Save this to your disk using the "Save As..." command. 
Then go to your word processing program, and open
the file "stories1999.txt" which is now on your hard disk.
Set the font and size to whatever is comfortable for you, 
and print it out on your printer for more comfortable reading


"How I Spent My 4th of July" (1999 edition) 

Written by fireworks lovers around the U. S. A. 
Compiled by Bob Weaver
http://fireworksland. com

These stories were sent to me by e-mail in July 1999. Each story describes what that person did with fireworks to celebrate Independence Day in the United States, on July 4, 1999. 

You can print this out on your printer to make reading easier. 

Several of the stories contain language which is not suitable for children. Please do not let children read through this collection of stories. 

Each person that wrote a part of this owns the copyright to the part they wrote. Feel free to print this out on your printer, for your own reading, but you can't publish it, or distribute copies of it, or put it on any web site or put it on any computer besides your own. Of course, you CAN do anything you want with the part of it that YOU wrote. To avoid any violation of copyright law, please do not publish, copy, post or transmit this text to anyone else. Commercial use of this material is impossible, due to copyright laws. 

There is no significance to the order that the stories appear in. The stories appear in completely random order. No editing has been done to the the stories at all, except to remove any names of people unless specifically requested to leave the name in. No attempt has been made to correct any spelling errors or grammatical errors, of which there are many. In some stories you will need to just accept bad spelling and grammar to read a good story. 

No attempt has been made to verify the accuracy of any statement made in any of these stories. Any statement made is to be considered strictly as the opinion of the author of the statement. Nothing in any of these stories should be necessarily considered an endorsement of any product, service, person, business or organization. Any statement about the quality of a particular product or recommendation of a particular business is the opinion of the person who wrote the statement. 

Readers are cautioned that fireworks on the commercial market may not necessarily perform the same when purchased the following year, even if the name and number of the item is the same. Some fireworks are manufactured to be consistent in performance from one year to the next. But sadly, the factories do not always make every item exactly the same as they did the previous year. This is particularly common with so-called "overloaded" items, they are often much weaker the following year. Therefore, even if an item is called "great" one year, it may not necessarily perform exactly the same the next year. 

There may be some techniques described in this document that should only be conducted by professional pyrotechnicians, and that the average person should never attempt to do. Any reader of this material is cautioned that this information is for the entertainment of the reader only, and it does not constitute instructions or directions of any technique or method, either generally or specifically. There is no guarantee that any firework or other device, any technique or any method mentioned in any of these stories will produce the results described in the story. 

The manufacture, sale, transportation, storage and use of fireworks is inherently hazardous. Readers are cautioned to form their own opinion about any information contained herein, and to exercise caution and judgment when working with any kind of pyrotechnics. In the United States, large firecrackers known commonly as "M-80s" are illegal, as are any firecrackers which contain more than 50 milligrams of pyrotechnic content. Even though these types of firecrackers may be mentioned in the stories below, this does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation that you buy, make or use any such devices. In fact, we recommend that you stay far away from M-80s and any other illegal fireworks, and only buy or use legal fireworks. 

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this. If you wrote one of these stories, I appreciate you taking the time to share your story with other fireworks enthusiasts like yourself. 

Bob Weaver
http://fireworksland. com

Here are the stories.......

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HI BOB,This year in FL. with the rain we have had this spring the ban on fireworks was lifted this year. Last year with the fires we had you would be arrested with a sparkler. Also no fireworks for new years. Well we made up for last year this 4th. We had a 2. hr show. My next door neighbor and another friend pool our moneys together each year. we have 450 feet on a lake,that we shoot over. (real nice) To start the show we use 16oz-rockets(144pcs) with rockin the u. s. a fountain (24pcs) and (288pcs) of 10-ball roman candles bundled together (144pcs each) THe next to go up where (288pcs) 101st airborne mortars along with (72pcs) of black cat mortars. As the mortars where firing up,whistling wheels,which I taped 4-crackers to each wheel where going off. We had (288pcs) of the wheels. Makes a nice look w/report. We also had (108pcs) of the black cat strobing night parachutes. we next started more mortar sheels Bad Bombs & Ninja sheels (144pcs)As they where going up (12pcs) dancing silver dragon and thunderstorms where going up. The rest of the show was back & forth with asorted rockets & fountains. FINALLY THE GRAND FINALE which we had covered over,all set to go.
144 Bad Bombs
144 16oz Rockets
54 110 Shoot Twitter Glitter
72 Thunderstorm
36 Lightning Storm
36 Close Enconter
35,000 Firecrackers
The grand finale was prewire with green fuse. This was in two parts,as the first was dyeing down the second part was going up. Real nice show this year. New Years we
plan on at least a 30-min. show,if we can get away with it before the police show up. ill use a LOT of cakes & Bad Bombs,along with 10. 000 rolls of fircrackers. The cost this year a little over $2000. AND IT WAS WORTH EVERY CENT!!

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Well it happened. i was bitten by the firework bug. i was wondering where i would find books on becoming a pyrotechnicanst. (you know the guys that do the big shows?)thank you. Also i swam in my pool and watched the fireworks that way. I also got to see my stupid neighbors lighting fireworks. one of them lit one and then got the dumb idea to light one right near that. Guess what?he was showered in sparks. this just goes to show why other people get screwed with laws,all because of people like this.

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I have to say I had a terrific 4th of July. I spent at least one-hundred dollars at local stands across Southern California and I was very pleased with the vastness Red Devil Stands and Blockbuster stands were able to accomplish this year. I purchased two very large assortment packs and they proved to be terrific. The shows I put on were great and I had half of my block watching by the time it was over. I started with the smaller stuff and was able to lead up to some fantastic finale items like "The Lost City" by TNT, Malibu Madness by Blockbuster, and I dazzled the crowd with my flying ground blooms that I made by attaching sturdy cardboard wings at soft angles on the Ground Bloom. People enjoyed it even though it was nothing compared to the proffessional display I had seen an hour earlier at a local high school. I have to say it was a definite success and I finished it nicely with the distributing of sparklers to everyone when I was done. These helpful actions came straight from "Fireworks for Everyone" which is a terrific combination of amazing fireworks. The show lasted about thirty minutes in all with the combination of many ground items, low aerial items, large fountains, rockets and two missles. Overall, a complete success and I cant wait for next year!

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hey! on the 4th of July, I witnessed an amazing aerial shell at one of the local fireworks displays on base (Schofield Barracks). It was a shell that formed the shape of a star (!) inside of a hollow circle. The color of the circle around the star was gold, and the star itself was red. Amazing shell, I wish I could have taken a picture of it so I could scan it for you. Are you aware of any other shells that form actual shapes in the sky, other than the obvious circle and the like?

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I had a pretty kickass time on the fourth. I didnt have a chance to shoot off too many of my own fireworks b/c everything (even sparklers!!) are illegal where I live. But of course that didnt totally stop me. I put on a show for a few drunk friends who were totally impressed (not sure if the alcohol was talking)but it was nice. I went to see fireworks later that night. It was pretty cool for me b/c I was able to talk to the people on the barge from C&C Pyrotechnics before they pulled the barge out. Getting to see a display up close was pretty cool. They did a real good job with the show too. I really really want to help put a show like that together one day or just get a "fireworks crew" t-shirt. Can anyone help?? Hope you all had fun too. Later

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Hey Bob what's up!? My Fourth of July was a Blast!! A couple of friends and I lit $300 worth of fireworks behind my house out in the field. I went down to Rockport, Missouri to get my fireworks. If you want some loud stuff I recommend Thunderclap rockets, Thunder Kings, and Flashing Thunder Rockets. They are the best! All I mostly had was sky rockets and blackcats. But I did have some artillery Shells and other loud things!! I can't believe it is over now the Fourth of July is over now I have to wait another year to lite them, except on the New Millennium!! I am going to buy a lot of fireworks for the year 2000!!! I hope you had a good Fourth of July!!

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living in virginia, you cant have any fireworks that leave the ground or blow up. So I smuggled some in from south of the border(Pedro's in south carolina that is). . I lit off some large bottle rockets that I bought. . double reports. . I had some jumping jacks and "bootleggers" a legal m-80 (50 mg powder) too. The funnest was doing cool things with the fireworks. . innovative, wacky things. . break the stick off the bottle rocket. . light it, wait , and throw in the air. . a bootlegger did a real number on a plastic cup of pizza dipping sauce. . I put another in a gallon of curdled milk and put the cap on the bottle. . so the bootlegger blew a hole in the side, thus spilling milk on the sidewalk. There was also a fireworks show in view from my home. . that was cool.
thats my beavisian 4th of July

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hi, my fourth of july weekend, was great . my family and i lit fire-works of a beach in rhode island and also saw a couple shows . it was fun.

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My fourth of July:

Over the past few months i have been planning and building my forth of july fireworks. The following is an "inventory" of the items which i set off.

24 titanium report shells --- 3-inch
25 chresanthium shells ---3 inch
10 red willow shells --- 2 inch
14 (i don't know the real name but they are cylindrical shells w/ many holes in the bottom, when they are set off they go up w/ a huge mist of sparks) - 3 inch
250 small meteors w/ report varied color

The following is a diagram of my set up

CROWD


X X
X X
X X X
O O
O O
O O O

W
C
CONTROL BOX

EVERYTHING WAS SET UP ELECRICALY
X-THOSE MISTY THINGS
O- TITANIUM REPORTS SHELLS SMALL METEORS SET UP W/ THEM ON ANGLES AND TIMED TO FIRE IN A CROSS PATTERN.
W -WILLOW SHELLS
C- VARIED CHRYSANTHIMUM SHELLS

THE SHOW DIDN'T LAST LONG (8. 5 MINUTES) AND THE FIELD WAS FAIRLY SMALL, BUT CONSIDERING THAT EVERTHING WAS HOMEMADE AND HOME PREFORMED I WAS PRETTY DAMNED PROUD OF IT. THE CROWD WASN'T BIG EITHER BECAUSE FIREWORKS AREN'T LEGAL IN MARYLAND AND I DON'T HAVE A LICENSE. THAT'S ALSO PART OF THE REASON THAT THE DISPLAY WAS SO SHORT. IT WAS SORT OF A SET UP QUICK AND GET DOWN QUICKLY TYPE OF AN OPPERATION. BUT THIS IS THE SECOND YEAR I HAVE DONE IT W/ NO TROUBLE FROM THE COPS. TODAY I WENT DOWN TO THE FIELD WHERE MY LOCAL PROFFESSIONAL FIREWORKS DISPLAY WAS AND I FOUND A WOODEN BOX WITH THREE 5 INCH SHELLS IN THEM. IM NOT SURE WHAT TYPE OF SHELLS THEY ARE BECAUSE NEITHER THE BOX OR THE SHELLS WERE MARKED AS THE USUALLY ARE. I DON'T HAVE ANY MORTARS TO SHOOT THEM W/ BUT ILL COME UP W/ SOMETHING. I SUPOSE ILL SAVE THEM FOR NEXT YEARS FINALLY. I DO SUGGEST GOING TO THE FIELD AFTER YOUR LOCAL FIREOWRKS DISPLAY. MANY UNEXPLODED FIREWORKS AND OTHER GOODIES ARE ALWAYS LEFT BEHEND. SOME PLASTIC SHELLS CAN BE REUSED! THE WHOLE THING ENDED UP COSTING ME ABOUT $300 INCLUDING SOME MATERIALS W/ I CAN USE AGIAN. THE CONTROL BOX INCLUDED WHICH WAS CUSTOM MADE BY ME.

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I live along the shores of Lake Ontario in NY State. People from all around come to see the fireworks here. If you have never seen fireworks over a large body of water then you are really missing out. Not only do you get the wonderful reflection off the water but also it adds to the sound sensation. It's also quite nice seeing all the lights from the boats. Some of the people were even shooting fireworks from the boats, although I wouldn't recommend doing that. After the towns display a bunch of us went back to my place for a show of my own. I had gone to PA. on business several weeks earlier and spent about $700. on a variety of fireworks. I love fireworks and money is no object to me. I had 4 kits called Excalibur that I got for $100. each. They consisted of 24 assorted canister shells (about 2 inch shells) and a launch tube in each kit. I also had a case of the ninja festival balls that I rigged together into a huge finale. We also had a lot of assorted other fireworks, The Battle of the coral sea, The Battle of New Orleans, Garden in spring, a lot of rockets and missiles, planes and fountains, etc. My friends also brought some but I had a separate area ready for them because mine were all set up. I also put up some 4 inch shells that I made myself. I used glory torch sparklers to make some cut stars in different sizes for the shells. I don't recommend that anyone try this at home. I am a total amateur at making fireworks and although I have read a lot on the subject I was probably lucky I didn't get hurt. On the other hand you have to start somewhere. All I can say is you can never be too careful and never put others at risk. Anyway they worked nice but they were a little on the plain side. The crowd liked them though, I guess we are our own worst critics. As I mentioned I live in NY State and the anti fireworks laws are really strict here, but once again I was able to avoid the long arm of the law and thumb my proverbial nose at the the fat cats in the state capitol. I will never be able to understand how a man can be celebrating his freedom but can't, as an adult, do so using fireworks just like our forefathers did. Hope you had a great forth and an even better new year.

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THE 4TH DOWN UNDER?

In Australia on the 13th of June this year we celebrated the "Queens Birthday Long Weekend"

Camberawarra, a small village in the south coast of New South Wales (about 100k below Sydney if you have a map, but it's so small you probably wont find it) we put on a display to raise funds for the local Bush Fire Brigade, the local school and the scouts. A small group work together throughout the year for the evening each with different skills, fundraising, cooking, pyro, advertising etc.

On the night we provide a sausage sizzle, drinks, tea and coffee to the local community free of charge. In return we ask for a gold coin donation. This year we raised after all costs about $2300 for these groups.


Preparation for the evening took the best part of all day and involved about 20 people, pyros, cooks, raffle ticket sellers, electricians etc. The evening was attended by about 3,500 people.

Our Fireworks display incorporated about 340 aerials from 2. 4" - 5", about 40 ground mines, 20 candles, 12 Cakes, lanced sign, waterfall etc, and lasted for about 18 min. It was all put to music played through twin 1000 watt PA amps to 8 WBins. We electrically fired all the items through a home built board. Music and que points coming through an iMac to the PA system. We also used a 500w strobe and coloured lights (directed up into the smoke) to great effect.

The night was a great success and all attending had a great time.

We finished off the night after everything was packed up and safely stowed away with large amounts of liquid amber around the bonfire (made from 50 railway sleepers).

If you are ever in Australia on the Queens Birthday Weekend come to Camberawarra for a great night.

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I am 45 and have 5 sons which range in age from 10 to 18. My parents came to my house this year and we shot about $300 worth of fireworks. My wife and mom made
pies, both chocolate and banana as well as making homemade ice cream. The most significant thing that happened during the 4th was that some of us were on my back patio, listening to music and drinking a few beers since it was so hot and humid out, while making the icecream. We opened and began shooting about an 8,000 pack roll of inch and a halfers. My dad and wife were sitting in lawn chairs watching both me and two of my sons, light the firecrackers individually, from the roll. My youngest son, Caleb, said do you care if I light a parachute in the yard? I said no, and we all stopped lighting just to watch him. He set it on the grass and lit it. The problem was, that the wind was blowing and blew over the parachute that was now laying on it's side in the grass angled towards us. The parachute missed me, who was closest to the roll of firecrackers, but hit the roll that was setting on the patio table under an umbrella. All of a sudden the roll lit. It started slowly and I ran out into the yard and needless to say, my wife and father moved quickly as well. I was most concerned with burning up the patio umbrella and well as scorching the metal patio table. There happened to be a spade close by that the boys were lighting snakes on earlier. I grabbed it and ran over to the table and knocked the roll off both the table and concrete patio, on to my grass. Immediately, it was like the whole pack was going off at the same time. It not only lit in a circular pattern but also inwardly. One could only see flames and smoke. The firecrackers popped so fast that they almost sounded like one big explosion for about 3 minutes. It was awesome!!! Three of my boys were gone. The other two said that it was the BEST, as only a child can describe. My father is 68 years old. My wife said that when it was happening, she looked at him. His face expressed utter terror. Something similar had happened to his father when he was a child and he had never forgotten it. I had heard the story recanted many times, when it came to the yearly speech on safety. It was like deja-vu! I was laughing so hard whereas my wife was trying to hold it back because she had seen the fear in his eyes. In my mind, it was already too late! I tried to diffuse the situation by laughing, and between me and boys, it worked. By the way, my wife won "Honor Yard" of the month here in Cozad. The grass was devastated in about a 3 foot circular pattern. I was glad that it happened in my back yard and not my front, where everyone could see the devastation. If I would have had it on video, it DEFINITELY would have won "Americas Funniest Video. "

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Fireworx xperience? k here goez

My family lives about 3 miles away from the fairgrounds so every year they have a pretty good fireworks display around 9:00. Right across the street from the fairgrounds there is a facility known as the Ventrenary School. It's about 30 acres, and most of it is cow pasture. That makes it a great fireworks watching area so natrauly, everyone is just dying to go there to watch the display. The problem is that only athorized staff and workers can get in, for security reasons i guess. Lucky me my dad works there! So while every one else is caught in a traffic jam, trying to watch them from their houses, or trying to sneak in to the Vet. School, my family is relaxing out on the lawns with other co-workers with the perfect view!

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Haven't corresponded in quite a while, but I thought I'd tell you about an interesting fourth I had this year. I spent the weekend of the fourth just outside Kansas City, Kansas. Kansas allows everything but bottle rockets, and Missouri has everything. While I was shocked at the prices (I'm used to paying distributor prices, and most 25 shot repeaters at the stands were around $ 25. 00), I still bought a bunch of stuff for me and my nephews.

I watched the local news stations and one had a reporter at a fireworks tent actually doing a positive piece on consumer fireworks! Of course, there were also the admonishments on other stations about "just leave it to the pros". The third and fourth were great, with probably 40% of the neighbors on the street shooting all sorts of fireworks. Everyone has about 1 or 2 acres of flat yard - perfect for pyro activities.

The next morning, the local news carried a story about how dangerous fireworks are because a local 16 year-old was injured when he put an M-80 in a beer bottle! They interviewed this idiot and he said he didn't realize the glass would break!! They also reported on a house fire that may or may not have been started by fireworks. Oh well, we had a great fourth, and again not even a close call of a fire or injury - musta had our brains engaged. Hope your fourth was as good.

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This year's 4th of July holiday was simply great. We started buying cases of 1. 4g items way back in March with a trip out to Patriotic in MD. That trip in itself was a vacation being 675 miles one way. Many great items were acquired there as Paige Reed showed us the many new and "hot" items they had. We ended up with 30 cases, mostly repeaters from Brothers and Far Ocean. In April things started to really heat up and we all went to Kellners for their demo nights. Despite the perenially lousy weather, we had a good time and purchased a few more items that were overloaded in everyones opinion. Most of the old stand by items seemed to be exceptionally weak this time. Guess I've become a Brothers/Glorious/Beihai fanatic in the last year or so. The quality and variety of items from these manufacturers is simply unbelievable when compared side by side to those made from other producers. Next up in April was a MPAG club shoot in Muskegon. This was really a great time, since it was our club's first open shoot. There were an incredible number of shells put up along with a mini show shot electrically. I saw effects that would knock your socks off. It's kind of like PGI for a day. Actually next year it will be, as Muskegon will once again host the PGI convention. The last activity for April was a trip out to Victory in Wisconsin. A friend of my was going on vacation and stopped by to see Wayne and ended up with about 28 cases. Wish I could have been there, seems like there was some pretty good stuff to be had. Air Raid, DS1 Salutes, 4th of July Spectacular are awesome. After testing some of these items, we ordered another 18 cases for our personal cache.
May was pretty quiet, for the first half. I was busy finishing up my electronic firing system when I received Pyro and read the article about Puget Sound. Being impressed with the simplicity of the system, I built a small 16 cue version with materials I had. Now I have two systems, one utilizing the "coil" or filament method from Pyro and one using the "resistor" method. After both of these were completed, I was pretty bored so decided to take a road trip to Indiana and Ohio looking for overloaded items. Stopped at Shelton's and loaded up on some Temple of Heaven candles in colors I havn't seen at other places(purple and blue). Next stop was Up in Smoke which I believe is owned or affiliated with Miller out of Holland, OH. Didn't end up with anything here as the prices seemed to be very high, perhaps gearing up for a 2 for 1? There were a number of items that looked interesting, but 20 or 25. 00 for a cake is beyond what I'm willing to fork out. From here it's only a couple of miles to All-American in Angola IN. Ken Shearer always seems to have a lot of "hot" pieces and this year was no exception. Winda items were abound along with some other cakes from FOA and the new shell kits from Jake's. I always drop a huge amount of money here and have to restrain myself from going bankrupt. By the way, the rumors flying about Ken are mostly false, or he's not owning up to anything. The only fact he admitted to was that the ATF was in there, evidently picking up pieces to test. The final stop on this trip was Mid-States in Cecil OH. Bill Dilyard is a real good guy and always lets me know what is worthy. I can buy only a few cases from him at or near wholesale. This is a nice arrangement because I may only want 6 cases. A case of Martin Bombers for 55. 00 is a great deal, 105. 00 for a case of Excalibur isn't bad either. If I wish to buy off the shelf, he'll give me 50% off. This is actually a better deal than you might think because his prices aren't jacked way up to begin with. With this trip I was extremely well stocked up for the upcoming shooting season.
Memorial Day was the inaugaral 1. 4g display being shot electrically. I decided to keep it small and only fired about 60 cakes and a couple of dozen shells in order to work out any bugs in the system. Everything went off without a hitch and the crowd seemed to really appreciate the rapid firing and variety of items shot. My wife videotaped the show and it's amazing afterward to watch your own show. It's weird how much you miss by doing the firing and being right there the whole time. I would recommend to everyone buying a camcorder just to record your shows, it is definitely worth it!
The month of June was a frenzy of activity as it is for most Pyros in the US. Trips looking for material, setting up displays, shooting and testing, figuring out what and how you will shoot your shows, etc. This year we finally received permission from local authorities to put on 1. 4g shows and pretty much fire anything we wanted, within reason. So this time it was decided to put on the largest class C show we had ever done. 170 cakes, 177 candles, 50 shells, and a few misc. items like fountains and a couple of Fire Wheels. It was a lot of work setting it all up and I started working on the show 3 weeks before the 4th. Fabricating boards, hooking up wires and connections, building the candle racks all took far more time than I had anticipated. By the time the holiday weekend came around, everything was ready to go. As soon as the sun came up, I was transporting everything to the shooting site down the road. After half a dozen trips, all of the material was at the site. By this time it was already getting very hot, with dewpoints near 80. By mid-day the heat index was over 100. Truly hot as a firecracker, as the expression goes. The usual war with the neighbors started when they fired off some crackers. I decided to respond and the war gradually escalated until I was shooting 2" salutes! They didn't have anything to top that, so we started all over again. As people started to show up that evening for the show, my sister and I were feverishly making the last connections out in the field. By the time I made the final checks on everything, I had to use a flashlight. Waiting until evening to finish things up was probably a bad idea, but the weather was so damn hot it seemed like the sensible thing to do. I had no idea how many people were in the crowd when I started shooting, but by the time the show was over, both sides of the road were packed with cars watching. The actual show was over a half hour in length and the show stoppers seemed to be the more unusual repeaters. Wild Boar, Red/Silver Crossettes, Air Raid, the Black Cat angled cakes, and Howling Tiger seemed to provoke the biggest response from the crowd. The candle batteries went well also, Crazy Aces and Starmines being the stars. The reloadables were very good, 3rd Generation and Double Impact filling the sky with breaks. After the show was over, I went out to inspect the site and found a few items that didn't fire. Seems the cue fired, but the fuse didn't ignite. So now I will prime all fuses with a black powder slurry in order to hopefully cut down on the no-fires. All in all a very successful show, only now everyone expects the same calibur show and anything less will be backsliding! Time to get back to work as I have a large show to do this weekend for a pig roast and party. Stay green

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I hope you had a great 4th. I'd love to write a story about mine, but I don't want to include the last part about the finale. The show I've been working on for nearly half a year failed miserably. The 4-switch control box I built worked perfectly time and time again when I tested it, but didn't work that night. To get it to work, I actually had to disconnect the 12 volt battery attached to it and connect a 7. 2 volt NiCad battery. As I may have told you, two switches would ignite clusters of fountains/repeaters at the edge of the cul-de-sac, while the two other switches would go to the center of the cul-de-sac to ignite those 14 artillery shells you gave me. At first, the mortar was too big for the shells, we couldn't get anything smaller. Using lightweight, thin strips of cardboard (a. k. a. 1'' wide pieces of toilet-paper roll tubing), I increased the diameter of each shell about 1/4 of an inch, so it would fit perfectly into the tube. When I compared a regular shell and a size-adjusted shell, I found out that the small carboard strips added no weight. . . not noticable by me at least. I put about 3'' of sand in the bottom of a large plastic recycling bin, inserted the tubes (4 at a slight outward agle to the left, 6 in the middle facing straight up, and 4 at a slight outward angle to the right), filled the bin with even more sand, loaded the shells, fused them together, then covered it with foil to protect them. I did this about 4 or 5 days prior to the fourth, which I now know is something I never should have done, and this is why. When I finally connected the 7. 2 volt battery, the visco fuses of the shells ignited perfectly. . . or so I thought. The lift charge of the first shell detonated, sending the shell to a grand altitude of ONE FOOT above the tube before it fell on the ground and exploded. And so did the next. And the next. And the next. I noticed that the lift charges were making more a "poof" sound, rather than the usual "BAM!". Within 10 seconds, 12 artillery shells had exploded in the cul-de-sac. Of course, the neighbors sitting in my driveway had a blast; to them, this was all part of the show. The only thing I can think of was moisture. The sand was slightly damp when I first put it in the bucket, and I even inserted a circular piece of kraft paper into each tube (before the shell) thinking it could block/absorb/prevent any moisture. It obviously didn't. When I found an unlit shell the morning of the 5th, I ripped off the lift charge, only to see the powder of the charge was slightly damp; sticking together. Do you have any tips for me so this doesn't happen next year? How soon are you suppose to load the shells? Nobody was hurt in this incident, but I absolutely hated seeing all of my hours of hard work and preparation go down the drain on my favorite day of the year. Thanks for your time.

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Happy 4th of July yesterday, or if you are reading this on the 6th, happy 4th of july two days ago, or something. . .
Anyway:
I found this message from the NY mayor
http://www. ci. nyc. ny. us/html/om/html/96/me960707. html
It seems he is happy to be arresting people. Thats it.
Well, here on the 4th there were still fireworks, but I sure couldnt get much. I got a mat of firecrackers, and smoke bombs, and those angel sparklers and stuff, nothing real big.
You know that when I was a little kid, well, I still am only a teenager, but when I was about 5, no about 3 or 4, there was this guy down the street lighting gasoline??? It was pretty crazy. I cant wait till giuliani leaves.

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This 4th of July was one of the best ones that I have had. This was the first fourth of July I have been through while living in Indiana. What also made this fourth of July exceptional was that most of my friends from California came out here to celebrate it with me.

Having moved from San Jose California which fireworks are totally outlawed to Indiana which every kind of firework was sold, I was extremely excited about this fourth. Firework stores started to pop up around the Indianapolis area around the middle of May. So I was starting to get excited about the fourth a couple of months in advance. I actually didn't buy anything until about 3 weeks before the fourth of July. I stopped at two stores around my house and purchased about 50$ from each store. For spending a little over a hundred dollars I didn't feel that I had very many fireworks to show for it. About a week later I went to Sheltons huge firework wherehouse and Phantom Fireworks brand new wherehouse near the border of Illinois and Indiana. At both stores I spent about 250$ total. My main purchases were reloadable shells and single shell aerials. I found that the stores around the main city seemed to be a little more expensive compared to the larger wherehouses closer to the state borders.

Our plan was to light off the fireworks at my fiancˇ's uncles farm in Indiana. Because he had plans on the July 4th, he decided to have a barbecue and light off fireworks on July 3rd. We had a great time that day. All day long we switched off between lighting off fireworks and eating. My friends were especially excited about the whole day because they could actually light off fireworks and not have to keep looking over their shoulder for police like they do in California. They were free to light off what ever they wanted. The fireworks we lit off during the day were mostly bottle rockets and firecrackers. I also bought quite a few day time parachute shells to light off which the kids liked to chase after.

As soon as it became dark, the real festivities began. Everybody from the barbeque set up their seats toward the driveway while me and a few of my other friends started to entertain everyone with our homemade show which lasted about 2 hours. We lit off just about every type of firework possible. We mostly lit off reloadable display shells and single shot shells. After it was over,everybody clapped and a few people who I didn't know came up to me and thanked me for the great show. It was a fun and safe time.

Here is a performance review of some of the fireworks that I lit off.
* El Torro Long Stick Bottle rockets with report- Performance wise, these are a lot better than the regular small bottle rockets out there. These went really far and were pretty loud. The problem though was that even though they all lit off ,only about half of the pack of 72 had any type of report.
* El Torro Titanium 1 5/8" Firecrackers- Once again, as with their bottle rockets when they worked they were great, but the dud factor was really high on these. It seemed that there were always several firecrackers in each pack that didn't go off, But the ones that did go off were really loud. In fact my friends really liked these because they sounded like gun fire. * Star Travel Bottle rockets with color stars (Tiger Head Brand)- These were really good. These come in a package of 144 and look just like the regular small moon traveler bottle rockets. This was the first time I had purchased these type of rockets with stars. For such a small rocket they shot out quite a few stars. I'm not sure what the colors were because I only Did these during the day. *Ten Parachutes with flag (Link Triad Brand)- This was a really good performer. It shoots up a paper cylinder that explodes with 1 really large parachute with an American, A Japanese and some other flag on it and 9 small parachutes. This is definately one of the best made parachute shells that I have seen.
* Parachute with Flag (K5503) (flower Basket Brand)-absolute crap. One of the worst parachute shells that I have ever bought. Out of a box of 6 only 3 worked. The rest shot up the usual paper cylinder but the parachute never came out. The ones that did work were not that exciting. The parachute was big, but I don't consider a tinny piece of pink tissue paper taped to the string a flag.
* Mad Hornet reloadable shells- This is a really good reloadable shell. I bought these before about 2 years ago and was so impressed with them that I bought them again his year. Good Heigh and nice clean breaks. Also these were not that expensive compared to most other shell kits.
* Bad Bombs- Another really good reloadable shell kit.

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We had a wonderful 4th. It all started on the 28th of June when all of the local fireworks stands opened for business. We shopped at several of them to purchase some of their new items. We specifically found one or two new firecracker pack labels that we purchased, as we are collectors. On the morning of the 3rd, we jumped into the car and headed for the Dallas area to help assist Kolin Kimbrough with a large, hand fired public display. The weather was very hot without a cloud in the sky as we dug in all of our mortars. The sun continued to bake us to a crisp as we chained the finale racks. At 6:30 we were ready to shoot. We took a break for pizza and an ice cold coke. There was a short safety meeting held for all the participants. As the daylight was fading, the anticipation was growing. At exaxtly 9:20 the show began. Everthing went as planned. Every shell fired with no mis-haps. At the end of the show, the crowd could be heard cheering over the noise of the heavy traffic on the busy freeway that we were near. What a great feeling! We went to the hotel and settled in for the night. After a very short night and a very early morning, we got back into the car and headed to Waco for the "Big One" on the 4th. Along the way, we stopped at another roadside fireworks stand just outside of Waxahtchie only to find two more new labled firecrackers. We just had to have them! We grabbed our purchase, and with smiles were back on the road.
Upon our arrival in Waco, we found Larry Nemec, the head pyro had already had the mortars ready and in place with the show laid outand waiting. All we had to do was insert the electric matches, then hook the wires to the assigned cue. Again we were finished around 6:00 and ready to shoot. When all of a sudden the wind kicked up and a rain cloud from nowhere came in upon us. We hurriedly began to cover all of our devices that we had worked so hard to prepare. We managed to save about 95% of the show. We did lose some special effect rockets and a part of the finale. When it was show time we backed off several hundred feet, pulled up a seat on the tailgate of a pick up truck, and enjoyed the fruits of our labors! It was awesome. The shell sizes raged from 3" to 12". I saw many new effects I'd never seen before. The city of Waco saw some of the best our industry has to offer that night, as the show budget, I was told, was about 15K! After the show was over, we drove back to our home near the Houston area. The 5th through this writing has really been great. Since we live in a rural setting, andlive in a county that doesn't mind people shooting fireworks, we've been doing a 5-10 minute display nightly. The new and improved Brothers Brand shells are working good, I do wish I'd purchased more of the Winda brand. They've got some of the best breaks for a small shell that I've ever seen! Our neighbors yell, whistle and cheer us on. We have enough stuff for one final night, tonight, weather pending as a big front is due to pass through here this evening. If not tonight, there's always tommorrow ! I hope your 4th was a good one, too!

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For the 4th of July I watched fireworks over The Mall and Washington Monument from the south lawn of the White House in Washington, DC. Concurrently on the north lawn of the White House, The Hemp Festival brought several hundred starry-eyed spectators southwards as the entire city congregated around The Mall. I was one with hundreds of thousands of people in nearly a hundred degree temperature, sweating, waiting and hoping for the most patriotic fireworks event of my life. Because of the size of the mob, I rode the Metro into the city to avoid the post event traffic jam. I brought only a few dollars for refreshments plentifully available from hundreds of vendors who lined the surrounding streets. Everyone was eagerly anticipating the 9:15 showtime. And then it began.

Boom! Boom! Bang! Pow! Whirrr! Blast! Scream! Hundreds of bursts overhead, the size of several blocks illuminated the sky. The booms echoed off the surrounding buildings and intensified the noise. My favorite were the bursts that made a red five-pointed star encircled with a blue ring. Everyone screamed as various new bursts broke the repetition. Above the Washington Monument, in the sky, American patriotism enblazened in hearts of the masses below. Although it wasn't allowed, several people brought their own class C rockets and fountans and participated in the event in their own circles. It was the most patriotic fireworks event of my life.

By 9:30 it was over. The crowds headed for the Metro. It normally takes me an hour to get into the city, but the post firworks crowd was too much for the capacity of the Metro. After a two-hours of sweaty elbows-in-my-face and being packed in like a sardin, I finally made it home. My head was pounding with a migrane from the heat and it took all of Sunday to recouperate.

Would I recommend it? Yes. Just once for the experience, or if the weather is cooler then no problem. Better yet, watch it from inside the White House where it's air conditioned -- and of course with a cigar and an intern in your lap. The crowds going home are like scenes from movies during an emergency evacuation -- complete madness.

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We had so much fun on Independence Day. We visited some friends down on Galveston Island. To set off the fireworks, we decided to go to San Luis point, at the very end of the island. There, we were surrounded by nothing but beach sand and the ocean, so there was no risk of fire. There were tons of other people setting off fireworks around, so we got to see others shows as well.
My favorite was the Saturn Missiles, and the Moon Flyer. Two guys in our group had a Roman Candle fight with eachother. Another guy shot a bottle rocket towards the ocean, and it bounced off a wave, and kept going. I took a bottle rocket and lit it face down into a box of M-100's, which was the absolute best. All of the M-100's went off after the bottle rocket exploded. It was great! We shot a Helicopter, and it landed almost too close to a camper with some people around it. The flashing chasers were disappointing, unfortunately. And the jumping jacks didn't last as long as they used to. A major down fall was that the sound of the surf drowned out the loud pops, making the M-100's sound like simple firecrackers. Another downfall, of course, was when we ran out. Now, we are ready to go back with more fireworks! The trouble is finding fireworks AFTER the fourth.

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We had a fantastic 4th this year! Our neighbors told us about a low cost fireworks stand located in the Flint Hills, so we drove out to the boonies last week and scarfed up on Rambo packs, Flash Bomb packs, Artillery Shells, Fountain Displays, Rainbo, Magic and All Hell Breaks Loose, plus assorted Whistlers, Roman Candles, Crackle Bombs, Firecrackers, Smoke Bombs, Happy Lanterns, Sparklers, Snakes, etc. , etc. , etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Anyway, we live next to a field, which was newly planted with milo, so we had unlimited area and view. It's been very wet so there was no fear of setting the wheat stubble or grass fields on fire this year. We're not allowed to have bottle rockets here, but the flash bombs and artillery shells were awesome! I can't believe these are ok to have when bottle rockets are much smaller! What a war we had with the neighbors (they were quite inebriated) behind the hedge row in the field. We were launching from the tubes and lighting the night with incredible displays of color and sound. The kids had a blast as they were able to blow things up all day and evening. We had one dud, the Happy Lantern failed to deploy and my daughter was heartbroken as she wanted it for a display in her room. One Saturn Missile 25 shot battery went awry and sent a missile into the shin of an 8 year old boy, but he didn't cry for long even though it looked like a bullet hole. We put some neosporin on it and it looks ok. We lit the All Hell Breaks Loose on top of another shot up missile pack and it tipped over and All Hell Did Break Loose as it started shooting towards the lawn chair crowd. No one was hurt. All in all we had the biggest display ever and I'm looking forward to New Year's as they will allow the sale of fireworks again at the end of the year! Happy Blasting!

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It went very well! We had about 20 people over to watch the fireworks. We purchased nearly $1000 in fireworks. We got some Super Rockets in Missouri and they were excellent. They were really big and loud. King Thunders were also impressive and had a loud report. A thing called an Atom Splitter was cool. We had one accident. A firework tipped over and shot my friend. He was OK though! Oh yah, we got some 3" artillery shells. Those stole the show!

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Cool I am on. . . My 4th was great me and my other friend he is an adult I am only 14 bought 600 dollars worth this year we had about 14 birthday cakes and morters and tonz of bottle rockets/missles we wirked our way up to the grand finally where we shot 4 morter at once it was cool. And we are geting more for New Years. I am looking foward to get the magazine. But I got to go now so See Ya

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We went camping at Lake Georgetown, TX. We were too tired to shoot our own fireworks but we will next Saturday. I did see some "new to me" fireworks. The first was Two pink balls of fire that took atleast 1 minute to go down. It looked like they floated in the air. The next one was a perfect triangle two lined, with two colors. And the last was a ball that perfectly split in the middle, one side one color and the other a different color. It was great.

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Took 7 of the salute tubes and mounted them on a single board with serious epoxy, then fused insirts.
We had a lot off good stuff but what made the show was the 2"salutes. I saved a few of those back.
If you cut the bottom off of those and refuse then with about a 4 sec. visco fuse they make one hell of a ground report. . In theory. . . . We had people screaming and claping, and yelling. I can still smell the smoke.
Just for fun.

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I was very excited about the fireworks this 4th. On July 2nd I got to help set up my first professional fireworks display. I started about 5:00pm setting up racks of mortar tubes. We set up 3,4,5 & 6" tubes. We placed them in a double row and staked them to the ground. Our Team leader then instructed us to place the three inch mortars on the tubes and then mix them according to color and variety. Once we did that we had to drop them in the tubes and arrange all fuses to one side of the mortar rack. You only want to be on one side and you don't want to reach over the rack during the show. If one would go off unexpectedly you could severely injure yourself. Once we did this we repeated this with the larger mortars. While I was working on this the team leader and a more experienced shooter helped with the finale. They were three inch mortars fused together in groups of ten. They had to link the groups of ten together. Once all mortars were dropped it was time to wait for nightfall.

When the show started my job was to reload three inch mortar tubes. I had approximately 85 to reload. The shooter started to light the rack one mortar at a time. One mortar every 5-6 seconds. Once he got about 15 feet down the rack I started to reload the mortars. The first couple I had to reload the concussion took me by surprise. Even though he was lighting mortars fifteen feet away. The smoke from the blasts was pretty heavy. With all the sound, smell and smoke my adrenaline was pumping. Once I had all the shells reloaded I finally got a chance to stand back and watch the rest of the display from ground zero. What a site. The shells were bursting right overhead. The noise of the reports was fabulous. This was truly a 4th I will never forget.

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For my Fourth celebration, I ordered my traditional mortar shell assortment from Olde Glory Fireworks in South Dakota. I also ordered a repeater cake called "The battle of New Orleans" , one called "Reporting Red" some Saturn missles and a "News Transmitter. " Olde Glory is marketing a No. 500 shell this year, which I was rather disappointed in. It really was no more powerful or spectacular than a No. 300, but it was quite a bit more expensive. The shell was called Celestial Showers. Its launch height was no more than 200' and its burst ended up leaving more buring debris on the ground than in the air. I think that dollar for dollar, the Artillery shell kits are the best bang for the buck. I really enjoyed the Crackliong Artillery Shells and the Whistling Buster Shells. For the same price as a single shot shell, you get a whole spectacular kit with 6 shells. We enjoyed our fireworks in a secluded park here in Philadelphia. Aside of a few close calls with a nosey police cruiser, there were no problems. I always insist on using fireworks responsibly, so I cannot see why I cant use them without fearing a police raid. I must also admit: I heard very few M-80 like blasts in the city this year. They must be getting very hard to come by these days. Maybe this will be the end of the exploding melon tactic!

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Hi, I'm a 13 year old fireworkmaniac and i just had to put on a great so in my backyard for my family and friends. I started out by shooting a firework called "Dragon's Breath" it shot out organe balls of lava, you could hear the force of the fire, it was great. Next i lit on called "Fine Champange. " This fountain was crazy, it whistled, shot sparks every where. Then i shot one called "Titanic. " It looks like the Titanic and lasted for 4 minutes and 20 seconds. Now i got to some aerials. First i launched off some reloadable "Whistling Busters", it was some nice display. Next i launched a "#5 Gold Willow", it had a nice weeping a effect,next was a "#5 Crackling Purple," It wasn't really purple, but it shot up and did crackle. Then i shot a "#5 Sliver Comet" It didn't go high, but it was very nice and bright. A "#5 Red, White and Blue Bouquet" was next. IT was really nice a bright, you could see the colors well too. People on the next was going, "woohoo,cool. . wow. . . " Then i shot off some more relaodables, then i shot off a "Yellow Bees" It started like a fountain then shot up these wizzing aerial shots,nice and bright. Then i got my "#100 Kamuro. " Man was that a site! This must of shot up well over 100 feet, then exploded with a big salute. . and wow. . it was big, bright, wonderful and crackled, i'm gunna get me another one next year. Know for my fianle i lit off a "#300 Cracklin' Rose. " Now let me tell you what i learned. I though this "Cracklin' Rose" was gunna be a big and beutiful diplay, but when it went off. . it really suck. . it disponited me a lot, so never buy a firework for just the picuter you see on the box. . . becuase it may not even be like that picture. . so just relay on desciption and what people say. Well that's the end of my story so i hoped you enjoyed, thanks.

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We bought a lot of piccolo petes. We hammered the entire firework and put it in an empty milk jug that had a hole in the cap for the fuse. You light these suckers and they whistle for a second and then blow up like an M80 with a loud deep report. They were very nice.

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Well, my 4th of july wasnt really all that great this year. The only good part was well. . teh fireworks of course. The day started out at about 12:00pm when I finally woke up, and most of the day i just spent on the internet chatting and stuff. My sister was going to bring her friends but they just happened to not want to come at the last minute, so she wasn't happy. Well around 9 pm i started bringing out all of our fireworks outside, most of the people we invited which was only around 10-15 were family, and wouldnt be arriving until around 9:45-10:00pm since it takes so long for it to get dark anymore. Anyways i brought out all of our fireworks out by the field right behind our house, since we live in such a small town its right there. And mainly all that we bought we the aerial repeaters (which my cousin and i call cakes becuase of there shape) and the reloadable tubes. I had around 70 different shells for teh relaodable tubes and about 20-25 "cakes". My cousin had alot of stuff also but for once i had more. The one thing i really enjoyed that he had brought were 4 half-sticks of dynamite things. I know they are illegal but we couldnt help ourselves. So we started out our show with a half stick and that was pretty good. Throughout the whole show we just did mainly those "cakes" and reloadable tubes. I thought it was a pretty good show for us(me and my cousin) being amatures. The whole show was around two and a half hours. The Grand Finale wasn't really all that great but it was pretty nice. It consisted of a 100 shot saturn battery cake thing which shoots up 100 bottle rocket like things, a 12-shot parachute launcher which had flares and many other things on it, a thing that shot 10 golden palm trees, a 1000-strip of firecrackers, a 100-shot cake which i cant exactly remember what it did, 4 reloadable tubes, and one of the half sticks. I think it was pretty cool. Well thats all, it went very nicely and I am very happy we have alot of fireworks left!

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Our 4th was a blast as usual. There were 25 people at our house. We had loads of fireworks, I run a small stand and wee always save several cases for ourselves we had in cases 2 regular 6 ball artillery shells, 1 8 ball Big Guns{real loud launch}1 Black Cat 3rd generation, 1 Black Cat Cannon Balls 1Black Cat Star Spangled Cannon, 1Boom Man, 1Smoke jumpers {reloadable parachute real nice} 1 lazer bombs 12 ball, 1 Killer alligator{my wife's favorite}, 1Black Cat The Beast, Black Cat Warp Speed{the groups favorite} 1 100 shot Saturn missile, 1 36 Shot large Happy, 1purple crysantham, 1 37 shot thundering floral, 1 10 ball roman candle 1 Black cat Gatling pack Roman Candles {that was all full cases }several x-large rockets, 12 #100 shells, 14 # 200 shells And several other misc pieces.

We started at 3:30 P. M. with a cookout. Around 5 the fireworks started with small rockets and the daytime parachutes, 2 firemen with full turnout gear on had roman candle fights{ they were protected from head to toe and due to heat it only lasted a short time this is better suited for newyears with the cooler temps. } At dusk we started with the big things Shooting several at a time. We had 200 ft. of green fuse which made it easy to tie several things together. we also found that a sandbox makes a great place to launch out of because it provides support and is flexible enough to let you aim stuff as needed.

The best stuff was 5 warp speeds going off at once and 12 different artillery shells shot off together

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Now that I have a little time, here's the scoop on the fourth in the Vancouver area:

Although I went on the trip "loaded for bear", I did stop at a fireworks stand in Vancouver just to see what they had. They are still selling: buzz bombs of various sizes, reloadable mortor tubes (such as black cat and red devil), roman candles, numerous multi-shot aerials, and big single-shot tubes as well ( I saw one named BEYOND 2000 that was probably 8" accross the throat. What do you know about this one?). Of course sparklers, morning glories, ground bloom flowers, fountains and cones, snakes, etc. all seemed to be available as well.

My wife and I watched the fireworks from the "Key" (near the base of the I-5 bridge in Vancouver) and the big show is set off from a barge in the Columbia near the Fort. Although there were plenty of cops around to keep the 1000's of people from getting out of hand, I did NOT see them do anything to stop the many people setting off small firecrackers or rockets. They did however spring into action when something as obvious as an M-80 or larger was set off. All in all, the police were mellow, and the crowd good natured despite the cramped conditions along the narrow waterfront park to see the big show. Half way through a FANTASTIC display from the barge, some guy nearby thought he could compete with a Clustering Bees rocket. Obviously he couldn't, and the crowd boo'ed him into submission. Everything considered, they whole day was awesome. They can still party at Fort Vancouver and do.

By the way, we bought a reloadable mortor from the Indians which is from Black Cat and is titled THE 3RD GENERATION. It has a 2" plastic launch tube (sched. 80 HDPE pipe, I think) and comes with 18 shells that break twice each. (36 different effects). Though it had one dud, it was GREAT and I suggest that you get one for review. We bought others of course, but this was our favorite. By the way, the OLD FAITHFUL that you recommended in your book was very good as well.

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BOB glade to see you wrote me back already i a very interesting 4th july holiday this year instead of shooting class c fireworks this year i actually got to do my first couple of professional shows it was an experience i will never forget. MY first shoot was on pontoon boats it was wild [this was on the 3rd] and on the 4th we did a shoot at a race track it was a pretty good turn out. Iknow you have herd of the pipe called hdep pipe well i think it saved alot of our butts because on our finnally we had like 20 salutes go off kinnda low and in the guns they had us and the fire dpt scatter but the pipe held out and did not shatter nedless to say because of this no got hurt so it turned out ok we just got a little of exercise. I have done pyrotechnics for some local bands and always wanted to fireworks so it was adeam come true know i am hooked we have a couple of shoots left this year hopefully because if so i want to help shoot them. If you have any infomation on pyros ill be more than happy to look at it. Hopefully if everything works out right my technision is going to help me get involed with this hobby more my wife took some pitcures so i hope they turn out ill let you know if they did. Please send me anything that can help me follw this dream.

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I live in North West Florida (Pensacola) and am able to drive (20 min. ) across the border into Alabama to buy fireworks. I also shoot them in Al. at a friends house. We have been doing this for about five years now and put on quite a show. We purchase and fire only large effective fireworks ie. mortars-large rockets. Those things with major impact. This event costs me several hundred dollars every year but I have fun and every-one loves the effect.
This year we had lasagna (3 very large) chips, pretzles, nuts, dips, softdrinks, more food than I can list and very little beer and champagne (alcohol and explosives don't mix). Three of us started shooting at 7:30 pm. and continued nonstop untill after 11:00 and still had fireworks left over.
There is a story about how this shin-dig came into being but I don't have the time now to tell it. We took videos of the event and have some stills on disk now. If I ever find the time I will try to send some your way.
I look forward to telling you about our new years celebration, this will be a first for us.

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HI BOB I DID TWO SHOWS ON THE 4TH WEEKEND SAT NITE IN A SMALL PARK SHOT OVER THE LAKE IN NORTHERN MN AND SUN SHOT OFF A BARGE IT WAS A HAND LITE SHOW BOTH NITES AND WERE SPECTACTULAR THE 4TH SHOW WAS FOR A VERY SMALL COMMUNITY OF NON STOP PARTYERS THE BARGE WAS SMALL BUT WE RAN A VERY SAFE SHOW LOTSA 3S AND 4S AND A GOOD SUPPLY OF 5S AND 6S FOR THE CREW TO RELOAD AND GET THIS 7 BARRAGE BOXES WITH ASSORTED 1 1/2 BANGERS TO BOOT BOTH WERE THE SAME SHOW INM SIZE AN QUANITYS OF PRODUCT BUT THE BARGE SHOW WAS 4 MIN SHORTER DUE TO THE STORMS CLOSING IN FROM THREE SIDES OF US AND A COUPLE OF HUNDRED BOATERS HOPE YOURS WAS AS GOOD

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With this years PyroGuys (that is what we call ourselves)5th annual 4th of July backyard display a four year dream has come true. As a kid growing up in a state that only allowed safe and sane fireworks (you know sparklers, cone, smoke bombs and snakes) Which I affectionatly call wimpy works I always longed to be able to produce a show like the guys that put on the show for the town I lived in did. Five years ago I move to a new state that allows a better class of fireworks, mainly what they called artiliary shells. Not quite as nice as the ones the big boy send up but hey anything was better than burning you fingers on a sparkler or lighting a cone that lasted all of ten seconds. That first year 5 years ago I sent up 250 shell over a 3 hour period. This was my first experience with display pyrotechnics and a valuable learning one too. Safty has always been a number one priority with me and this first year display taught me that there is no exact science when it comes to shooting things in the air that explode. They go where they want and explode when they want. Sometime 2 feet out of the tub. Doing backyard displays limits the safty margin conciderably. Setting Shell Trejectory I have found is the most important procedure we perform. Our goal is to put the shell over an area that wont fall on our neighbors or on our spectators, no easy task in limited space. After the second years display my best friend and I (we call ourselves the PYROGUYS)started thinking how we could send up these shells without manually lighting them. My best friend came up with the concept of firing them electrically. The next two years we fired our finale using some wire attached to a car battery, through a momentary switch to model rocket ignitors inserted into the ends of the fuses and taped in place. The effect was great and the crowd went crazy, they didn't expect to see 15 shells go off at the same time. This laid the ground work for our 1999 show. 2 months prior to the fourth of july of 1999 I commited my self to designing and building our first electical fire control system for fireworks. Our switchbox consisted of 10 vertical and 10 horzonal switches that produced a 10 X 10 grid allowing us to fire 100 shells. I also added some isolation switches to fire the finale and the cakes. This box is connected by means of two 25 foot 25 pin serial cables to a relay box that is mounted near the tube assemblies. The tube racks have ten tubes per rack and there are 10 racks plus 3 finale racks and the cake platform giving us the ability to fire 140 shells 30 of which go up at the same time for the finale. All elements of the design is modular so that if any part fails it can be replaced easly. Each rack has a distribution box that feeds each of 5 ignitor boxes which consist of a four contact speaker terminal mounted onto the top of the box. this allows one box to feed 2 seperate tubes. The racks were then mounted onto a trailer and we were ready. Setup was easy, not more than 15 minutes and utilizing the tongue jack on the trailer setting the firing angle was a breeze. At 9:30pm I lite of the first cake to signal the start of the show followed by firing single tubes to the them music from 2001 a space odessey. The only problem we seemed to be having was that some of the ignitors we were using were failing. We were trying a different brand of ignitor and they just didn't work very well. But this was our first try at this level and it will be remedied for our next show. We will either make our own or stick with the Este Model Rocket ignitors. This year they had a lot of new shells including double and triple break shells and canisters shells which had a lot more power and a better display than the regular artiliary shells. Two and a half hours and 110 shells later and almost continuest uhhhhh and ahhhhhh's the finale of 30 shell hit the night sky and left the audience speechless. We had 30 friends and relatives attending this year as I'm sure many of the surrounding neighbors were also watc hing. during our show you could hear the kids down the road cheering after each shot. By New Years we will have all the kinks worked out and will try to put the show to music. But next 4th of July we hope to have a computer control the whole show. Both my friend and I are computer techs and our goal is to creat a program that will fire the shells at predetermind points in the music. That way we can join the audience and leave the driving to Hal

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First, I went to my friends and lit off bottle rockets, jumping jacks, and firecrackers. We do crazy things with them. Like blow up coffee cans and bottles. Then, we went to my house and went swimming. Then, we lit off more bottle rockets, jumping jacks, and firecrackers. This time we blew up the same can, we toke a 12-pack of bottle rockets turned them upside down lite them and drop them in my pipe, we shot bottle rockets out of the holes on stop signs and down sewers, and a lot of other crazy stuff. Then, we went back to my friends house and lit more bottle rockets and a Thunder King. Then I went to my house and when it got dark me and my family lit three belts of firecrackers, buzz bombs, jumping jacks, bottle rockets, to belts of Super Big Pigs, and five cakes.

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The show was really good with the exception of the small fire that was created by one of the motar tubes. I admit that it was my fault for not properly preparing the area.

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I lived in Bellflower as a kid, and have fond memories of 4th of July there.
The old Tiki torches in my back yard were retired a year ago after becoming dissatisfied with their sooty messy operation. So after removing the can & wick I placed six tubes from Rising Ghosts and some small fountains in the top. I used some fuse to allow the fountains to burn before setting off the Rising Ghosts via a section of quickmatch. To set the whole affair off, I hollowed out the bamboo and ran quickmatch from the bottom to the top, so that setting the end down in the coals of the fire would instantly set it off.
I intended to dance naked around the fire to the drums while holding the stick, and at some point I would plant it into the coals. (setting off the pyrotechnics).

It worked as planned, except the quickmatch detonated inside the stick, and split it apart to some extent. This caused a minor burn, and I probably won't repeat that.
There was a crowd of approximately 20 drummers, and 100 or so bystanders that aparently enjoyed it!!
The second one was better made, and incorporated Thunderking components and fountains. An experienced pyro lit that one, and we did it away from the crowd. He was shocked by the quickmatch and let it fall into the bay, where it shot it's charges towards the water. Some skated along the surface and detonated, and others detonated slightly under the water. Prolly won't repeat that episode either (I'll light my own creations)

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Chapter 1 the purchase:
Well my dad and I last Monday my dad and I were driving around and saw a fireworks stand, we stopped and was looking around at the reloadable mortar sets. The operator said he had a special kit in back and only was able to get one of them,he brought out the set and I immediately said we will take it. And my dad agreed. So we ended up buying the Black Cat ProMag reloadable shellset which came with a HPDE mortar and 36 shells. We took it home and put it away until July 4th.
Chapter 2: The Setup
Well at dusk my dad and I took the set, a wooden board and a cement block to hold the mortar down out to the soccer field. We unwound all the shells fuses and got ready for tonights show. About 8:5pm CDT it was time.
Chapter 3: The Show
We walked out to the mortar and put shell #1 in, it was a Bicolored chyrsanthem with a comet on the way up, it burst into red and green stars and was a neat way to start.
Shell #2 was called Warped Silver, it burst into silver stars BUT I guess they were go getter stars because they went everywhere before they burnt out. The rest were mixed color stared shells like Red to Silver Palm, silver to green and to many to list. 3 of the shells malfunctioned, 2 of the only went 15-20 feet and then burst which the stars were close to the ground, and the 3rd I guess blew immediately after leaving the mortar, because I heard the lift charge blow and then allI saw was a BRIGHT flash and no stars. Some of my favorite shells were the Palm shells. I have always like palm. All in all I had a good 4th of July show and a safe one too. I am getting the same shell set next year.

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i set of all types of different fireworks and fireckcrackers. someone called the cops but he just said have a good time. it waf really cool



I just wanted to let you know that your efforts last year paid off. I am the person who sent you a copy of the article that appeared in The Buffalo News, which was very anti-fireworks. You then e-mailed a copy of the letter to everyone and asked them to contact The Buffalo News to show their disapproval. I am very happy to say that for the first time in my entire life, the newspaper did not print ANY anti-fireworks articles this year. The only thing that appeared was a small description of a fireworks sting. Normally this would be front page matierial. I was extremely happy to see this becuase of the strong anti-fireworks nature of the articles The Buffalo News has printed in the past. The Buffalo News also printed a letter I wrote to them in the 'Readers Write' section of the paper. I included the text of the article below. Once again, thank you for your efforts to change peoples attitudes and gain the legalization of fireworks everywhere. Also, thank you for the information available on your web site. It really helped me write the article.

My article that was printed in the paper (approx. 400,000 circulation)(appeared on 7/1):

FIREWORKS LAWS ARE UNFAIR AND SHOULD BE CHANGED

By now, most people have began to finalize their Independence Day plans.
Unfortunately for the residents of New York, those plans can not include fireworks. The present fireworks laws prohibiting their use in New York State are unfair, and should be changed. In 1990, their were 18. 1 injuries per 100,000 pounds of fireworks used. Yet even though sales nearly doubled, their were only 6. 4 injuries per 100,000 pounds of fireworks in 1996. And out of these, the vast majority were due as a result of misuse, not of proper care.
Obviously children should not be using fireworks, only a responsible adult. According to Consumers' Research magazine, a person is 50 times more likely to be hurt on a bike than with fireworks. The article also points out that permitting American families to keep a five-gallon bucket around the house accounts for 10 times as many childhood deaths each year as fireworks.
Every year, millions of families get to experience the joy of fireworks. The
residents of New York State, though, are deprived of this, even though the United States government considers all consumer fireworks safe for public use. The fireworks that account for most injuries are M-80s and Cherry Bombs. These fireworks are not, and should not, be legal anywhere in the Unites States.
Fireworks are not a dangerous activity, but one that should be enjoyed by all
Americans. By keeping them illegal, law abiding citizens are deprived of their right to use this product. It is truly unfortunate that our rights are so restricted that we can not even choose how to celebrate the birth of the greatest democracy in the world.

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My Fourth of July was great I watched a fireworks show up in a hill. I lit some too. I bought my fireworks from a reddevil fireworks company. I got rockets, finales, firekrackles, smoke bombs lots of stuff.

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I am a Pyro Tech for SeaWorld Orlando. We set up two shows for that night, both of them themed to the current kid's show Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog. We set up our normal show with a beefed up finale featuring 300 2" reports and 300 3" reports plus other misc. material( more aerials mostly). The set up was a challenge due to the on-again,off-again rain and lightning. The shows went well and the attendance was surprisingly good considering the amounts of shows here in Central Florida. Thanks for your interest, and I'll keep you posted to the development of our major 2000 show.

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My 4th was alright. Since I live in NY, i couldn't do the "good stuff" So i just did morning glories.
I was wondering if you could help me become a pyrotechnician.

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HAD A GREAT FOURTH. AS I E-MAILD YOU IN THE PAST,HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE CAME TO THE BEACH AND SET OFF FIREWORKS WHILE THE POLICE AND FIREMEN STOOD BY. NO ONE GOT HURT,AND EVERYONE HAD A GREAT TIME. THANKS FOR THE CHANCE TO TELL PEOPLE. NEXT YEAR IF YOU GET A CHANCE,COME ON DOWN TO LEWES,DELAWARE. A NICE LITTLE TOWN,NICE PEOPLE.

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I will start my story of my back yard picnic and Firework show by describing my set up. I used 20 different pieces of plywood cut into 2x2 feet pieces. These are the boards that all my displays are glued to. I use liquid nails that comes in a tube like caulking. With the fireworks glued down I don't have to worry about things tipping over. Here is a list of what my show consisted of. It started with 4 13" spinners and 20 Jumbo smoke bombs with a back light of two strobe lights. One of my neighbors brought a CD with Songs to watch fireworks by. (2001 Space Odyssey, Indian Jones. 1812 Overture, etc.). Just as these items were ending I shot off a #500 Gold Chrysanthemum waited 15 seconds and started lighting the rest of the show. The rest of the show included 24 25-shot Phantasm, 24 25-shot Pandemonium, 8 8-shot Yankee clipper, 12 Molotov Cocktail multi shot, 12 Raptor multishot, 18 Various 61-shot repeaters, 12 various smaller repeaters but with great effects. 6 Cosmic eruptions multi-shot, 12 Ballistic Blast multi-shot and for the grand finale I had about 40 Mortars some #500 and some #200 timed to go off in about 3-4 minutes. I also had various other fountains and other items left over from previous years. All these fireworks were wired together with extra safety fuses.(cannon fuses) I also used electronic ignitors borrowed from a friend that is into model rocketry. This allowed me to use switches and set the fireworks off from a distance of about 250ft. Several switches did not work but no one knew we had problems because the old standard match works great. As I said this was a back yard party in a very populated area in The Washington, DC area. At about 6:00 PM there was about 90 some people eating, drinking and playing Volley Ball. Just before 9:30 when the show started my neighbor counted 242 people and while the show was going another 20 - 25 cars stopped on various roads to watch. I have been doing these shows for about 10 years and have never had any problems even though most of these displays are not legal in my State. I do have pretty strict rules no bottle rockets, firecrackers or sparklers can be shot off at the party to protect everyone.

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I thought I should update you on one more "success," however minor. After being informed via your website long ago about the media's subtle degrading comments towards fireworks, I have always kept an eye open during news shows around the 4th, and every single time I have beeen disappointed in the news station.
This year, our big statewide station ran their yearly bit on fireworks, but this one actually made me happy. All fireworks are illegal here in Minnesota, and this news report interviewed several Minnesotans taking time out of their schedules simply to cross the border to South Dakota or Wisconsin simply to purchase (and bring back) illegal fireworks. The people they interviewed were not stupid, but instead were fireworks lovers who said things like (not direct quotes here) "Minnesota is missing out big time on fireworks sales around this time of year. So many of us will go all the way to different states just to exercise our freedom to have FUN, and think how many of us would buy fireworks if we could get them in our own state?" The news report also went on to point out that police in Minnesota rarely enforce the fireworks law, but only may give warnings if an irate neighbor calls about excessive noise.
The report seemed to make a strong but subtle point... "Fireworks are getting into Minnesota, we're buying them, we're lighting them, the cops don't care, and there's nothing we can do about it. Why not legalize fireworks?"
I was waiting for the usual "Fireworks are dangerous, so be very careful..." warning at the way end of the news report, but to my amazement, there was none. Perhaps this single, unbiased news report will sway Minnesota's longtime ban on fireworks? Hope so.... Ventura is still standing on his views that fireworks perhaps should be legal (although he has not vocalized this in a while).

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Hi Bob. Just a quick story regarding my July 4th display. 80 cakes this year, all were good, there were more Brothers and USA items this year. The best item I shot which had everyone asking about was a nice 25 shot cake item called GHOST ANIMAL from the Winda factory. ( They also make the Metal Dino and Sexual Sisters items). If you haven't fired one yet GET IT SOON, before they tone down the contents. Large loud breaks, with fish effects, palm trees too. AWESOME!! I had my friend Morris Huck from Hucks' fireworks hold the last 6 cakes to be picked up in December. Kellners carries the Winda products, their web address is www.pandafireworks.com, although they were just starting the site when I checked. By the way, these were all 1.4G items from Winda. My finale was 2- 1.3G 25 shot cakes fired simultaneously, USA brand Badd Blood (discontinued- DAMN!! , and an Oriental Thunder.) I smoked out the wet bar near the beach, but people were all loving the show from the balconies of the hotels. I can't wait to see in the Millennium in SC, probably the most fireworks friendly state in the country. Anyway, just thought I would share my 4th with you. Before I forget, another good 25 shot cake was STONE COLD from USA brand. A very noisy colorful cake, second place finisher in my show. 

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Got your note about my 4th. Sorry it's the last day but here it is. I had a backyard show with my 2 friends and their families, about 16 people. It was on a hill, the audience was at the top looking down at us. I've been doing firework shows both class b and c for 2 years and one of my friends had been doing it for a little less than a year and his friend was newer than that. We all had our stash of devices. We began to shoot cakes that we glued to a board some one at a time and some two at a time. They included blue hurricane, wirlwind, sori acrobatics, command test, crosettes, mines, westlake rockets, ariane, fire phoenix. We did one and three quarter inch shells, canaster type and regular. We also shot 15 plane flying at night at once with sticky match(really cool) The audience liked the whirl wind cake and a mine cake which I can't remember the name. We shot northern lights,and as a finale patrotic parade, 2 10 inch wheels, and 5 magic shot candles at once(using sticky match) My one friend got to do a lot of what I taught him about fusing several cakes and candles togeather. It basicly was his show I just added my fireworks to it. It was a very relaxing time. Usually I do big show for a large audience on the 4th, but this year I decided to take the day off and do it for fun just like anyone else, and I felt like a little kid again! The last time I was able to do fireworks right on the 4th without worring about getting caught was when I was a kid, so this was kind of a special day for me. So thats my story, hope it helps.

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Another bang-up 4th flickers itself out here in the Pacific Northwest. As the burnt up remains litter the driveway waiting to be cleaned up the phone rings with friends and family calling to remark on a show that they'll remember. Our show this year was much like that of the past few years. We didn't do much differently than we have in the past, but I guess our experience made things go a bit smoother. 

Our arsenal included 50 cake ( multishot ) items, 75 artillery shells, 3 dozen assorted fountains and a couple dozen roemer candles, a few #200 and #300 aerials all shot in a moderate pace over about an hour and a half.

We shoot on the driveway overlooking a huge half acre lawn. Our crowd of friends and family bring out the lawn chairs and blankets and assemble on the grass to snack and chat. We prime the kids (old and young alike) with small fountains, ground and aerial spinners and tons of novelty fireworks till the sun startsto go down. Then the real fun begins.

We shoot from 3 platforms spaced about 30 feet apart. These platforms or shooting tables, are simply sawhorses with boards on them to act as table tops. This puts our fireworks up off the ground and makes lighting them much easier and safer. No more stooping on the ground and searching for fuses. We set one table up to the far end for fountains and the other two for multi-shot cakes. We also have 4 artillery gun racks with 4 steel guns each. They are way overbuilt from 2x4's and are virtually un-tippable. The gun racks get set up on a foot high platform behind the cake tables. Each shooting table is piled with a couple of cinder blocks and an assortment of bricks. Each item we shoot is barricaded behind a cinderblock and surrounded by bricks. I have seen cakes blow out the bottom and tip over, on two occasions they fired into the crowd. Although I was just a spectator at these events I swore that I would never light a cake again that may have the opportunity to tip over, especially toward a crowd. Our audience sits about 50 feet away from the firing line. 

Our fireworks are all prepped ahead of time. Wrappers are removed, fuses are pulled out and flagged with a snip of white tape to make them easy to locate in the dark. Artillery shells are strung on quickmatch in groups of 4 or eight and put into separate bags for easy "grab and load" firing. Setting up the artillery shells in advance allows us to select the different effects that we want going off together. This year we began each volley of shells with a Black Cat Magnum with tail, or one of the new Iron Revenger shells with tail. These comet tails helped direct the crowd's attention to the right place in the sky to see the shells. We followed the tailed shell with Black Cat palm shells, the wonderful Rambo Kids, Double Impact shells, and some Whistling Buster shells.

A few "set pieces" were constructed in advance as well. 1x2 strips of wood are nailed into star, fan, and flower designs and adorned with quickmatched fountains, candles and wheels. They make a nice display that is a change from the aerial style fireworks that makes up most of the show. Our last constructed piece is one we call the "wall of fire". Built with 1x8 boards and 2x4's, we install 3 Nemesis cakes each, on 3 boards. A total of 9 cakes, spaced evenly. They are quickmatched to go up all at once. The Nemesis cake is distributed by Salish fireworks here in the Northwest. It has a very high firing tracer-like comet with a bright colored tail. It is a quiet cake, that is pretty long lasting, the sight of 9 of them going off in a wall of color has become one of our best crowd pleasers. We may try the wall-of-fire next year with Niagara Falls multishots. Niagara falls are one of our favorite items, but they may fire too quickly to give the overwhelming effect that we try to achieve with our "wall". We start the "wall" with a standard fountain in the middle to decoy the crowd into thinking that we are just firing a boring fountain. After we have lulled them into a false sense of fountain comfort a 30 foot long wall of tracer fire leaps toward the sky in front of them.

In between each individually shot cake, is either a large fountain or volley of artillery shells. This distracts the spectators and draws their attention away from the shooter setting up one of the cake shooting platforms. All of our fountains are shot with bundles of roman candles at each side crossing in the sky above the fountain. We fire cakes from two platforms so that one can be cooling down before it has to be approached and restocked. 

Many of the items that we shot were favorites from past years, although we try to include at least 1/3 new product each year. Among the items that were new to us this year, that impressed us the most were Black Cat's Atom Splitter and their Lightning Storm. The Lightning Storm can also be found distributed by Salish Fireworks as a cake called Above and Beyond.

After our traditional sky filling finale the night ends with the ceremonial lighting of a couple of Happy Lamps on a custom built extended boom, followed by the handing out of small happy lamps to all the women and children to light and take home as souvenirs. Sparklers, and Morning Glories are handed out by the bunch, as the kids and adults dance around in the afterglow.
My trusty nephew and visiting shooter Soren and I join in on the sparkler fun and get a chance to relax for the first time all day.

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The end, for now. For true pyros, it's never really over.
If you didn't get a chance to participate in this year's collection of stories, maybe we'll do it again next year.
Go to 
http://fireworksland.com