speaker 1: So we're going to alternate describing these. Do you want
Speaker 1: me to go first?
Speaker 3: It's the longest list, so all right.
Speaker 1: Here we go. All right, So for the color going
Speaker 1: by the way, in the order of ROIGBIV. Technically we're
Speaker 1: doing roug bit because indigo actually gets turned into indigo
Speaker 1: and violet get turned into purple. Also, I guess it's
Speaker 1: technically roug BIPs because we have an S at the end.
Speaker 1: All right, fair enough, here we go, starting off red.
Speaker 1: To create the color red, you would typically add metallic
Speaker 1: salts such as strontium salts, lithium salts, lithium carbonate, or
Speaker 1: strontium carbonate, which creates a very bright red. So the Again,
Speaker 1: depending upon which ones you use, you get different hues
Speaker 1: of whatever color you're looking at.
Speaker 3: Sure, orange you've got calcium salts or calcium chloride.
Speaker 1: Yellow you have sodium salts or sodium chloride.
Speaker 3: Green can be barium compounds plus a chlorine producer YEP
Speaker 3: or barium chloride YEP.
Speaker 1: Blue would be copper compounds plus a chlorine producer you're
Speaker 1: probably noticing some trends here, or copper chloride.
Speaker 3: Purple can be a mixture of and red compounds. So
Speaker 3: like strontium and copper yep.
Speaker 1: And then you have silver, which is essentially something like aluminum,
Speaker 1: titanium or magnesium that's just burning. And those things burn
Speaker 1: really super bright. That's what gives fireworks their their silvery
Speaker 1: sparkly look. Yeah, so those are your basic ingredients. So
Speaker 1: how do we end up with the starburst patterns? I mean, obviously,
Speaker 1: if you just had an explosive with just these metallic
Speaker 1: salts mixed willy nilly in there and it exploded, it
Speaker 1: would just be a big mass of light in different colors.
Speaker 1: But we see these beautiful starburst patterns that come out.
Speaker 1: So what is it that causes that. Well, it's all
Speaker 1: in the actual manufacture and design, the layout of baracle
Speaker 1: design of right. Yeah, it's it's how you have situated
Speaker 1: the various metallic salts and you put them well.
Speaker 3: Well, okay, so we mentioned we mentioned at the end
Speaker 3: of the last episode that the basic let's run down again,
Speaker 3: the basic way that a firework is composed.
Speaker 1: Sure, okay, So if you were looking at a firework
Speaker 1: from top to.
Speaker 3: Bottom, if you cut one right in half, yeah.
Speaker 1: So the if you cut it right and half you
Speaker 1: would see that in the center is a burst charge.
Speaker 1: That's that's your your black powder that's designed to push
Speaker 1: everything outward in whatever formation you happen to have.
Speaker 3: And then surrounding that, you're going to have some kind
Speaker 3: of a clay or other material that's holding what's called
Speaker 3: in the industry stars.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is the metallic salts that are placed in
Speaker 1: and these these stars are small, they're like three or
Speaker 1: four centimeters across, so they look like pellets, and the
Speaker 1: pellets can be put around. There's also black powder around those,
Speaker 1: so it can really project them out and also ignite
Speaker 1: them so that they burn properly. Now you've got these
Speaker 1: layouts that will determine exactly what kind of effect you'll have.
Speaker 1: It's also the shape of the projectile shell itself, but
Speaker 1: really it's the layout of those stars. If you put
Speaker 1: the stars in a really tight circle around this burst charge,
Speaker 1: then when the firework goes off, you're going to get
Speaker 1: a perfect circle that expands outward as these metallic salts
Speaker 1: ignite and fly outward. And the cool thing is that
Speaker 1: a lot of these stars they have it where it's
Speaker 1: a three hundred and sixty degree thing. But because of
Speaker 1: the way we perceive fireworks, it looks to us more
Speaker 1: like a two dimensional circle that expands out, but it's
Speaker 1: actually going out in all directions. It's a true explosion
Speaker 1: if you were somehow able to be in the middle
Speaker 1: of one. For example, if you were I don't know,
Speaker 1: to fly a drone with a video camera on it
Speaker 1: into a fireworks display, which happened this year, then you
Speaker 1: would be able to see that it explodes outward in
Speaker 1: all directions, not just in a two dimensional circle, which
Speaker 1: is pretty cool. At any rate, you end up mixing
Speaker 1: those metallic salts with an oxidizer or reducing agent, which
Speaker 1: is also a fuel. Oxidizers and reducers work together to
Speaker 1: create the Bernie Bernie, and then also a binder which
Speaker 1: holds all the stuff together. Now, the oxidizers in the
Speaker 1: stars aren't usually potassium nitrate like you would find in
Speaker 1: black powder, because those oxidizers don't allow for high temperatures
Speaker 1: that are needed to produce the chemical reactions necessary for
Speaker 1: the different colors. In other words, potassium nitrate doesn't burn
Speaker 1: hot enough to ignite those metallic salts, so we usually
Speaker 1: end up going with something like potassium chlorate, which we
Speaker 1: mentioned in the previous episode. Creates these even more spectacular
Speaker 1: explosions or combustions, just it burns even faster than regular
Speaker 1: black powder does, making it much more dangerous. But that's
Speaker 1: what you need in order to generate these colors. Although
Speaker 1: again also that we mentioned in the last episode, people
Speaker 1: are looking at alternatives because potassium chlorate is not the
Speaker 1: best thing in the world to get in the environment.
Speaker 1: Once it has combusted, you get chloride for one thing,
Speaker 1: not a good stuff, but you do get those more
Speaker 1: intense reactions which allows the starbursts to ignite and fly outward.
Speaker 2: We're going to take a quick break talking about fireworks
Speaker 2: and listen to some messages from sponsors that might spark
Speaker 2: your interest.
Speaker 1: So you would typically have lots and lots of these
Speaker 1: stars packed into a single firework and you place them
Speaker 1: meticulously inside the rocket. And bi meticulously, I mean this
Speaker 1: is done by hand. People hand make these fireworks so
Speaker 1: that the patterns are exact. They will place the stars strategically.
Speaker 1: This is how you are able to get something like
Speaker 1: a smiley face effect because it's all based on physics
Speaker 1: that you know exactly how far something's gonna fly based
Speaker 1: upon the amount of black powder in there and it's
Speaker 1: orientation within the firework itself. So there's nothing special in
Speaker 1: the sense of there's no special tech that makes this
Speaker 1: heart shape or this smiley face. It's all in how
Speaker 1: those stars are right in there.
Speaker 3: It's very careful chemistry and mix and physics.
Speaker 1: Physics, Yeah, physics does the rest for you, as if
Speaker 1: you've done your job correctly in the design of the
Speaker 1: physical firework. Physics takes care of the rest. It'll just
Speaker 1: make stuff go boom and it'll fly the way it's
Speaker 1: supposed to fly based upon where you put it.
Speaker 3: And I'm sure machines could could even more precisely than
Speaker 3: humans create these mixtures and put them down in But
Speaker 3: the thing is that machines tend to get a little
Speaker 3: bit warm and sparky while they're doing their thing. Yea,
Speaker 3: So overall it's a lot. I mean, my hand is
Speaker 3: way less sparky than most machines that I know.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So also get rid of that stack electricity before
Speaker 1: you go in there. Yes, but see, one thing you
Speaker 1: could do is you could use computer programs to help
Speaker 1: you figure out what's the ideal layout.
Speaker 3: I'm sure, I'm sure that those algorithms exist.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, they do. Where you can actually you have
Speaker 1: all because the laws of physics are pretty consistent. You know,
Speaker 1: we don't generally have our laws turned upside down from
Speaker 1: one day to the next.
Speaker 3: As we'll talk about in the next section. There are
Speaker 3: some factors that can cause a little bit of havoc. Weather, humidity,
Speaker 3: ye kind of stuff. Pressure, I'm sure.
Speaker 1: So looking at a rocket completely in cross section, let's
Speaker 1: say you're cutting it in half long ways, not horizontally,
Speaker 1: so vertically, and you're looking at it from top to bottom,
Speaker 1: here's what you would have. You would have a one
Speaker 1: main fuse that would lead down from the top of
Speaker 1: the projectile into the firework. That would ignite two separate
Speaker 1: other fuses. All right, So you've got one fuse that's
Speaker 1: a time delay fuse, and it burns more slowly. Then
Speaker 1: you have a quick burning fuse, which obviously burns faster.
Speaker 1: The quick burning fuze goes along the outside of the
Speaker 1: firework down into its base. That's where you have the
Speaker 1: lift charge. That's the black powder that's going to provide
Speaker 1: the force to project the firework into the sky. Right
Speaker 1: the second the time delay fuse will continue to burn,
Speaker 1: and if you've designed the firework correctly, again based upon
Speaker 1: the laws of physics. You will have it ignite it
Speaker 1: just the right arc right right, usually when the firework
Speaker 1: has reached the peak, Yeah, exactly, and so that would
Speaker 1: light the burst charge that's the one that has all
Speaker 1: the stars centered around it. So you've got two charges,
Speaker 1: the lift charge and the burst charge, and the two
Speaker 1: have to be separated, or else you just get a
Speaker 1: mortar that explodes in a bright color of light, which
Speaker 1: we've had happened before that accidents have happened.
Speaker 3: Yes, and then right, and then each of those little
Speaker 3: stars inside the package have their own oxidizers that are
Speaker 3: going to set off.
Speaker 1: Yeah, each at the stars exactly. And you may even
Speaker 1: have a multi break firework which would have multiple chambers
Speaker 1: that have burst charges and stars in them, so that
Speaker 1: you get multiple explosions from one projectile. Those would have
Speaker 1: even separation charges. You can think of it kind of
Speaker 1: like a rocket that goes into outer space. You know,
Speaker 1: when the engines are done, you have the little separator
Speaker 1: charges that explode, separating the engines away so that the
Speaker 1: rest of the vehicle can continue going off into space. Yeah,
Speaker 1: same sort of thing with your basic firework, except of
Speaker 1: course you're not shooting it nearly as high, but you
Speaker 1: have little little Yeah, you have a little separation charges
Speaker 1: that will allow the multi breaks to happen. Meanwhile, that
Speaker 1: fuse just continues to slowly go through the entire firework,
Speaker 1: lighting each section in the right order. Yeah, so it's
Speaker 1: pretty cool.
Speaker 3: So let's talk about some of these different kinds of
Speaker 3: shells and what exactly they do.
Speaker 1: Sure, yeah, so these are terms in the fireworks industry.
Speaker 1: So the kind of shell you have, the design of it,
Speaker 1: the physical shape of the shell, as well as the
Speaker 1: layout of the stars are what determine the how it behaves.
Speaker 1: So for example, I guess we can alternate with these two.
Speaker 1: You have a palm shell, which contains large comets or
Speaker 1: charges in the shape of a solid cylinder. These travel outward,
Speaker 1: they explode and then curve downward like the limbs of
Speaker 1: a palm tree. So those are you know, now you'll
Speaker 1: be able to impress your friends when you watch a
Speaker 1: fireworks display. That's a palm charge. It's a classic palm clip.
Speaker 1: Really well done.
Speaker 3: You've also got the round those perhaps expectedly explode in
Speaker 3: a spherical shape, usually of colored stars.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is what I always think of when I
Speaker 1: think fireworks. This is the particular style. I think of
Speaker 1: just the big round globe of glowing stars like red
Speaker 1: or green flying outward.
Speaker 3: I actually think of the palm first.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can see it all depends on I guess,
Speaker 1: your own personal experience. I've seen a lot of Disney fireworks,
Speaker 1: and these round shells.
Speaker 3: Are They're very fond of them there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because if you do three of them in the
Speaker 1: right orientation.
Speaker 3: They look like a mickey head.
Speaker 1: Yes, exactly. So then you have the ring shell. This
Speaker 1: explodes to produce a symmetrical ring of stars. The way
Speaker 1: this works is that again, if you were to cut
Speaker 1: a ring shell in half, you would see just a
Speaker 1: perfect ring of the the pellets, the star pellets around
Speaker 1: the burst charge, and it would just shoot them all
Speaker 1: out in a circle, you know, in equal directions. So
Speaker 1: that's how that one works.
Speaker 3: Then you've got a willow. These contain stars with a
Speaker 3: high charcoal composition to make them really burning so that
Speaker 3: they'll fall out in the shape of willow branches and
Speaker 3: stay lips, stay visible sometimes even until they hit the ground.
Speaker 1: Yeah, these are the ones that you know, you see
Speaker 1: those sparkles and they just the long trail of sparkles
Speaker 1: as they slowly descend. They're very, very impressive.
Speaker 3: We're making so many gestures over here, folks.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of like spirit fingers going on inside
Speaker 1: the studio right now. Then you have the roundel, which
Speaker 1: bursts into a circle of maroon shells that then explode
Speaker 1: in sequence. Maroon shells is that the color actually no
Speaker 1: In fireworks language, maroon shells are shells that make a
Speaker 1: boom noise. These are the ones that I really didn't
Speaker 1: like as a kid, the very loud bangs. So, by
Speaker 1: the way, again, the way you create that loud bang
Speaker 1: is you really compress that black powder in fireworks factories,
Speaker 1: the way I've seen this is that you create the
Speaker 1: parchment shell, the black powder's in it. You then have
Speaker 1: that shell wrapped in string that is very tightly wound
Speaker 1: so it compresses it. Then you put wet parchment paper
Speaker 1: on the outside of it, tightly wrapped so that when
Speaker 1: it dries, it compresses it even more. Oh wow, yeah,
Speaker 1: pretty impressive.
Speaker 3: Our next type is the chrysanthemum shell, which bursts into
Speaker 3: like a spherical pattern of stars that leave a visible trail.
Speaker 3: So the effect is something like a chrysanthemum blossom.
Speaker 1: Yep. Then you have the pistol, the PI S T
Speaker 1: I L, which is like the chrysanthemum shell, but this
Speaker 1: one has a core that is a different color than
Speaker 1: the stars that fly out from the middle. So the
Speaker 1: middle is one color, the stars the second color.
Speaker 3: You can have just a maroon shell.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 3: So if you just just a bang.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I hated those. And then you had the serpentine,
Speaker 1: which is my strategy, and halo which never works. But no,
Speaker 1: a serpentine fireworks shell bursts to send small tubes of
Speaker 1: incendiaries skittering outward at random paths, which may culminate an
Speaker 1: exploding stars. So if you ever see the ones that
Speaker 1: have like the crazy spinneys that fly off, yeah, those
Speaker 1: are serpentines. So those are your basic types of fireworks shells.
Speaker 1: Of course, there are other very on these, or there's
Speaker 1: some that use this as a basis and then they
Speaker 1: create a different effect. But if you were in the
Speaker 1: fireworks trade, those are the kind of terms you would
Speaker 1: be hearing, and people would just call them out as
Speaker 1: they would see them launch, like, oh, that's a round L,
Speaker 1: that's a serpentine. You wouldn't have to say that's a
Speaker 1: maroon because everyone would be going what But anyway.
Speaker 3: So we've talked a little bit about this, but actually
Speaker 3: launching fireworks, especially in terms of displays.
Speaker 2: So yeah, the basic one we've covered the idea that
Speaker 2: you know you have the slow burning fuse and the
Speaker 2: quick burning fuse. The quick burning one lights the black powder.
Speaker 2: One thing we didn't mention is that you do have
Speaker 2: to have a mortar, which is essentially a pipe that
Speaker 2: has a closed off end on one side. And you know,
Speaker 2: in the old days, you would essentially light the one
Speaker 2: main fuze, drop the package into the mortar, and then
Speaker 2: run the heck away before everything started going bonky. So
Speaker 2: once that lift charge ignites, it creates a lot of
Speaker 2: gas and that gas expands and that's what provides the
Speaker 2: thrust to push the package out of the.
Speaker 1: Mortar and into the air. So if this sounds a
Speaker 1: lot like our discussions about things like cannon and flintlock
Speaker 1: pistols and things of that nature, it's because it is.
Speaker 1: We're talking about expanding gases. It's the same thing that
Speaker 1: creates the the propulsion for your basic firearm.
Speaker 3: It's creating a push yep.
Speaker 1: So you've got your mortar and your your lift charge,
Speaker 1: and that's all you need to be able to launch
Speaker 1: it properly. These days we don't necessarily need to have
Speaker 1: someone physically light a fuse and then dump it into
Speaker 1: a mortar.
Speaker 3: That does right. There are computerized fuses that will I
Speaker 3: mean not self light but no. No.
Speaker 1: What essentially you've got is you set up your your
Speaker 1: mortar system that already has the various packages in each
Speaker 1: mortar as it's supposed to be, and then you have
Speaker 1: an electrical charge that can create the spark to light
Speaker 1: the fuse, so that way everything can be done from
Speaker 1: a distance. You can either have it where it's manually done,
Speaker 1: where you push a button and that button is what
Speaker 1: creates the spark, or you could have it fully automated,
Speaker 1: where you've got a full program and you say, at
Speaker 1: this time stamp and when this program runs, this particular
Speaker 1: spark needs to happen, and in that case you can
Speaker 1: launch a firework. So this is where you get those
Speaker 1: big choreograph displays. Right, You've got a essentially a program
Speaker 1: that has a beginning to the end. And think of
Speaker 1: it like a video on YouTube. You would you look
Speaker 1: at the video and you'd see, oh, it's seven man's
Speaker 1: twelve minute twelve seconds long. I want to see what
Speaker 1: happens at minute three and twelve seconds and you go
Speaker 1: straight to that point and you look at that frame. Well,
Speaker 1: in this computer program, you would be able to see
Speaker 1: which switches were essentially being thrown electronically not mechanically necessarily
Speaker 1: these days, and you could say, oh, well, all right,
Speaker 1: at that point, mortars seventeen three and forty nine, all fire.
Speaker 1: There's a roundel in the center, there's a chrysanthemum, and
Speaker 1: there's a pistol, and all three go up simultaneously to
Speaker 1: create the effect you're going for. And you know exactly
Speaker 1: what's in which mortar, you know, you program that ends.
Speaker 3: You put them there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you put them there, and you say to the
Speaker 1: computer program, this is the thing that's in this other thing,
Speaker 1: and you cut.
Speaker 3: And create your fuses. Fuse technology also has a lot
Speaker 3: to do with how all of this is going to
Speaker 3: go off, and fuses are just really basic things if
Speaker 3: you've never created one yourself, that are made of some
Speaker 3: kind of fuel yep, that's coated or possibly soaked or
Speaker 3: infused with some kind of oxidizer yep. And the exact
Speaker 3: materials and ratios of materials that you use are going
Speaker 3: to give you these these different time.
Speaker 1: Effects right whether or not it'll burn at say, you
Speaker 1: could have the same length of fuse and one of
Speaker 1: them might take fifteen seconds to burn all the way through,
Speaker 1: and the other one might burn all the way through
Speaker 1: in three seconds. Again, it all depends upon the stuff
Speaker 1: you've put into that fuse, the oxidizers, any other kind
Speaker 1: of fuel you've imbued the fuse with. So once you
Speaker 1: know the physics and assuming your chemistry is good, you
Speaker 1: can have very consistent results from one firework to the next.
Speaker 1: So that assumes a lot. It means that you have
Speaker 1: to be very consistent in all the ingredients you use.
Speaker 1: You have to be consistent in the mixtures, the proportions
Speaker 1: you're using, as well as consistent in the placement of
Speaker 1: stars and the fuses that you use. But if you are,
Speaker 1: if you're really good about that, then you know how
Speaker 1: far the thing is going to fly based upon the
Speaker 1: amount of lift charge in it and its weight, because
Speaker 1: that's the two things that are going to determine how
Speaker 1: far projectile flies is how heavy is it and how
Speaker 1: much thrust are you giving it. Then you would also
Speaker 1: be able to determine when it's going to explode based
Speaker 1: upon the type of fuse that leads to that verse charge.
Speaker 1: So once you know these things, you can start to
Speaker 1: work backward. Right. So let's say that you have a
Speaker 1: piece of music that you particularly want to set your
Speaker 1: fireworks display to. And since I'm a huge Disney fan
Speaker 1: and Disney is famous for this, let's say it's when
Speaker 1: you wish upon a star, and when you hear the
Speaker 1: word star, clearly you want to have a starburst effect, right,
Speaker 1: you want to have the gorgeous starburst effects. So the
Speaker 1: crowd is oohing and eyeing right at the right moment.
Speaker 1: So what you would do is you would take that
Speaker 1: song and you would look at the time stamp for
Speaker 1: when the word star is mentioned. From that time stamp,
Speaker 1: you start to work backward and you say, all right,
Speaker 1: based upon when this happens in the song, when does
Speaker 1: that burst charge need to ignite? And then working backwards
Speaker 1: from that point, you know, you know when the burst
Speaker 1: charge needs to ignite so that you get the effect
Speaker 1: you want. You then say, all right, well i want
Speaker 1: it to be at this particular height and I'm firing
Speaker 1: it from this particular location. So based on that, you
Speaker 1: know the distance that the projectile has to go so
Speaker 1: they can be at the right height and explode at
Speaker 1: the right time. That tells you how large a lift
Speaker 1: charge you need to get the projectile there, and how
Speaker 1: quickly that quick burning fuse needs to burn in order
Speaker 1: for it to ignite, and what time you need to
Speaker 1: push or push the button or have it automatically expect exactly.
Speaker 1: So again you just work backwards. You know, you know
Speaker 1: when you want the effect to happen, so then you
Speaker 1: work backwards to find out when it has to initiate
Speaker 1: that fuse burning for the first time. So it actually
Speaker 1: is is pretty easy in that respect, but it does
Speaker 1: require that you have a very good knowledge of how
Speaker 1: the physics works. So that and it also requires that
Speaker 1: those fireworks are consistently made.
Speaker 3: Yes, so you've worked out the chemistry correctly, right.
Speaker 1: So that way when you use all right, we're going
Speaker 1: to use firework number seven, this this particular type of
Speaker 1: firework every single time, because I mean, like Walt Disney,
Speaker 1: the Disney Parks, they do these these fireworks displays nearly
Speaker 1: every night, particularly in the summer, right, So then that
Speaker 1: means it has to be exactly right each time. So
Speaker 1: the fireworks have to be consistent and they have to
Speaker 1: be ignited at the same time, the consistent time throughout
Speaker 1: each of these displays. But it's really pretty cool. Also,
Speaker 1: you might wonder what exactly is making that boom noise.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, we've been talking a little bit about expanding gases. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and that's basically it. The expansion of this stuff in
Speaker 3: the firework displaces a pretty large quantity of air.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that air has to go somewhere, so it ripples
Speaker 1: outward really fast, right, Yeah, it's essentially a shock wave. Yep,
Speaker 1: So that's what makes the boom. Yeah. So of course,
Speaker 1: the more black powder you can pack into a small space,
Speaker 1: the bigger the boom. Again, it has to be compact
Speaker 1: because if it's just loose, then it just it just burns, burns,
Speaker 1: It burns really fast. In fact, there are a lot
Speaker 1: of people who get really picky about the terms igniting
Speaker 1: versus exploding, because they say, well, technically, gunpowder just burns really,
Speaker 1: really really fast. It's not truly explosive. Yeah, but if
Speaker 1: you were to put it in a very compact area,
Speaker 1: then you get that explosion because of the rapid combustion.
Speaker 2: We got some more to say about fireworks. Before we
Speaker 2: get to that, let's take it another quick break.
Speaker 1: So we've really kind of covered all the basics about,
Speaker 1: you know, how these things work, the way that you
Speaker 1: would coordinate stuff. But we've still got some fun, little
Speaker 1: goofy trivial facts that I wanted to cover. So back
Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty eight I mentioned this a little bit.
Speaker 1: Disneyland introduced its first fireworks show. It was called Fantasy
Speaker 1: in the Sky, and Walt Disney came up with this idea,
Speaker 1: or actually asked the imagineers to come up with an
Speaker 1: idea of how do you keep people in the park
Speaker 1: after it gets dark?
Speaker 3: And I guess this is why to this day Disney
Speaker 3: uses fireworks displays almost nightly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, it turned out to be one of those
Speaker 1: things that really really worked well. People would stay in
Speaker 1: the park longer, which ultimately means they'd be willing to
Speaker 1: spend more money. I mean you the longer you keep
Speaker 1: someone there, the more likely they are going to walk
Speaker 1: out with one of those.
Speaker 3: Dolls Mickey lemonades and Mickey dolls.
Speaker 1: Ye there, the more churros they'll eat. Disney churos are
Speaker 1: the best. You know, their ice cream is pretty awesome too. Okay,
Speaker 1: I love Disney. But anyway, the launch site for the
Speaker 1: fireworks was backstage, and each firework at that time had
Speaker 1: to be lit manually. There's actually some video that you
Speaker 1: can watch of the various people who had to run
Speaker 1: back and forth and light the fireworks in the right sequence.
Speaker 1: These early fireworks weren't choreographed the way the modern ones were.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like you had park wide music and the
Speaker 1: fireworks went off of the but they were like really
Speaker 1: impressive displays. The displays, by the way, and Disney parks
Speaker 1: all depend upon where you which park you're in because
Speaker 1: some of the places like Disneyland, Paris and uh and
Speaker 1: Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney See have specific limitations on
Speaker 1: how high fireworks can go. So the ones that you'll
Speaker 1: see in say Florida and California are different than the
Speaker 1: ones you would see in these other parks because of
Speaker 1: those local laws. Sure, and since the days of Fantasy
Speaker 1: in the Sky, they've kind of upgraded. Like I said,
Speaker 1: they've got the fully choreographed ones.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, with quite a few shells.
Speaker 1: Yeah. The Disney World's Wishes display has five hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty seven firing cues. They have more shells than that,
Speaker 1: but just five hundred and fifty seven separate queues in
Speaker 1: that one display, So five hundred and fifty seven different
Speaker 1: times there are multiple shells going up into the sky.
Speaker 1: That's incredibly complex. I think it's like seventeen minutes long
Speaker 1: something like that. So it's a really long display, so
Speaker 1: really impressive. I mean obviously, if it were like three
Speaker 1: minutes long and there's five hundred and fifty seven firing cues,
Speaker 1: you would just be blind and deaf by the end
Speaker 1: of it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that sounds a little bit whelming right there. Yes,
Speaker 3: they've also engineered their system to use compressed air for
Speaker 3: launches rather than that initial blast. Yeah, we've been talking
Speaker 3: about an initial blast forcing something out out of the
Speaker 3: firing tube. But yeah, but they're using compressed air, so
Speaker 3: it probably reduces their cost a lot. You only need
Speaker 3: that single explosion, and it reduces the amount of smoke
Speaker 3: that's created.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so they don't have to because obviously those early
Speaker 1: displays emit that once the display was over, you had
Speaker 1: this kind of cloud of smoke hanging over the Magic Kingdom.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so this way they are able to avoid that. Also,
Speaker 1: I mean, you're just using giant air canons. How cool
Speaker 1: is that. In the United States, at least, fireworks are
Speaker 1: technically classified as two different types of explosives at the
Speaker 1: same time because of the different effects. So the fact
Speaker 1: that they have the one blast for propulsion and the
Speaker 1: other blast that's truly the explosion. You have low level
Speaker 1: and like an intermediate level of explosive classification just for fireworks,
Speaker 1: So it gets two to one.
Speaker 3: As of the recording of this podcast, the largest fireworks
Speaker 3: display on record happened on December thirty first, twenty thirteen
Speaker 3: in Dubai, during which they exploded four hundred and seventy
Speaker 3: nine thousand, six hundred and fifty one fireworks.
Speaker 1: That's a lot.
Speaker 3: It stretched across about sixty miles of seafront.
Speaker 1: That is an enormous fireworks display. Yeah, the air would
Speaker 1: look as if it were on fire, I imagine by yeah. Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: we kind of have to because I don't think anyone
Speaker 1: else can afford to do that.
Speaker 3: No, no, and again we do want to impress upon
Speaker 3: you that these are I mean beautiful and miracular, Well
Speaker 3: not miraculous, they're technological. These are beautiful, technological feats of engineering.
Speaker 3: And physics and chemistry all at the same time.
Speaker 1: That will totally blow your fingers off.
Speaker 3: They will super blow your fingers off, y'all.
Speaker 1: Don't play with them, no, yeah, and I know there
Speaker 1: are a lot of people who do, like their little
Speaker 1: backyard fireworks display for Fourth of July here in the
Speaker 1: US or the New Year's Eve or whatever.
Speaker 3: Just just you know, stay sober. Folks.
Speaker 1: Have a spotter, yeah, have you know your fire handling
Speaker 1: stuff like a fire extinguisher is always a good idea.
Speaker 1: Just practice safety and be be alert, you know, enjoy yourself,
Speaker 1: but mind and don't make them at home, please, Right,
Speaker 1: these are these are explosives, and explosives are inherently dangerous,
Speaker 1: so just be careful. Even sparklers are using black powder, right,
Speaker 1: that's that's one of the mixers, and they have like
Speaker 1: the little metal flakes like aluminum or whatever in them
Speaker 1: so that they create those bright silver sparks. So these
Speaker 1: are things that will burn. They'll burn hot. They will
Speaker 1: burn you if you're not careful, So just show caution.
Speaker 1: Enjoy yourselves though, because these displays can be really really impressive.
Speaker 1: I like to let other people handle it for me
Speaker 1: because knowing how excellent prone I am. I realize that
Speaker 1: it would be a terrible idea to put me in
Speaker 1: charge of any kind of fireworks displays.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, no, given the opportunity, I will burn myself
Speaker 3: every time. Yeah, I have to remind myself approximately daily
Speaker 3: that hot things are.
Speaker 1: Hot, right, exactly right? Oh yeah, that thing that glowing red? Now,
Speaker 1: I remember why it's glowing red. It's because of that
Speaker 1: those excited electrons, the photons. Yeah.
Speaker 2: That was the conclusion of the two part series about
Speaker 2: fireworks fireworks Part two. In this case, Lauren and I
Speaker 2: had a lot of fun talking about that and researching fireworks.
Speaker 1: I used to really.
Speaker 2: Hate fireworks as a kid. I think it was a
Speaker 2: sensory thing and that it was just the very loud
Speaker 2: bangs coupled with the very bright lights were upsetting to
Speaker 2: me to the point where I would say that the
Speaker 2: lights looked loud. It was a weird thing. And you know,
Speaker 2: I don't think I had synesthesia or anything like that.
Speaker 2: I think it was just me trying to communicate that
Speaker 2: I did not find them a pleasant experience. I like
Speaker 2: them now, but yeah, as a kid, it was a
Speaker 2: bit much. I also thought balloons were just a loud
Speaker 2: noise waiting to happen. So you know, probably some probably
Speaker 2: some conclusions we can draw from that, But I was like,
Speaker 2: you know, forty five years ago, so I'm gonna just
Speaker 2: set that aside. But yeah, I am a big fan
Speaker 2: of fireworks these days, and in fact, I really would
Speaker 2: love to sit down and talk with someone who has
Speaker 2: worked on a coordinator level on like big, big fireworks displays,
Speaker 2: something like a Disney World display, or a big Fourth
Speaker 2: of July celebration or a New Year's Eve celebration, that
Speaker 2: sort of thing, just to talk about the kind of
Speaker 2: planning that goes into it and how much of it
Speaker 2: is plotted down and how much of it is left
Speaker 2: to you know, some element of chance because you don't
Speaker 2: have control over all the factors you can't control, for example,
Speaker 2: the wind. That kind of thing.
Speaker 1: I would love to have a conversation with someone. So
Speaker 1: I'm going to be on the lookout to kind of
Speaker 1: talk about that because I think, you know, there's the
Speaker 1: other fascinating aspect of fireworks technology, which comes down to
Speaker 1: crafting a show through explosives. It's just something there's something
Speaker 1: interesting about the elegance of crafting a show mixed with
Speaker 1: the you know, for lack of a better word, the
Speaker 1: violence of explosions, and I really would love to learn
Speaker 1: more about it. Anyway, I hope that you are all
Speaker 1: having a safe Fourth of July in the United States
Speaker 1: or otherwise, whether you are celebrating or you are just
Speaker 1: going through a regular July day. For those of you
Speaker 1: who are celebrating, please please, please, please be careful. Every
Speaker 1: year we see news items about people who have become
Speaker 1: injured through you know, working with fireworks, so you want
Speaker 1: to be very careful. Don't take that lightly. It's important
Speaker 1: to have fun, but more important, I think, to stay
Speaker 1: safe and healthy. And with that, I'll talk to you
Speaker 1: again really soon. Tech Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. For
Speaker 1: more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. You mean