Back in the 60's one could order silver salute "kits" from the back of Popular Science. My mother wouldn't let me and my brother do that but she did let us get giant smoke bomb and fountain kits. The oxidizer (probably KNO3) and the other ingredients were put in separate bags for shipping.
I remember the smoke bombs and fountains had very thick walled casings that the maker said were reusable! They were good for one more use mind you. The end plugs were wooden and the nozzle had a hole drilled into it.
The fountains sent up sparks 20 feet, were impressive and the smoke bombs burned for over 6 minutes. Really clouded out the neighborhood when we lit one off. Made the kids happy so no one complained to the authorities. Heck I blew a lot of stuff off and the county jail was two blocks away. The cops never bothered us in Illinois as class C fireworks were technically illegal. I think they grew up with them and left us alone as folks went out of state to get firecrackers and such.
My Uncle Cecil, Aunt Peg and cousins came out from Wyoming and brought a pile of fireworks for us that my brother and I drooled over. In the cache was a mess of silver salutes a.k.a. M-80's. (It was the 60's mind you.) Soooooooo, later that year my bro and I glued 4 of the large fountains together. We had extra fusing we bought from the fireworks suppliers. Mom let us buy fuses. In the space between the fountains, we had stuffed some stick rockets and their fuses. They were larger than your usual bottle rocket and they had little red plastic nosecones were larger diameter and a pretty good report at apogee. For the "grand finale" my brother and I took a hand drill and drilled into the base of the fountains above the wooden end plugs. We stuffed the fuses of the Silver Salutes/M-80's in there so when the fountains burned down, there would be a grand report.
After the municipal fireworks, we went home and some family friends came over. My brother Dave and I said we have something to show everyone. We had pre-planned everything and set the monster fountain up with the rockets in the middle and the silver salutes at the end.
He and I both lit the common fuse with sparklers and ran like hell to get away. Four 20 foot+ plumes of sparks started emanating from the fountains and the large stick rockets started going straight up (thank heavens) and the explosive reports started blasting away. I think we stuffed 15 rockets in there and I still don't know how they all went straight up safely!
As the fountains burned down, everyone thought it was over but I said, "wait for it." Due to density differences of the fountain chemical densities the silver salutes/M-80's went off in sequence which was really cool. BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! That got everyone's attention mind you.
I heard several "Jesus Christ" acclamations. It wasn't swearing but a declaration of what a neat display my brother and I set off.
Never messed with fireworks after that as both my brother and I outgrew it.
Oh yeah, I did blow up beater plastic models with Zebra firecrackers. I always thought they were blew better than Black Cats. Kurt