Update: I condensed all these and removed the pictures because it's all kind of trivial and not worth cluttering up my file list (if you use geocities you know what I'm talking about) because it's already so long. Just imagine how long the list was before I split things up a bit into subdirectories! The text desribes everything fine so I figured I didn't need 30+ pics on it anymore.

I had just delivered an order a few hours earlier for over $400 of fireworks, so I was Ôø‡in the mood.Ôø‡ I went shopping, and noticed that boxes of paper book matches were only $0.89, so I had to get them for experimenting. The box contained 50 books of 20 matches, for a total of 1,000 matches.

I had heard paper matches alone could work in salutes alone, with no other powder, so I decided to test this. Here is one successful test using match heads alone for a salute. I wanted to test them in non-metal containers.

Beheading matches:

I found the easiest way to do this is to get a sharp knife with a blade at least as long as the matches (preferably curved a little, to rock the blade back and forth for easy cutting). Then, just line up the blade with the base of the coating on the matches and press down to cut them all off at once. I finished the whole box this way in 10-15 minutes or so.

The device:

I didnÔø‡t feel like using a cob casing like in the test I linked to, so I used an empty plastic hotel-size shampoo bottle. I made a whole in the side and stuck in three bottle rocket fuses to make a tight fit. The fuse was extended to a safe length and the bottle was filled, gently tamped, and filled again. It took about 1/3 of the match heads or so. The cap was screwed on and the entire thing was taped up thoroughly.

The test:

I could not do an aboveground test for fear of noise, so it was buried in the pile of dirt I often test in, about 8 inches down with fairly loose, mostly dry, dirt. Fuse was lit and the device was quickly buried. 10 seconds later, a small jet of fire, accompanied by smoke and flaming match heads shot out of the dirt, but there was no explosion. The casing was dug up, and it was clear it had all gone out the fuse hole, with at least half of the burnt matches still in the casing, which was soaked in water and disposed of.

Conclusions:

I know making a salute is possible with just paper match heads (even though they are quite weak), so a better job of sealing the casing is clearly needed. The fuse hole should also be as small as possible, to create a tight fit with a single bottle rocket fuse. I have plenty of match heads left (and itÔø‡s not hard to get more) so later I will try using a cob casing with a better job of sealing the fuse hole. Side fusing is an option also, and would require drilling the casing and sealing two holes. With decent black powder or bottle rocket powder (whistle mix) it is not required to seal the fuse hole very well, I usually just use making tape and have never had a problem with either powder.

The second test used the same type of casing, an empty hotel size shampoo bottle. This time I made the fuse hole with a drill and the smallest bit I could find. It turned out to fit just about perfectly for bottle rocket fuses, and the fuse fit snugly. Other than the much smaller fuse hole, the only difference was a bit of glue on the fuse hole. It was taped similarly to the previous one.

Again, testing was done with containment to minimize and noise. This time instead of burying, it was placed in the hollow of a heavy cinderblock with another chunk of concrete on top of it. With a bit more modification, it will probably become my standard testing chamber for small devices. The device was placed in, the fuse was lit, the concrete cover placed on top, and I retreated a safe distance. I forgot to start recording video. Oh well.

The test:

When it went off, there was a muffled puff and a large cloud of smoke. The concrete held everything in, with no flaming matches flying about. When I examined the test chamber and casing, nearly all the matches had escaped the casing, unlike only about half in the previous test. The casing was split rather than just melted like last time. The concrete cover was scorched.

Conclusions: Because of the smaller fuse hole, it worked much better than the previous test. Being contained, I could not judge the sound it would make above ground, but I expect it would make a decent bang considering it split the casing. The next tests will be done with cardboard tubes.

After the previous tests using plastic casings I decided to try with cardboard and two differnet kinds of end plugs. The tubes were from an old cake/aerial repeater. The first one had end plugs of hot glue, the second used Durhams Water Putty.

While waiting for the clay to dry, I was very bored and made a third thing using the plastic casing from a Kinder Egg (those plastic containers with a toy inside covered in chocolate).

Testing: All tests were done in my new and improved testing chamber, a cinderblock buried in a pile of dirt with another chunk of concrete on top to muffle sound. Test one was the egg. I did not put my "lid" on right, so there was an opening. It wasn't a problem because the device was so weak anyway. It shot out the top fairly quietly, leaving about 1/4 still in the casing. The next two were also dissapointing. Both had the same result: A weak explosion (I can't really judge noise because it was well contained, but I know it wasn't much) and one end plug blown out.

Conclusion: End caps were obviously too weak. Noise above ground would not have been very loud. The next tests will use crushed match powder instead of the cut off heads.

I wanted to test the match salutes above ground to get a better idea of their potential, because judging noise is pretty much impossible in my little test chamber.

The device: I used the same thing as in the earlier tests with plastic hotel size shampoo bottle to be consistent. I spent more time wrapping it in tape than before because in the previous test it blew out where the fuse was.

The test: I set the device on top of a metal pipe sticking out of the ground. The fuse was extra long to give me a good getaway and also give me time to turn around and get video. It ended up burning long enough that I was well away when it went off, but I did not have time to turn around and see it at all. It made a decent bang, but nothing too great, definetly much less than a similar device with flash, black, or whistle powder. The casing was recovered the next day, and had split the lenght of the casing.

Conclusion: The test shows they can work with a good casing, and it would have probably worked better with more tape or some other stong casing.

These next tests used paper match heads chopped up into smaller pieces, which increases surface area and should therefore increase burn rate, making it work better. The matches were chopped with a knife the same way you would chop up cilantro for your tasty dinner. I've heard of people using electric blenders, but I didn't because a) I didn't want to blow up/melt/burn/get dirty or otherwise harm my blender and b) I didn't many match heads left in my supply. I've heard you can use a blender if you only use it in bursts of a second or so and let it cool for a bit each time. Personally, I wouldn't risk it.

The devices: I made 4 devices, 3 identical. The three small ones were tubes from a Saturn Missile battery with hot glue end plugs. The larger was a small plastic medicine bottle. I didn't expect them to work very well, so I didn't spend a lot of time taping them up.

The tests: The three small ones were done consecutively. Each one was placed in a small plastic flowerpot (to see if it would damage it) then placed in my test chamber. The fuse was lit, lid of the chamber replaced, and I backed to a safe distance. All three were very quiet, and a puff of smoke escaped. The first one burst around the fuse hole, but did not totally burst the container. The next two simply blew out the fuse hole with no other casing damage. None of them did any damage to the plastic pot. The fourth test, of the larger device made a louder noise and more smoke than the others (it would be pretty sad if it didn't). I made the fuse hole too big, so I didn't bother taping much on the ends because I expected it to just shoot out the fuse hole, but it shot the cap off, which I had done very little to reinforce. If I had made a better fuse hole, and taped it more, it would probably have been much better.

Conclusion: The change to the powder seemed to make a fairly significant difference. Had I used better casings, I would have gotten better results. With this semi-success, I will test this more a bit later, using more finely chopped match heads, and better casings.

With the moderate success of the previous tests with chopped matches, I decided to try again and do some comparisons.

The devices: The five devices tested were three hotel sized shampoo bottles and two 35mm film canisters. All were filled with the chopped heads of paper matches. One shampoo casing was filled about 1/2 full, one around 5/8 full, and one totally full. The 35mm film container devices were built just because I had extra materials. I wrapped all the devices in the same number of layers of tape in the same pattern so differences in casings would not skew results. The film canisters had equal amounts of powder, nearly full. One was side fused, and one top fused.

The tests: All devices were tested in my test chamber sitting on the dirt on the bottom with nothing else in the chamber (i.e. no little flower pot like I used in a few other tests). The first three devices were tested in order of how much powder they were filled with. The 1/2 full was fairly quiet and only burst the end. The next two had nearly identical noise, which was significantly greater than from any of my previous tests, even when contained in the test chamber. Both casings were split.

Conclusion: Doing a thorough job of chopping the match heads and doing a good job of reinforcement of the casings made a large difference. With these modifications, paper matches seem to be effective on their own as a salute filler. I will perform open-air tests to confirm this at a later time.