I grew up in Iowa where fireworks were illegal. Still, my father would drive us down to Missouri to buy fireworks around the 4th. If we did not have allowance money saved up, he would give us kids a few bucks to spend. I liked the smalls. some of my favorites were ball caps, sometimes called railway torpedoes, little whizzers or flying saucers, pull-string booby traps, and the small Black Cat or equivalent firecrackers. Bottle rickets were boring. My father bought bigger stuff, that we took out of town to a friendly dairy farm on the 4th of July.
So one day I got to playing with the firecrackers on the driveway when I was between 4th and 5th grade. I was launching tin cans with them and doing many experiments. I tried many different sizes to see which went the highest. I could only estimate height by eye, but the smaller cans seemed to go higher. The best performer was a frozen juice can that seemed to go as high as a utility pole. I tried clustering, but that did not work, I could never get the firecrackers to explode at the exact same time. I tried nested cans, sealing the rim of the can in mud, and probably things long forgotten. The rectangular Spam cans were interesting. After launching, the the rectangular opening would be deformed and almost looked rectangular but rotated 90 degrees. I could bend it back to the original shape and launch it again with the same result, or I could launch it as is and it would be reformed almost back to its original shape. Oddly enough, I was never into blowing stuff up, or doing anything destructive with them.
HPR (still kidding)
On one trip to Missouri I found some M80s for sale. M80s are a legendary explosives that some farmers used to be able to get for blasting stumps, beaver dams, and such. What I found were substantial looking cardboard tubes with end-caps and a serious looking fuse. I was dubious, but the scientific method is to buy some and test the hypothesis. They were a fake rip off, but slightly louder than a typical Black Cat.
There were some older boys a few houses down the street that put on a back yard carnival and fireworks show. One time they got some actual Cherry Bombs. So they and us neighborhood kids decided on a plan of action. Our next door neighbors were out of town so they took a section of downspout and planted it in their flower garden. It was angled towards the street about 30 degrees from vertical. A cap was fashioned from clay like mud. The plan was for one person to hold the Cherry Bomb and drop it down the tube after another person lit the fuse. A third person was to place the cap on top, and we would see if we could blow the cap across the street. I was deemed too young to have role in this, although I was an interested observer. After lighting the fuse we all ran around the corner of the house. Sadly, the boy holding the mud cap just dropped it and ran. The Cherry Bomb went off and split the downspout along the seam. The neighbor was not happy about the downspout, but we never had any problems with the police.
I think I outgrew my interest in fireworks before I got into model rocketry. As I drove around the Midwest for model rocket meets I would occasionally visit a fireworks stand. I was only interested in looking for things with model rocket sized motors to compare prices and guess at expected performance. Once I bought a small pack of skyrockets with a whistling nosecone that I thought might be interesting, but I later gave them away untested.
Fireworks have been legal in Iowa for a few years now (but not in my city), but I have not bought anything. I see very few smalls, and mostly large cakes and bundled packages that all seem to about the box art. Still, I enjoy watching the neighbors set off their fireworks.
Have a fun safe 4th of July, with or without fireworks. If you have any good fireworks/rocketry stories you can tag them in here.
So one day I got to playing with the firecrackers on the driveway when I was between 4th and 5th grade. I was launching tin cans with them and doing many experiments. I tried many different sizes to see which went the highest. I could only estimate height by eye, but the smaller cans seemed to go higher. The best performer was a frozen juice can that seemed to go as high as a utility pole. I tried clustering, but that did not work, I could never get the firecrackers to explode at the exact same time. I tried nested cans, sealing the rim of the can in mud, and probably things long forgotten. The rectangular Spam cans were interesting. After launching, the the rectangular opening would be deformed and almost looked rectangular but rotated 90 degrees. I could bend it back to the original shape and launch it again with the same result, or I could launch it as is and it would be reformed almost back to its original shape. Oddly enough, I was never into blowing stuff up, or doing anything destructive with them.
HPR (still kidding)
On one trip to Missouri I found some M80s for sale. M80s are a legendary explosives that some farmers used to be able to get for blasting stumps, beaver dams, and such. What I found were substantial looking cardboard tubes with end-caps and a serious looking fuse. I was dubious, but the scientific method is to buy some and test the hypothesis. They were a fake rip off, but slightly louder than a typical Black Cat.
There were some older boys a few houses down the street that put on a back yard carnival and fireworks show. One time they got some actual Cherry Bombs. So they and us neighborhood kids decided on a plan of action. Our next door neighbors were out of town so they took a section of downspout and planted it in their flower garden. It was angled towards the street about 30 degrees from vertical. A cap was fashioned from clay like mud. The plan was for one person to hold the Cherry Bomb and drop it down the tube after another person lit the fuse. A third person was to place the cap on top, and we would see if we could blow the cap across the street. I was deemed too young to have role in this, although I was an interested observer. After lighting the fuse we all ran around the corner of the house. Sadly, the boy holding the mud cap just dropped it and ran. The Cherry Bomb went off and split the downspout along the seam. The neighbor was not happy about the downspout, but we never had any problems with the police.
I think I outgrew my interest in fireworks before I got into model rocketry. As I drove around the Midwest for model rocket meets I would occasionally visit a fireworks stand. I was only interested in looking for things with model rocket sized motors to compare prices and guess at expected performance. Once I bought a small pack of skyrockets with a whistling nosecone that I thought might be interesting, but I later gave them away untested.
Fireworks have been legal in Iowa for a few years now (but not in my city), but I have not bought anything. I see very few smalls, and mostly large cakes and bundled packages that all seem to about the box art. Still, I enjoy watching the neighbors set off their fireworks.
Have a fun safe 4th of July, with or without fireworks. If you have any good fireworks/rocketry stories you can tag them in here.
