Testing a fairly traditional "Catherine Wheel" driver composition:
17 Potassium Nitrate
6 Iron (-100 mesh)
4 Charcoal (airfloat)
3 Sulfur
Mixed by passing through corse sieve a few times and tumbling in jar with a some lead balls for a few moments to break up the sulfur lumps, followed by a good shake. The Iron was added last.
Tube was 6 mm ID unchoked, several layers of kraft taped, no pasting, rather like a lance in design. This test was mainly to see if it spat out sparks and produced any thrust unchoked as required in a traditional wheel. Tube was 50 mm long, 40 mm of powder filling.
Fused with a meal/NC on paper strip fuse, folded over once and stuffed in the end of the tube.
Nice mini-gerb performance.
All orange sparks and a soft rushing sound. No dividing sparks were observed, but the iron is fairly pure, not a high-carbon steel like sparkler steel powder.
Would make a nice traditional gerb composition, probably a reasonable driver or even a nice core-burning rocket propellant. Definately a cinch to make, just sift until homogenous.
I forgot to take a pre-test photo, sorry!
I'll have to try building a wheel with it, once I work out how to wind the tube around the hub without it splitting or tearing.
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