Slashdot Mirror
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.
...just like Disney.
The air in the Los Angeles/San Bernardino area can be pretty awful, which probably has a lot more to do with their efforts to decrease smoke. I visited the Grand Canyon years ago and heard sometimes the visibility, in the summer is so poor you can't see across the canyon, thanks to smog from San Diego and Los Angeles/San Bernardino, hundreds of miles to the west. (Fortunately I was there in winter, which I highly recommend (South Rim open only), with 200+ miles of visibility.)
A word of advice: Try to avoid a down-wind position for fireworks as sulpherous ash may drift down into your eyes and it burns like H2S.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I'm pretty excited about eventually seeing one of these shows in action. I don't think I'll miss the smoke of the rockets, as integral as that might be to a traditional show.
As long as the big boys still make that oh-so-satisfying "BOOM" when they go off, I'll be thrilled as ever.
--------------------- -me, Crusher of those who are Foolish (don't be foolish)
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.
But I like watching the billows of smoke drifting across the river! And if the fireworks go any higher, I won't be able to watch them from my computer desk! They'll be blocked by the balcony of the apartment above mine!
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
You get my hopes up, then no chapter 11. :-(
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
We still hate Disney, right?
Or do we like them now? Or do we like thier fireworks - but feel immediately compelled to qualify that statement with BUT DISNEY STILL SUCKS...
I'm so confused.
...Also, I didn't know Buggalo could fly.
I know Im not the only kid who did this, the best ones were with a propane air mixture and a spark plug to ignite the gas electrically.
Perhaps Disney would give you some of their leftover black powder pyrotechnics and you could take care of that upper balcony.
If I could, I'd destroy you all.
No powder used to lift the shell, means much more explosive powder that can be used in the shell. If you used 25% of the weight of the shell to lift it before, (I'm making numbers up.. anyone know the real numbers, please correct me) then now you can have a 25% bigger boom.. (roughly).. which makes me happy, i like to see big explosions..
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
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 just find it amusing that Disney released all this news about their revolutionary, wonderful new launch system and then proceeded to roll out a new pyrotechnic show at Disneyland that, by all accounts, is disappointing at best compared to the one it replaced. Sure, it may be less polluting, but it's also a lot less fun.
Sure, there are other factors that caused the switch in shows, but the timing was unfortunate. They basically managed to associate environmentally friendly fireworks with totally boring fireworks, which, by an inspection of their description of the new launch technique, really isn't the case at all.
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).
Help Fight SPAM today!
Fireworks are launched by a classic blackpowder mortar system: there's a lofting charge in the launch tube (basically, a bag of gunpowder), and the shell (usually consisting of a bursting charge, a number of "stars", and filler to give it a spherical shape). Changing the lofting mechanism from gunpowder to compressed air won't make a bit of difference for the shell.
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
What if I'm allergic to the air that will spread to the residential area ??
This is the sig that says NI (again)
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...
Skip the veal. Go for the fish.
Fireworks shmireworks. I find this Disney merchandise much more worthy of my undivided attention. Oh well... Priorities, I guess.
LA has half the pollution and four time more cars then it had in 1970's.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Obligatory response pointing out that Slashdot is comprised of many people, some of which like Disney, some of which don't.
One thing we all agree on, though, is that the "Do we hate ________ today?" joke is fucking tired.
Sincerely,
TU
Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.
A typical 8" shell weighs about 3 pounds, of which about 1 ounce is the lift charge. Most of the weight comes from the shell casing (pressed glued paper) that holds the burst charge and the stars and keeps them together long enough for the stars to ignite when the timing fuse burns through to the burst charge. Disney is probably using 4" shells for most of their stuff, so figure a pound of shell with a tablespoon of lift charge.
For reference, the largest shell ever fired (the 36" Fat Man) weighed 800 pounds and was lifted 1400 feet in the air by 1/2 pound of black powder.
Life, the Universe, and Everything... in my image.
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...
I took my wife and kids to Disneyland in Anaheim to check out the display. I have some video of it that isn't quite ready for web display (or should I say, I'm too busy :-), but suffice it to say it's a different show. They actually had two displays on July 4th, with slightly different timings and effects.
After seeing the same sort of fireworks for decades, I think it was more interesting than the old fire up and go boom. The most noticeable change is they can do much higher quality synchronized launches. One effect (a little overused) fired off a bunch of streamers in sequence at different angles, and because the flaming bits are not powered after launch, they have a nice regular parabolic trajectory. Nice effect.
However, they have a great Grand Finale either way. It's also nice to know my $150 worth of tickets went to something donated to the public (patents).
Any connection between your reality and mine is purely coincidental.
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."
Here's some additional info that the articles don't mention.
The WDI spokeswoman says "Disney isn't sure when its Central Florida theme parks could install or start testing the new fireworks launch system."
Actually, the air-launched fireworks are not completely new, but Disneyland is the first time they're using air for the whole (or majority of the) show. The first use was at Epcot down at Walt Disney World for the Illuminations: Reflections of Earth show - where the first "comet" effect that screams over the lagoon is air-launched from on top of one of the pavilion buildings. If you're walking in that area around 15 minutes before the show starts, they rope off the main pathway that passes under the launch area. You do hear a big fwoosh when it goes off. The last time this bit made Slashdot, some comments were debating the gas used - in this case they're compressing plain air.
The new Wishes fireworks show which has been playing since last Fall at the Magic Kingdom at WDW also planned to use the air launch, but the cost of the installation was too much and traditional fireworks have been used. Unlike WDW where there's a sizable land buffer between residences and the parks, Disneyland has large neighborhoods of people surrounding it, and they exert pressure on the local government to make things more difficult (and expensive) for Disneyland. Wishes also introduces the concept of firing shells from within the park off buildings in Fantasyland, which makes for some spectacular effects if you're watching from back in that area.
Also related, Disney is working with a top national lab on fireworks that look just like normal pyro, but burn with much less smoke. While some shows use the smoke the fireworks produce for great effect, eliminating it could be nice for others. Another technology that has been slowly introduced is the use of shells that contain a sacrificial computer chip that syncs its timing upon launch and fires an electronic fuse when up in the air to obtain much more precise ignition timing than could be accomplished conventionally.
Overall, there's some very cool tech going on, but whether Disney chooses to use it all over the place is more of a question of practicality than simply because they have it, so it's good to hear they're donating some of the tech.
I was hoping that Disney actually did go boom, and blowed the hell up. After RTFA, I find out its just some nonsense about fireworks and how to make them go higher.
paux on you, I curse thee, for raising our hopes then dashing them on trivial crap.
May the fleas from a 1000 camel infest your armpits.
If firefighters fight fire and crime fighters fight crime, what do Freedom fighters fight?
Now with improved accuracy Tinkerbell becomes a more formidable target.
can't sleep. clowns will eat me.
and filler to give it a spherical shape
There are two major types of Class B fireworks in the world: the spherical (mostly Asian made) and the cylindrical (mostly American/European made). The Asian style uses a pre-fabricated hard casing so that filler is unnecessary for the shape of the shell; filler is used mostly for keeping the shell balanced in flight and to keep the stars spread out (helps with the nice round bursts). The American style uses a soft paper casing around a cardboard form. This is then wrapped with string and paper mache. The filler is required to stop the casing and form from collapsing when it is strung and glued.
Then again, this is Disney; they abhor the public domain, so it oprobably stands to reason that they wouldn't dare touch that prospect.
Not necessarily so. They open-sourced their Panda3D game engine, used most notably for their game Toontown Online.
Here's a bit from their FAQ:
Panda3D was originally developed at the Disney VR Studio. Disney VR used a proprietary IRIX-specific system called DWD (Disney's World Designer) to create several DisneyQuest Virtual Reality Attractions, such as "Aladdin's Magic Carpet VR Adventure", "Hercules in the Underworld", and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Buccaneer Gold", between 1997 and 2000. In 2000, Disney VR embarked on the Toontown Online project, and decided to build a new engine that contained many of the DWD design principles, but would be more modular, so it could be ported to more platforms, and more easily change over time. The new engine was dubbed "Panda3D", ostensibly standing for "Platform Agnostic Networked Display Architecture".
In 2002, Disney VR decided to make the engine open source, so they could more easily work with universities (such as UNC) on Virtual Reality research projects. However, the system, although quite usable by the team that developed it, was not quite "open source ready". There were several interested users, but building and installing the system was incredibly complex, and there was little in the way of documentation or sample code, so there was really no significant open source community right away.
In 2003, Jesse Schell left the VR Studio (on good terms, he claims) to join the faculty of the Carnegie Mellon Entertainment Technology Center. The ETC was looking for something like Panda3D -- a 3D engine powerful enough to create compelling experiences, but also open and flexible. Since then, ETC students have been working to make Panda3D usable at the ETC and by the world at large.
an earth shattering KABOOM!!
This sig is intentionally blank
Up till a month ago I worked in Rancho Cucamonga (just north of Ontario). I don't remeber any days where there were smog alerts (1999-2004). Though, I do remember plenty of days where I couldn't see the mountains through the smog, and I was only about 5 miles south of Mt. Baldy. Driving down from Apple Valley, I was often horrified that I would have to breate that crap for the next 9 hours or so. The Inland Empire area has some really nasty smog in the summer months.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Laziness is the father.
Who cares about the fireworks. Just think how far one of those compressors could launch a potatoe! This also presents an alternative to traditional guns. Forget plastic bullets, now you can kill/knockout your enemys with enviromentally friendly, biodegradable food staples. Where can I get one?
This refers, of course, to Mary Poppins, who was "Practically Perfect in Every Way", as anyone who has seen the movie will recall. Those of you with kids and a VCR, who have seen the damn movie at least 400 fricken times already and never want to see another dancing penguin for the rest of your fricken lives, will no doubt catch the reference right away.
And no, you can't watch "Hercules" either. Go read a book, for cryin' out loud.
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them. - Mark Twain
Some of the new high nitrogen explosives are well suited to this application.
It will be difficult to replace all of the colors produced by metals and other compounds used in fireworks- some of which are quite toxic (strontium, cadmium, arsenic, antimony, PVC plastic, etc.). It will also be much more expensive. But high nitrogen explosives and newer organic compounds have a lot to offer the field- including colors you can't get with the old standbys.
Some of the high nitrogen stuff I used to work with was pretty interesting. Lots of newer, potentially safer compounds are in the pipeline- mainly for military applications, but they can be bastardized to, er, recreational purposes.
There is a big difference between what's right, and the results of the US legal system.
Example: Small airports were built all over the country. Decades later, the land around them was made into housing developments. Then people sued to have the noisy airports restricted to the point they were no longer viable, or shut down altogether. They consistently win, because there are 100 irate homeowners vs. 30 people who want to preserve the pre-existing airport. Bye-bye airport. The ultimate irony is when the runway becomes the main street through the new subdivision that's built where the airport was, and all the subdivision streets have names like Blue Sky Place and Lindbergh Drive.
It's similar to developers leveling a beautiful stand of trees to pack as many little vinyl houses as possible into a congested suburban hell, and naming the subdivision Aspen Acres. I guess Fugly Houses Estates doesn't sound very good.
Maybe I'm getting even more cynical in my old age, but there seem to be fewer and fewer instances where Right and Reality coincide.
>> My ultraviolent Linux switch video.
At least they're doing something. After firing 250 animators, literally and arrogantly destroying their entire (irreplaceable) animation department (after some 80 years) claiming "2D animation is dead," (despite the fact there are over 400 animation studios in Japan) canceling a multi-billion dollar deal with Pixar and then, with a straight face, claiming "we can't make money on Monday Night Football," I suppose replacing the fireworks show tubes is quite an accomplishment for a $46 billion company.
Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.