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Disney Goes Boom!
BoomZilla writes "Reading Disney's alliteratively titled Practically
Perfect Pyrotechnics introduces the latest in firework launch technology.
Gone are the 'light blue touch paper and retire a safe distance' days. Shells
are now launched using compressed air. No burning black powder means no smoke
drifting over the residential neighborhoods, plus a safer show. Best of all the
new system is more precise and can launch shells higher than black powder,
enabling spectacular new effects. An additional article:
The future of theme park fireworks
covers some of the pros and cons of compressed air launch systems." We mentioned this earlier.
Is it really true that they use Bluetooth for shell detonation? I thought the range was limited. And it seems rather expensive compared to fuses. But I guess it's Disney... :-)
I imagine someone in a location where fireworks are legal could rig up a poor mans version using something similar to a Potato Cannon (the pneumatic type).
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From the article: The air-launch technology is such a revolutionary step forward that Disney has decided to share it with the pyrotechnics industry as a whole. The Walt Disney Company plans to donate the seven patents produced for the air-launch process to a non-profit group that will license the technology to the rest of the pyrotechnics industry. Cool article, shocking conclusion. Must now re-evaluate opinion of Disney...
My potato guns use a customized ignition like what you're describing. The guns themselves are PVC, and the ignition is a camera flash circuit wired through a car ignition coil, which goes into a spark plug. Hairspray shoots the potatoes a good 150 yards if you wedge them in there enough.
:-)
Slightly more on-topic though, a friend of mine has a real nice compressed air potato gun that has an electronically triggered poppet valve. Despite the fact that his gun cost much more and is so much more complex, mine shoots more rapidly, farther, and louder. They both get a nice cloud of smoke out the barrel after the shot though. His because of the rapid decompression, and mine because of the burning hairspray. Surprisingly, we have mutual respect for each other's designs and we don't really compete with each other so much as help with design and construction problems.
My next gun will be compressed air, and once I figure it out with PVC, I'm moving on to stainless steel to hopefully get a supersonic potato (or other projectile) gun
- "Nobody came out that night, not one was ever seen. But Old Man Stauf is waiting there, crazy sick and mean!"
When I read this article the first time, I emailed it to a friend of mine who works in the Pyrotechnics division at Disney World, and he replied saying that he didn't know what prompted them to write that article when they did -- Disney has been using that technology for several years now. Oh well, I guess old news is still news. Maybe it was just a slow news day the first time /. had that article, and an even slower news day this time...
So what? The worst environmental hazard connected to fireworks are elements like barium needed to make those colorful flames. This Disney technology won't change it.
"Long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead." (John Maynard Keynes)
The one thing I did like about black powder is the ability for controlled burns, allowing a much slower ascent for fireworks which light up on the way up. I don't think that's possible with this technique.
They've been hemoraging cash on movies though
Darn right:
The Los Angeles basin isn't what the poster was referring to IMO, but east Los Angeles, and San Bernadino. Have you ever been out to Ontario or Riverside at 3pm on a stagnant July afternoon? I lived in Ontario for 2 years, and I'm not surprised in the least at the fact that San Bernadino county has the worst smog in the United States. Driving out there from Los Angeles in the summer, every single day you could see a thick blanket of black smog hovering above Pomona.
"'Yrch!' said Legolas, falling into his own tongue."
My understanding was that LA has had smog since before the invention of the automobile, due to the geography of the valley.
Supposedly it had smog from campfires when it was inhabited by native Americans.
There are no trails. There are no trees out here.