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FrozenGate by Avery

Sky Lanterns $4 each

It was hydrogen in the Hindenburg, because Germany lacked helium supplies in those days.

And yes, that was a fun little school project in a high-speed photography class I took my senior year in high school. You can just see my left shoulder there. The guy in the office right above that room became slightly perturbed at the whole thing rather quickly.
 





Ah, my mistake, sorry 'bout that.

heh forget the man upstairs (unless he just happened to be a teacher you didn't like lol), did you get an A? lol
 
Back on topic, what about something taht burns redily but was inhibited in some way liek styrofoam or plastic? that would be light
 
Styrofoam and plastics have a smutty smoking fire and can tend to drip burning crap. The puddle can also smolder for a while.
These are fun things and don't really need to be souped up.

Mike
 
I have considered Sterno in a makeshift bowl made of aluminum foil.


anything that burns bright is also too heavy to lift. I have used helium balloons with a string taped to the paper but it pulls the top of the paper out of shape and does not let it fully inflate..

I have tried all types of stuff.
We did have fun one night trying to knock one out of the air with some big rockets.

I also have some little things like super snap & Pops
They are about the size of a small pea and come in packs of 12.
When you toss them on a hard surface they pop as loud as a firecracker.
You can wrap a few of them together in aluminum foil and make them even louder.
We take these to the beach and car shows and gently drop them where cars will run over them.
It sounds like a tire blowing out or a backfire.
They are also fun to toss off high up hotel balconies.
20 at a time sounds like a machine gun.
 
That's snap powder! what you want to do is carefully open them and harvest it, then put it into a bigger container! then you CAN blow out a tire with a single massive explosion! (though it's acctually better to make it yourself, but it takes some less-than-easily-atainable-after-9/11 compounds...
 
Ashton said:
That's snap powder! what you want to do is carefully open them and harvest it, then put it into a bigger container! then you CAN blow out a tire with a single massive explosion! (though it's acctually better to make it yourself, but it takes some less-than-easily-atainable-after-9/11 compounds...
Click to expand...

You are talking about Red P and Potassium C
I have a pound of each but that is for personal use and is rationed spairingly.

These things are different. a bit safer

http://wildwilmasfireworks.com/masterpeas.jpg
 
heh, yes, so much fun, so is german dark aluminum and iron oxide! So many of these things though are unatainable without permits and lisences... I have to distill it myself when I want it and it's a PITA to do! Makes me so mad when you can order the compounds for both from fireworks manufacturers --- but only if you're lsicned bc they think you'll make M80s! *rolls eyes* like I'd waste my time with a little M80... lol!!!
 
What about rolling a paper tube, filling it with sterno and fixing it to the top of the fuel patch that's built into the balloon? The theory being that the tube would heat the balloon enough to launch, though it would not be as bright... but that eventually the tube burns down to ignite the patch.
 
I don't know how much Sterno your talking about, but weight is the issue.... enough heat can offset the weight as long as the whole thing doesn't burn up and come crashing onto your neighbors roof!

Humm.... what burns long, puts out allot of heat and is light?

Too bad a flare is too heavy!.... maybe one cut down?
The longer it burnt the lighter it would get!

It burns much hotter than Sterno and is cheap and easy to get and its nice and bright!

One would have to find the magic weight to cut off so it will still lift.
 
Magnesium ribbon might work, but it's hard to get hold of, and heaven forbid some of the still burning metal falls into water. It could last up to a few minutes.
 
I haven't played with magnesium since I was a firefighter.... It used to be in the steering columns of cars and in a car fire, you couldn't hardly get the stuff out.......

The other thing that would happen is a trucker would get a flat and ignore it and the tire would get hotter and hotter until it caught fire, then the mag wheels would light up with the nice flow of oxygen while going 70mph +........ putting water on it only pissed it off!!!! ..LOL!

I thought mag strips would burn pretty fast.... no?

How long would a one inch strip last do you suppose?
 
Id love to get some but around here they can get you into a lot of trouble - Local fire marshal says if I lit one and sent it up, I had better monitor it damn close, if it fell or failed and landed in the dry woods, Id be responsible for forest fire, damages, etc , there no more legal than if I threw a lit cigarette out the car window. We always have a lot of burn bans and open fire laws, these toys violate em both....... Would be awesome if I had a huge ranch or property where they could be launched safely. Im here in Pennsylvania USA
 
The only danger I see is getting caught in a very dry tree on the way up...... the material will not catch aflame, you can burn a hole in it, but it by holding a flame to it, but it will not burn on its own.

the fuel is supported well and flat... the balloon gets great lift once it finally takes off and only when the flame completely dies does it quickly fall to the earth.

I would be very surprised if they caused a problem.

don't send it up on a crazy windy day and you should be able to predict its outcome pretty accurately.

Of course the little modifications we are talking about are a completely different story as the fuel could spill on an improperly prepared launch. :-/
 
There's also the option of a high output LED with button cells. You could slip that inside a light colored balloon and send that up. 20000mcd white LEDs are under $1US now, and the multi-watters are cheap through DX.
 
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