Grant_Edwards
Well-Known Member
In another thread I mentioned buying Estes kits, motors, igniters, and (not-Estes) fuse at the neighborhood Rexall Drug store in the early 70s. Before we had electrical launch controllers, we used fuse. [Don't do this. It is a bit dangerous, didn't work all that great, and launch controllers are cheap.]
One of my friends had what most of us think of as fuse (fireworks guys call it "match cord"), it was thickish (2-3mm) cotton string soaked in some sort of black powder slurry then dried. It burned, hissing and sparkling, at about an inch a second or so (I think it came in various speeds and colors, my friend's was red). I don't know where he got it.
But, the fuse I remember buying at Rexall drugs wasn't the stiff cotton string stuff. It was much thinner and looked and felt more like black wire (similar to maybe 26-28 awg solid wire w/o the insulation). When you bent it, it stayed bent. I don't remember it having visible strands. It burned without any sparking or hissing, there was just an orange glow that burned slowly down the "wire". It was slower than any of the cotton stuff I've ever seen (IIRC, several seconds per inch). It came in a small round "tin" about 2 inches in diameter with a removable lid — sort of like the tins some tiny, expensive mints come in. Each tin contained a coil of 2-3 feet of the stuff.
Does anybody else remember that sort of fuse?
Does anybody know what was it called or what was it made of?
I've asked a friend of mine who knows a lot about fireworks and has seen and worked with many types "match", and it was unfamiliar to him. He's going to ask about it on a fireworks mailing list, but I suspect it's something that wasn't used for fireworks.
I'm sure there's probably info about on the interwebs, but I haven't been able to come up with the right combination of search terms in Google...
One of my friends had what most of us think of as fuse (fireworks guys call it "match cord"), it was thickish (2-3mm) cotton string soaked in some sort of black powder slurry then dried. It burned, hissing and sparkling, at about an inch a second or so (I think it came in various speeds and colors, my friend's was red). I don't know where he got it.
But, the fuse I remember buying at Rexall drugs wasn't the stiff cotton string stuff. It was much thinner and looked and felt more like black wire (similar to maybe 26-28 awg solid wire w/o the insulation). When you bent it, it stayed bent. I don't remember it having visible strands. It burned without any sparking or hissing, there was just an orange glow that burned slowly down the "wire". It was slower than any of the cotton stuff I've ever seen (IIRC, several seconds per inch). It came in a small round "tin" about 2 inches in diameter with a removable lid — sort of like the tins some tiny, expensive mints come in. Each tin contained a coil of 2-3 feet of the stuff.
Does anybody else remember that sort of fuse?
Does anybody know what was it called or what was it made of?
I've asked a friend of mine who knows a lot about fireworks and has seen and worked with many types "match", and it was unfamiliar to him. He's going to ask about it on a fireworks mailing list, but I suspect it's something that wasn't used for fireworks.
I'm sure there's probably info about on the interwebs, but I haven't been able to come up with the right combination of search terms in Google...