Pyrotechnic Candle

Wire sparklers are wires coated with pyrotechnic composition which are hand-held and produce a gende spray of gold sparks from iron filings. Fountains are cardboard tubes filled with chemical mixtures that produce a spray of color and sparks extending 2—5 m into the air. Roman candles are cylindrical tubes which repeatedly fire colored stars distances of 5—20 m into the air. These items typically contain 5—12 stars. 

Real or gray bodies deviate from these ideal blackbody values by the A-dependent emissivity, but the color sequence remains essentially the same. This mechanism explains the color of incandescent light sources such as flames in a candle, tungsten filament light bulb, flash bulb, carbon arc, limelight, lightning in part, and the incandescent part of pyrotechnics (qv). 

ROMAN CANDLE A tubular hrework usually containing a plurality of alternate pyrotechnic units and propellant charges. 

STAR A compressed pellet of explosive composition designed to be projected as a pyrotechnic unit, with visual effects. Used in mines, shells, rockets and Roman candles. 

When used with highly compacted main pyrotechnic items, such as flare candles the "first fire" is either pressed (in dry form), or painted (in paste or slurry form) on top of item. For initiation of solid proplnts, a "first fire " mixt can be ignited if confined in a tube or capsule so that the hot gases will be spread over a larger surface area (Ref 57, pp 189 91) Table F lists various formulations for "starter mixtures" Table G for "ignition mixtures" and Table H for "first fire mixtures". -These formulations are given in Ref 57, pp 377-83. Some mixtures are taken from Ref 44a,... 

Smoke Candles (Hatsuento). See under Smoke Pyrotechnics... 

Smoke Pyrotechnics (seizo-jutsu). The following devices are described in Ref 1, pp 243—46 and 255 Army Smoke Candles. Exclusive of self-projecting and floating smoke candles, all smoke candles were of the same basic construction, differing only in size and filling. This type of candle con-... 

Ref A. Stettbacher, Explosivst 1956,27 Aluminum Flares are military devices contg pyrotechnic compns which are mixts of finely powdered substances compressed into candles. The most important ingredients in a pyrotechnic compn are the fuel and the oxidizing agent. To these are usually added other materials to intensify the color of the light produced, decrease the burning rate, act as a binder and waterproof the compn... 

Burning and Burning Characteristics of Pyrotechnic Compositions , This subject might include data on burning rate(or time), luminous intensity(in candles), heat of combustion and some other props. Some work on this subject has been done in the US, such as at PicArsn, Dover, NJ (Refs 2,13.16,17.18,20 23) and at NavalOrdLab (Refs 8,9,10 21). Some Brit data are given in Refs 4 Sc 12 and some French data in Ref 5. See also Refs 11 24... 

Uses As binder for pyrotechnic compositions such as smoke candles. 

When Isidor Isaac Rabi was a graduate student at Columbia University in the mid-192 Os, his eye was on Europe, where intellectual fireworks were illuminating the minds of physicists, animating their discussions, and entertaining their ambitions. This was not the situation at Columbia University, where only a sputtering roman candle occasionally lit the corridors and laboratories of the physics building, Pupin Hall. In 1926, the contrast between European and American physics was like that of the grand finale of a major pyrotechnic display and a simple sparkler. 

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