Toy fireworks

The shop was engaged in the business of operating game machines and a lunchroom, and in selling stationery, miscellaneous goods, and toy fireworks as seasonal items. The arrangement of goods in the shop was reported as illustrated in Fig.2.3. 

Their injuries were inhalation bums, presumably caused by breathing in the hot smoke produced by the burning of the toy fireworks. In view of the observed increase of carboxyhemoglobin observed in their blood, inhalation of carbon monoxide also probably occurred. The appearance of soot on forcibly exhaling suggested the inhalation of a considerable amount of smoke as well. 

This accident, although it was highly circumstantial with an array of bad conditions, made a tremendous impact on the people involved. They immediately took the following measures 100,000 demanding letters and the sign shown below were provided and distributed to sellers of toy fireworks. 

Tadao Yoshida, "The fire of Toy Fireworks on August 14, 1987 and Lessons from It... 

Where the flame contains neither chlorine nor hydrogen chloride a molecular spectrum band CaOH appears, and the colour of the flame becomes orange. In the presence of chlorine or hydrogen chloride gas another spectrum band CaCl appears in the flame. In this case the colour of the flame is an intensive reddish-orange which is not as good as red, but it is sometimes zsed for cheap toy fireworks. 

Calcium carbonate gives an orange flame, and often is used for toy fireworks etc. as a substitute for strontium salts. 

Lustre paper. A coating liquid is painted on one side of a paper which is made of sulphite pulp mixed with a small amount of wood pulp, dried and lustred with a lustre machine. This is used for toy fireworks etc. 

Metalfoil paper. Gum, gelatine, or albumen is pasted on one side of paper and a metal foil is placed.on top and pressed this is the old method. At present metallic foil powder is used and it is manufactured in the same way as lustre paper. Aluminium foil is used for silver and bronze foil for gold. There is sometimes an imitation which uses aluminium foil on which varnish is painted. This is used for decorating products or packing of toy fireworks to make them moistureproof or airproof. In practice the point must be made that the metal foils have pinholes and they can be porous. 

Another simple fuse called"Green Fuse" is made in the USA it is used for toy fireworks. It can be ignited from the outside of the cover with match. However it is more dangerous since the fire communicates laterally. 

Toy fireworks must be safe. There must therefore be a special way to convert firework compositionsCexplosives) which are generally quite dangerous, to make them safe for toys i,e, the compositions have to be divided and isolated. The principle is schematically shown in Fig,150. 

In general, flames, hot air, fire dust sparks, sparks or shock waves help the propagation of fire or explosion. Four of the former only promote the burning of the compositions by direct contact, but the latter causes a detonation, even when the composition is fairly distant from the source. However in toy fireworks the item which produces a shock wave is limited to crackers. It is necessary therefore to draw a clear line between crackers and other items when handling toy fireworks. 

The compositions which are generally used for other fireworks are also used for toy fireworks. But there are some compositions which are used only for toy fireworks. The relationship is shown diagrammatically in Fig.132, where (A) represents the former and (B) the latter. 

Fig.132. The relationship between compo-sions for ordinary fireworks and toy fireworks.

B) includes noise compositions which are quite sensitive and snake compositions which exhibit curious phenomena, etc. It can be seen from the diagram that toy firework compositions, (A+B), are more numerous than those for ordinary fireworks (A). The reason is that, in the case of toy fireworks it is possible to increase the safety of the compositions to a high degree by complete division and isolation. Following this principle even some sensitive compositions which are never used for shells, exhibition fireworks etc. can be used for toy fireworks. For example, a composition which contains potassium chlorate and red phosphorus is used for pistol caps or another compositon which contains potassium chlorate and realgar is used for cracker balls. These compositions are generally used only for toy fireworks. 

The toy firework manufacturer is always required to devise a new type of toy and the matrix method described here shows something of the fundamental principles for manufacturers. 

The phenomena may be classified as follows based on the compositions for toy firework which are available at present ... 

From above descriptions we know that there are four problems in toy fireworks ... 

Examples of toy fireworks on the market are shown in Table 25-Table 25- Examples of toyfireworks on the market... 

As shown in above table, many toy fireworks are accentuated by a noise, D, because this is most effective but their prices are generally higher than the others. In this case,however there are safety problems in manufacture due to the use of the red explosive. The weight of composition per volume is generally less than 0.2 g per cc This is important in the safe handling of toy fireworks. 

The following observations may help to avoid accidents, especially in the case of toy fireworks. (1) The part in which the composition is loaded, (2) the direction in which the contents project, (5) the part which is the handle, ( ) the position of the fuse, (5) the directions for use etc. 

Cover all pieces against fire. For example, toy firework pieces should be packed in bags or cases in snail amounts, the quick match must be covered... 

An igniter must be perfectly separated from the striker,i.e. the striker must be packed perfectly, e.g., with a piece of paraffin paper or placed in an isolated space so that the red phosphorus composition on the striker is perfectly separated from the prime composition. Actually about twenty years ago an accident occurred during the transportation of a packed case of toy fireworks called Bengal Match by a porter in a Yokohama warehouse. It may be that it was caused by an imperfect isolation of the striker. 

Other compositions for toy fireworks 22.3 Toy firework devices(Matrix method)... 

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