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Growing Fireworks

G

Grumpaw

New member
Joined
Apr 2019
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4
I had some cakes get wet the first of the month and before I could get around to destroying them, . . THEY SPROUTED! No joke, these fireworks are growing. I need any serious suggestions for what this is and the safest way to destroy it. GrowingFireworks2.jpg
 
What has happened is a chemical in the composition was powdered and when it got wet it recrystallized causing the volume to increase. The water obviously got to the composition so the possibility of having plastic liquid impermeable loads is remote. I would either soak them in a pail of water of a pail of diesel fuel for months, then open as many tubes as you think is necessary based on the effects to be sure you have no sealed plastic loads the liquid did not get to to be sure you do not have plastic liquid impermeable loads in the tubes. . If no sealed plastic tubes just burn the cakes in a large hot fire so they are completely consumed. If soaked with water the burning is slowed as the fire must incrementally dry and burn the composition so it will burn away very slowly without exploding. The Diesel fuel overloads the oxidizer fuel balance so with too much excess fuel it will not explode. Most likely the crystallization has made the compositions slower burning and less sensitive because it has undone the intimate mixing necessary in fireworks compositions. I say most likely because without knowing the chemicals in the composition I cannot be certain so proceed with caution.
 
Although it is common sense I should mention the burning procedure. It has to be in a large area free from flammables and the bonfire large enough to be sure to consume all the fireworks material. It should be remotely started and keep away during burning. Where I am we have large open farm fields covered with snow in the winter so that is when I do the burning.
 
BigTopCanada said:
What has happened is a chemical in the composition was powdered and when it got wet it recrystallized causing the volume to increase. The water obviously got to the composition so the possibility of having plastic liquid impermeable loads is remote. I would either soak them in a pail of water of a pail of diesel fuel for months, then open as many tubes as you think is necessary based on the effects to be sure you have no sealed plastic loads the liquid did not get to to be sure you do not have plastic liquid impermeable loads in the tubes. . If no sealed plastic tubes just burn the cakes in a large hot fire so they are completely consumed. If soaked with water the burning is slowed as the fire must incrementally dry and burn the composition so it will burn away very slowly without exploding. The Diesel fuel overloads the oxidizer fuel balance so with too much excess fuel it will not explode. Most likely the crystallization has made the compositions slower burning and less sensitive because it has undone the intimate mixing necessary in fireworks compositions. I say most likely because without knowing the chemicals in the composition I cannot be certain so proceed with caution.
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Thanks for the thoughtful response & the warnings, but I do have some questions. Since whatever this is is growing from the BOTTOM of the clay plugs, do you think this is actually coming from the break loads and growing through the lift charge and then through the clay plug out the bottom? I had just assumed that since the cakes just got slightly wet and this stuff was growing out the bottom, that it was just something growing from the clay. Like maybe another eastern curse like (God forbid) . . . the next Kudzu. Seriously, at extreme magnification that I really couldn't get detail of in the pictures, whatever it is looks more fibrous than crystalline. In any case, I like the diesel bath idea. Would Kerosene work also? Any more thoughts?
 
I guess I should have looked more carefully at the picture and seen the upside-down label and known that it was coming from the bottom of the tubes. So if the cakes only became slightly wet it would be less likely that the lift or effect charges would crystalize to the extent that it would push through the clay plugs but not impossible. That redish color looks like the usual clay that they use for plugging tubes in Hunan and Jiangxi provinces where most fireworks are made. Normally they just compress it into a hard plug by compacting the powdered clay but it may be that some factory has come up with some kind of additive to the clay for some reason. Potassium nitrate and potassium perchlorate which are the most common oxidizers used in fireworks both form long crystals but if the material has a fibrous feel meaning any flexibility it definitely is not a crystal which are brittle.

Yes kerosene will work fine, it is very similar to diesel. I use diesel because it is cheaper that kerosene where I am.
 
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