A quick test of a alternative pinwheel driver composition, burnt in a 5 mm ID lance, rolled from a few layers of calculator roll pasted with gum arabic solution.
Composition was simply the catherine wheel driver composition with the Fe replaced with a same amount of moles of Zn:
17 Potassium Nitrate
7 Zinc (dust)
4 Charcoal (airfloat)
3 Sulfur
All but the metal was ball milled for 30 minutes then the metal was screened by serveral passes through a 40 mesh screen.
Burnt Fiercely.
I expected blue/green zinc sparks or flame which I got when burnt some loose on my long suffering 7-up can, but got only charcoal effects when burnt in the lance.
Did the Zinc settle out to the bottom while I was ramming it or something? I've had that problem in the past, Zinc is quite dense and hard to keep suspended unless you moisten the mix before you ram it.
It may just be the temperature and atmosphere the Zinc was burning in was not right for blue-green light output. The reaction seemed fierce enough to use as a end-burning unchoaked driver.
| title | type | size |
|---|---|---|
| Burn Video | video/x-msvideo | 1.527 Mbytes |