About Fireworks
My book Fireworks
Extract from Chapter 1
A Pyromaniacs early year’s
As a child, growing up in the 1960’s and early 1970’s in a Victorian terraced house in the middle of Richmond Mount in Headingley, Leeds. I experienced the thrill of Bonfire night celebrations each year where the whole street celebrated together, the back streets were still cobbled so a bonfire could be lit in the middle of the road, the terraces all had kitchens which typically had access to the street via small back yards, food was laid out in the kitchens and neighbours freely came and went helping themselves to such home made delights as hot dogs, parkin, (ginger cake) plot toffee, toffee apples, pork pie (served warm with mushy peas and mint sauce), baked potatoes and chestnuts the last two were often cooked in foil in the embers of the bonfire, along with crisps, orange squash, sweets and cubed cheese on cocktail sticks with pickled silver skin onions (trying to be posh).
Adults would light fireworks randomly throughout the evening which lit up the sky, or terrified the other neighbours, depending upon many factors, sometimes because of deliberate actions and other times simple error, trying to stand them up without a soil garden, so using sand in buckets which often let them fall sideways and fire horizontally. This was especially true for rockets, trying to set them off from cracks in the back garden walls, or milk bottles had mixed success and often resulted in them firing horizontally up the street and exploding at ground level.
Then there were the fireworks designed to cause fright. Bangers which could be tossed towards a person or group, aeroplanes and helicopters, designed to take off from a flat surface and rise into the sky, but often flew sideways rather than up, jumping jacks which made a loud bang about every 5 seconds, leaping through the air several feet in a random direction and designed to be let off on the floor in a crown to deliberately scare those present, roman candles which were often held and pointed toward groups of people for fun and last but not least, air bombs, which again were often held and aimed in the general direction of groups, these were the loudest and possibly most dangerous of the fireworks on general sale in the era.
Penny for the guy
Image © https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiEFD7gfin8
Penny for the guy in 1968
Around two weeks before Bonfire night we would dress one of the younger children as a ‘Guy’ and put them in a pram, then march around Headingley asking for “a penny for the Guy.” Collecting in this way provided funds to buy fireworks, however as I was not old enough to buy these for myself, my mother would go with me to the local shop, which at that time had been transformed, colourful posters were in the windows and doors proclaiming such statements as “Light up the sky, with Standard Fireworks,” depicting huge colourful explosions. The main shop glass counter was now full of fireworks for sale, I must have driven my mother insane with the number of trips to view and select fireworks from the counter in our local stationers, they were so colourful, typically sold singly from cartons filled with every type you could imagine. Each carton described both in text and pictures what you could expect from the firework, selection took ages, and a list of what I already had was kept, to ensure no unintentional repeats.
Choosing fireworks
Arriving home with half a dozen small fireworks in a paper bag and adding them to the collection I stored in a small suitcase was always exciting, laying them all out and writing a firing order, then amending this to fit in the new purchases was a labour of love.
There were many different manufacturers in the late 1960’s such as Black Cat, Standard, Epic, Wilders, Brock’s Pain’s, (who allegedly sold the gunpowder to the plotters in 1605) , Astra, Excelsior, TNT, Lion and Apollo. Some shops only sold one brand, but I recall our local stationers usually stocked a mix of Standard, Brocks, Astra, and Lion, which when laid out side by side only served to increase the excitement of selection by providing a wider choice.
Beside the ubiquitous packets of bangers, jumping jacks, bottle rockets, aeroplanes and air bombs, there were a whole range of others with intriguing names and shapes, from cones to handheld torches, Roman candles, fountains, colour changing fountains, crackling fireworks and Catherine wheels, along with intriguing fireworks such as ground mines and Jack in the box, shell batteries, repeaters and rockets.
Bonfire night
Image © https://writeofthemiddle.com/i-remember-when-we-used-to-have-cracker-night/
By 1969 I was now 10 years old and was designing and implementing my own fireworks display, funded by pocket money and penny for the guy collections, then selecting the firing order and essentially running my own segment of the evening for those who watched.
Of course, there were other adults (and by now students as the area was gradually being take over by lets for Leeds University) who could afford larger, more exiting fireworks, Multiple fireworks fixed to wooden frames to form fans from a single fuse, multi shot Roman candle barrages and the like which outperformed those in my budget, typically they would delay until later to set them off. but this just added to the overall excitement and enjoyment of the day. I recall distinctly when, aged eleven, several of the adults were so impressed with the way I had prepared and ignited my own selection of fireworks, that they stood aside and let me set and fire theirs, I had prepared buckets full of soil for fixing fireworks and a drainpipe for firing rockets, I even had buckets of water available to extinguish a fire if needed.
Favourite fireworks
Standard fireworks c1973
Larger fireworks from left to right, Standard Devil among the tailors, (3 Roman candles and a ground mine filled with stars and serpents) Air Bomb battery, Screamer Repeater, Roman Candle Bouquet, Star Shell Repeater, Air Bomb repeater, and Screecher Repeater, the latter was the best whistling firework of the two, screamer and screecher.
As soon as the 5th of November arrived, it was gone. It would be another whole year without fireworks, plot food, bonfires, and the smell of black powder plus my mothers cooking that had to be endured before we could do it again.
The chemistry set
My mother was a chemist and and helped me to buy books and chemical’s for experiments, she had recently managed to buy an automatic washing machine (we were a family of seven with two student lodgers, so a lot of washing), this had freed up the basement where the old gas burning washer and mangle had previously taken priority, this meant I had a safe space, a pot sink and water tap, and a gas tap for my Bunsen, I just needed a desk and I had a laboratory.
She would invite neighbours children around for me to put on a show of scientific experiments in my Lab (the basement), we would demonstrate various experiments, methylated spirit poured into the palm of a volunteers hand would be set alight and extinguished by closing the hand over the flame. A pipe connected to the gas tap would be immersed into a tray of soapy water to produce gas bubbles, then lit with a huge flash of flame. Gas would be used to fill a coffee tin with a hole in top and bottom, then it would be placed on a raised platform (bricks) and the escaping gas from the top hole would be lit, after a while the flame diminished until it disappeared into the can, a few seconds later the can would explode, blowing the top off, and leaping into the air.
Silver fulminate crystals I had grown from chemicals would be prepared and carefully spread out onto the floor to dry, as the audience walked upon these, they sparked and crackled giving a miniature firework display in the darkened cellar space. Other objects of fascination were matches, caps and flammable chemical powders such as sulphur, I discovered that using match heads and a cap in a small derringer toy spud gun as in the photo, the power was greatly increased and the gun would fire larger objects from the barrel, then adding sulphur would again increase the flames, smell and noise produced.
Chemical experiments were always popular, especially those with noisy, fiery, or extraordinary results, one such was the flower bomb, a simple container with a lit candle inside, a tube containing the flour and a rubber bulb to cause the flour to rapidly dissipate into the container would cause a nice large flash flame
Making my own
Image copyright © See video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=PjONsaqqoXM
Extract from Chapter 2
Making my own fireworks
It was not very long before I started to dismantle fireworks to discover how they were made and to recover their contents for reworking into more interesting and often more dangerous forms. I recollect using the black powder from four packets of bangers to create a super banger, I noticed that the commercial card tubes were thin, and deliberately weakened by punching holes in the card before rolling to reduce the force required to break the tube from the resulting explosion, after all, these were being used to scare people, thrown at girls, or groups etc. so they needed to make a bang, but not cause too much damage from the shock wave. However, we rolled a thick hard tube for our super banger, glued three plugs into the base one behind the other and ensured that the fuse was not the weakest link, by incorporating one of the original card fuse tubes into the main roll such that only the blue touchpaper was visible, I was proud of my creation and took it with me to school, showing it around my peers. Then during lunch break, the bullies, who had heard of my handiwork, accosted me, and took the banger off me, lighting it in the middle of the top playground.
As I was asthmatic, I could not run away, so I witnessed at close range as my super banger exploded with a huge bang, a brilliant flash of light and a mushroom shaped cloud of black acrid smoke, I was caught and caned for the incident, but the punishment did not dampen my desire for more firework fun.
Buying the materials
Extract from Chapter 2
Obtaining chemicals in this era was reasonably easy, on one occasion, at the chemists shop, my order for 12oz of potassium nitrate (saltpetre) 2 ½ oz of charcoal dust and 1 ½ oz of sulphur had piqued his interest, on the counter in three innocuous looking paper bags were the ingredients to make 1lb of black powder, the next two items on the list removed all doubt from his mind, they were strontium chloride and copper sulphate both chemicals which, when added to gunpowder, would provide vivid colours, red for the former and green for the latter. Leaning over the counter he asked “does your mother know you are buying all this” to which I replied yes, and he agreed that this was OK, and I left with my chemicals for another round of fireworks experimentation.
Holidays with fireworks
Image © https://serenitycamping.co.uk/www-staithesfestival-com/
Between 1988 and 2000 Family holidays involved rented self catering cottages at the East coast. Whitby, Sandsend, Staithes, Robin Hoods Bay, and the North Yorkshire moors area. We would always time the holidays to include the Whitby regatta, the whole town was taken over with fairground rides, small stalls offering all sorts of goods and services, the armed forces would put on displays of air sea rescue events, multiple parachute drops etc. and the Red arrows would perform a routine along the coast, unique in that for many of the passes, the planes were almost at the same level as the audience on the West cliff.
The highlight of the weekend, as far as I was concerned was of course the fireworks display, always spectacular because of the fantastic location, and the reflections in the water. In our period, they were fired from the West Pier, however when a storm severed the link between the headland and the pier, the display was relocated onto the West Cliff where it illuminated the Abbey and church, both famous Whitby landmarks, if anything, this relocation had served to improve the display greatly.
Alton Towers
1997 Independance Day Spectacular
The show started with rotating spotlights around the edge of the lake and the wail of air raid sirens, the narrator, Trever McDonald, started to say, Ladies and Gentlemen, in his familiar news reading style, he went on to inform the audience that the unimaginable had happened, Earth had been invaded by an alien race, that a huge mother ship had been detected in Earth orbit and we were under attack, he went on to say that alien attack ships had been sighted over Staffordshire
The wailing now changed to dramatic music, about a hundred silver ground mines set around the front edge of the lake fired simultaneously, a laser picked out parts of the night sky and huge mortar shells exploded high into the sky. After a couple of minutes of spectacular fireworks, Trevor spoke again, he advised that we were at war, that the Royal Air Force had engaged alien fighter crafts in our area and that it was all in the hands of the RAF from here, more dramatic music, and a large ball (suspended from a huge crane) hung above the lake, now displaying moving lights and more lasers, as the fireworks danced in the sky timed perfectly to the music, the green laser started to create huge complex triangular and flat patterns in the night sky, they split inro three segments, then rotated and bounced of other surfaces to make the patterns ever more complex, simultaneously, spot lights rotated to look like searchlights looking for aircraft.
A new voice could now be heard, with a plummy and very English accent, a voice introduced it’s owner, Wing Commander Clive Soames here, it said, then went on to calm the audience, there is no need to panic, our RAF have weapons of incredible power and accuracy and we shall be using our world class training and expertise to deploy these and bring this invasion to a close, the music picked up, themes taken from the film Independence Day filled the air, thousands of titanium salutes, silver mortar shells and roman candle fanned batteries fired, the war was under way, huge yellow flames burst from what looked like half barrels staged around the ruins of the castle, lights danced inside the castle and lit up the smoke with an eerie red glow.
Suddenly the fireworks stopped, the music went silent, and a roaring noise could be heard, a huge water cannon in the lake produced a fan of water I estimated at fifty feet high by a hundred feet wide, like a gigantic peacocks tail. It then lit up and an indeterminate brown shape appeared, this rotated and was suddenly obviously the face of one of the aliens, with red eyes, everyone took two steps back in an involuntary reaction to this, it really was that shocking. Then the alien spoke, Earthlings, you are so weak, we have destroyed your fighter planes, you are doomed, why not simply accept that we are superior, and you are doomed. The roaring noise stopped, silence for a second seemed to lull the audience into a false sense of safety...
Welcome to Fireworks
The Millennium
My Millenium event, with the help of my neighbours started out at 8pm, food in abundance was on the table, a whole side of salmon, a large stand pie, delicious curry and a hot stew, cakes, buns, ham, sandwiches, you name it, it was there. About fifty people were present, and all were in high spirits, the video tape was synchronised, and I started it at precisely 8pm, it ran in the background as planned on both TVs and on the screen in the garden via the projector, my electric firing desk was set up and connected, with the key switched to safe, and in my pocket. Cables had been run down to the end of the garden and a whole series of fireworks were laid out ready. The night was clear and yet not too cold, and we were able to use the patio area for the whole evening, so the party had lots of space for the guests. As predicted, the tape recording was a conversation piece, and everyone was well fed, watered, and entertained by about 11:30.
I had cling film wrapped a pair of large floor standing speakers, placed these either side of the screen at the end of the patio, and run cables back from them to an amplifier in the bedroom alongside the recorder and projector, this meant we could hear the tape even outdoors. About 11:40 the audience could sense what was to come, several had ventured with me to see the fireworks at the bottom of the garden and had mused over the firing desk.
At 11:55 the final song of the millennium started on the recording, Phil Collins, I can feel it coming in the air tonight, the bit where Phil kicks the drum kit down the stairs was great and put everyone in the mood for what was about to occur. At 11:59 and 40 seconds the recorded tape started a countdown to midnight, the recording had been made with the audio at level 2, but now turned up the sound to level 8, at ten seconds to midnight, a string was pulled, the screen folded back to one side and the audience were shouting out the countdown, I had switched on the firing desk and with my finger poised over the first button, I was ready. At midnight, the recorded tape started to play the theme song from A Prince Of Egypt, There could be miracles, if you believe, and I pressed the button, four 150mm ground mines and a 26 second 1000 shot roman candle fired simultaneously, the audience gasped, this was in another league now, the second button fired a peacocks tail, a huge fan of tubes filled with coloured effects and coloured mines, this fired thirty tubes at a time in a fan of about 75 degrees, the firework was sequenced and had row after row of the tubes, all over in 25 seconds, it filled the whole sky, time and again the audience struggled to comprehend that they were at a private party, next came two fans of three 50mm Vulcan p series (professionally timed) Roman candles with the 36 shot 65mm Standard Fireworks titanium salute, after about ten sequences, the finale was three golden willow 6” shells, fired about one second apart along with the 500 shot red, white, blue, crackling and salutes candle barrage mentioned previously. What a start to a new century.
Opening a shop
Whoosh fireworks opened for business on September 23rd, 2000, it was a Saturday and we both hoped that we would have a great start to the season, advertising in the newspapers had been placed offering a fee packet of sparklers with presentation of a voucher and by 11:00 we had received three, all from old ladies who did not buy anything other than claim their free packet, we quickly decided that this was a serious mistake.
We had decided to open seven weeks before Bonfire night, and poor Mike watched every day as old ladies passed his stand, looked in anger and walked on, or presented a newspaper cutting with our advert for a free pack of sparklers. The idea was simple, that by being there early, we would be free advertising in the store, but it was very tedious, Mike went through a lot of paperbacks that year, in fact on one fateful day when sales had been zero, Mike bought a packet of sparklers, just so that he did not have to declare a no sale day.
The one thing that a fireworks retailer cannot control is the weather, we all pray for clear dry days on or around the 5thand that it will fall on a mid weekday, ideally a Wednesday, that way if it rains on the weekend before, there is a good chance it will be dry the next weekend, but in 2000 it fell on the worst possible day, Sunday, the public may be happy to have fireworks on the Saturday or Monda, but not as far as a week before, so it hinged on a single day that year.
About ten days before it started to rain, and it did not stop. Every day as we passed the river on Pool road, we could see it was over the banks and the surrounding fields were flooding, by Thursday, the water level had started to flood Pool road and cars were passing slowly, by Friday the road was blocked and there was three inches of water in the loading area where our container was located, we needed wellies just to collect a few fireworks, no one could get to the garden centre without great difficulty, and it was no surprise that no one wanted to buy fireworks in the rain, especially as it was forecast to continue for a few more days.
On Saturday, we drove the very long way round to avoid the flooding, but the garden centre was closed, the car park was under six inches of water, and this had partially flooded the centre, the power had been switched off, no customers could access our shop even if they wanted to, it was a disaster. Some die-hard enthusiasts did arrive on the Monday and Tuesday, but the weather really hit our sales hard.
Professional Fireworks
John Hayton from Rawden Cricket Club arrived at the counter next for his annual fix, John had become a close friend as well as a good customer, he was progressing along the firework curve and had moved from cautious domestic user to providing charity displays, his favourite being Rawdon Cricket club annual fundraiser.
I had obtained some exceptional Vulcan cakes especially for him, they were 150 shot, 30mm tubes and were £130 each, he was delighted but I was a bit deflated when he only took one.
However, I could not resist taking him to the explosives store in the loading area, he was impressed with the security, and even more so when I showed him what I had in the back for a show later that week, a 12” Vulcan gold willow with tigers tail shell complete with massive launch tube, he had never seen fireworks on this scale up close before, the shell weighed in at 12Lbs and I explained that it would travel to burst height of 1200 feet at a speed of 265 feet per second, and produce an arial burst approx. 600 feet wide. This was the advantage of having a licenced explosive store, I now had access to the professional fireworks catalogue.
John wanted fireworks for his display that year, he, and I talked at length. I provided all that he needed and agreed to build him a pair of roman candles fanned sets with single fuses, using nice big 18mm bore, seventy shot candles I duly fixed these to wooden frames and using my skills with quick match, fused them to fire as one, John was delighted and came back every year for more and more.
Professional displays
We were getting many inquiries about professional displays for customers, of course we were not able to take on more than one of two events around November 5th, but parties, weddings, retirements etc. were all fair game. Sledmere house was a tremendous venue for a society wedding and the space for fireworks was incredible.
The picture shows our view of Sledmere house, the fireworks were set behind the pool and when viewed from the house, the reflection doubled the effect.
We fired several displays at the house, one in particular stands out in our minds, our signature start to the event was to light a number of giant 1Kg cones, these would start with a small flame, and within 30 seconds, increase in intensity to over five metres high, a combination of alternate silver and crackling cones was the best, in our opinion, and this time we had eight of each, setting these sixteen cones out around the ornamental pool, about 200 yards from the house and about a further 50 yards from the ha ha wall, we knew that the reflection in the water would double the effect, the show went well, we fired several multiple 19 shot 30mm batteries, some 25 shot 30mm barrages and several larger 49 and 70 shot pieces to raise the excitement levels, finally culminating in the firing of the 12” Vulcan gold willow shell especially selected and paid for by the new mother in law for the occasion, when this fired, the whoompf from the launch made everyone concentrate.
This was in a different league to the rest of the display, the ‘tigers tail’ was a firework glued onto the side of the shell which produce a crackling silver fountain as it rose into the sky, you could hear the audience start with a low oooh, which got louder and higher pitched as it rose. It seemed to take a very long time to reach it’s burst height, but it was only about four seconds, then, boom, it burst in the sky.
The gold willow cascade slowly fell to the ground, being a Vulcan manufactured piece, the gold pattern remained lit until the effect reached the ground, creating a 1500-foot-high gold willow tree effect which hung for a few seconds, it was awesome, and the brides mother sought us out to thank us personally, it was a great moment, and in our minds, the best firework we ever lit.
About Fireworks
Current day
For the past seven years or so, (apart from pandemic lockdown periods) my bonfire event has moved venue to my son’s home in Harrogate where we compete on November 5th to be the largest pyromaniacs in his area, and I can tell you there is stiff competition.
Photo of this years firework selected for Bonfire Night, Klasek King of Fireworks F4, comprising 30 and 50mm tubes, smokeless (does not obscure its own display), 7880g NEC, 65Kilo gross weight, 180 second burn duration using 304 shots. Quite a beast, and what a display. We won the local competition hands down this year.
View the video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoFrh-5WVp8&t=5s
New Year’s eve is still held at my house, but as I do not have a garden suited to fireworks, my neighbour, who turned 90 this year, and his wife, let me use their garden, and we all gather for Champaign in the street to a top-notch firework each year. Much to the delight of many in the neighbourhood.
Christmas
As you would expect from any half respectable pyromaniac, when it comes to Christmas, only one form of festive lighting can meet the requirements, Noma’s Fireworks.
These comprise a string of rosette shaped roundels connected and suspended in all the windows, the larger windows have five each, with 200 LEDs per rosette and hence 1000 LEDs per set. The smaller windows have ten each and 540 LEDs per set. Then to top this off, there are six sets of free-standing fan style arrangements along the edge of the lawn/driveway to welcome visitors to the front door.
Reykjavik New Yera's eve
A Spectacular New Year's Eve in Reykjavik
For the first time this year I planned a trip to Iceland for New Years Eve, regarded to be the most spectacular destination for public excess with fireworks on the planet.
Articles on the event say. As the clock ticks down to the much-anticipated New Year's Eve in Reykjavik, prepare yourself for an unforgettable experience. The city comes alive with an explosive celebration, quite literally. First of all, be prepared to see a LOT of fireworks. Imagine how many you may see, then multiply that by a thousand. Icelanders spare no expense when it comes to fireworks, collectively spending hundreds of millions of Icelandic kroners annually. Beyond the sheer joy of the dazzling New Year's Eve display, this extravagant tradition serves a greater purpose – supporting the Icelandic Search and Rescue Teams. These volunteer-driven teams operate in perilous conditions and adverse weather, offering assistance to those in distress across the country. The substantial funds raised through firework and Christmas tree sales contribute significantly to their vital efforts.
Fireworks enthusiasts kick off the festivities a couple of days before New Year's Eve, continuing the revelry until the 6th of January. However, the pinnacle of the display unfolds precisely at midnight on New Year's Eve.