Hi all, I recently stumbled on this forum and thought i must join because of my past interest in pyrotechnics.
Here is a short summery of my Pyro years -
As a amateur maker and modifier of fireworks during the 80's and 90's my interest in this subject has never faded. It all began when I was 8 constructing and flying hundreds of home designed Chinese lanterns. No one had ever seen these before in the UK and they were huge hits at friends and family's bonfire parties. Our fondest memory is when one of our super large lanterns made news in our local paper listed as an "unidentified object". Nowadays I see lanterns flying almost every weekend.
I constructed my first home made banger at 13 as my gran-dad who held the family firework formulas would not pass them on until I was a teenager.. I then went on to bigger things constructing and modifying candles, cakes, mines and basic rockets. Did you know a tiny rocket could be make from a box of swan matches !! The rest is history!
Although I don't dabble any more (chemicals are just to hard to find and nearly always now contain fire depressants) I still love to watch and fire small displays. I used to own a large collection of dummy and live Standard Fireworks from the 70's most of which have been sold on to collectors. More on that another time.
Look forward to some discussions with you all
Regards...Mark
Here is a short summery of my Pyro years -
As a amateur maker and modifier of fireworks during the 80's and 90's my interest in this subject has never faded. It all began when I was 8 constructing and flying hundreds of home designed Chinese lanterns. No one had ever seen these before in the UK and they were huge hits at friends and family's bonfire parties. Our fondest memory is when one of our super large lanterns made news in our local paper listed as an "unidentified object". Nowadays I see lanterns flying almost every weekend.
I constructed my first home made banger at 13 as my gran-dad who held the family firework formulas would not pass them on until I was a teenager.. I then went on to bigger things constructing and modifying candles, cakes, mines and basic rockets. Did you know a tiny rocket could be make from a box of swan matches !! The rest is history!
Although I don't dabble any more (chemicals are just to hard to find and nearly always now contain fire depressants) I still love to watch and fire small displays. I used to own a large collection of dummy and live Standard Fireworks from the 70's most of which have been sold on to collectors. More on that another time.
Look forward to some discussions with you all
Regards...Mark