Name: Al Gold Driver
Source: Alan Yates
| percent | parts | component |
|---|---|---|
| 70.00% | 7 | Potassium Perchlorate |
| 10.00% | 1 | Aluminium (-325 mesh, spherical) |
| 10.00% | 1 | Sodium Benzoate |
| 10.00% | 1 | Parlon |
For driver use it can be screened together and pressed into the device.
For flitter stars add the water soluble binder of your choice (+3-5%) and pump or cut. Takes fire easily but meal priming is generally required. Sodium Nitrate formation does not seem to be a problem.
For go-getters moisten with acetone and press into tubes, then poke a piece of blackmatch down the middle. You can use a brass nail or similar rod to make the core first if your composition is especially dry or your match especially weak. You can mix the composition with more acetone and make a paste to pour the go-getters if you prefer. Doing so will mean longer dry times and result in a denser, slower burning device.
Burns with a quite bright yellow light and a short gold flitter tail.
Add one part Copper Oxide (black) and it will burn around the same speed but with a whitish/purple hue rather than the strong sodium yellow/orange colour. It seems to brighten the sparks to a nearly true 'silver' as well.
Half a part Magnesium Carbonate brightens the flame a lot but doesn't really effect the Aluminium sparks. It tends to wash out the yellow and make it less orange.
You can substitute other colour donors for various hues, remembering to replace the sodium benzoate with the potassium version lest your desired colour be drown out by the dreaded sodium D-lines. There should be no problems using metal benzoates as the colour donor instead of additional carbonates or oxides but I haven't tried this.
I haven't tried using salicylates instead of benzoates either yet.
The sensitivity seems to be fairly low, probably due to the cushioning effects of the parlon. It still should be treated with respect it is significantly more sensitive than black powder.