We had a BALL lastnight. The entire neighborhood showed up in our cove and we literally had a wheel barrow FULL of fireworks between us all. It took us well over an hour to shoot them all (rained us out Monday night). Several guys had those huge blocks of firecrackers and were complaining about only half of them typically gettin lit when you shoot them all off at once.
Well the hairy computer between my ears got to wonderin so I dug through my old reloadin stuff in the garage and came up with THE best way to light off a couple thousand firecrackers in practical unison. I basically covered the manhole cover in the middle of the street with Pyrodex (been sittin around since I went too pellets several years ago, now that I have a Savage I'm tryin to think of a way to use the pellets as well?) and laid the bricks of firecrackers atop the powder. Then I took an old bottle of 4831 and poured a "fuse" about 2' with. Everyone ran for cover despite my pleas telling them that gunpowder isn't explosive unless compressed. I then lit the rifle powder and casually walked too the curb.
The 4831 burned VERY slowly and predictably as it inched its' way too the Pyro. Once the Pyro was ignited it was, "Go for main engine ignition". I'm sure the percussion was felt several blocks away as the firecrackers were lit in complete unison by the intensely hot "flashup" of the Pyro. KABOOOOOOOOOM ran through the suburbs...
And the kids thought that was the neatest thing they had EVER heard!
I had used Pyro before for lightin fireworks but never thought to use the smokeless as the starting media. WORKS LIKE A CHARM. You can even use such a "startin circle" to quickstart a gross of bottle rockets or even several of those "canister type" bombs.
Now before the naysayers get on here about "showin the kids such dangerous stuff" I think it's up too us adults to keep such stuff locked away and out of reach in the first place. EVERYONE had a blast (pun intended) and at nights end we all had the same number of eyes, fingers and toes that we started with and NO yard were ignited as well. (Can't speak for the "racin stripes" on the street now!)
The bombs burstin in air,
RA