Fireworks Blog

There are many ways to light up fireworks: regular matches, lighters, blow torches and so on. Although, in modern times there is a more secure way - the Electric Match . Not only more secure but it also provides the possibility of better synchronization of firing. The Electric Match is, as the name says, an electrically triggered match. It is build of a few components: 2 wires, a bridge (a thin metal between the wires with low electrical resistance) and a pyrotechnic composition (pyrogen) coated with some kind of lacquer for protection. When an electric current of about 1 Ampere passes through the bridge, it heats up and incinerates the pyrogen. Below you can see a simple drawing of its parts and the electric schematic: Electric matches are usually connected to firing systems that also have the ability of testing the connecticity of the electric matches (testing open or short circuits), so there is an upper current and lower current that the bridge can support before heating. ...

Italy is known for being the cradle of European fireworks. There are in Italy some types of fireworks that you can't find in any other place in the World but we will talk about them in another post. Today I will tell you the traditional name for fireworks fuse in Italy: the Spoletta or Spolette . In most countries, the fireworks time fuse is the Bickford fuse (aka safety fuse or chinese fuse) or a derivative of it. But in Italy, the tradition is to use the so called Spoletta , a fuse that is made of a tube of cardboard (multiple layers of kraft paper) with a blackpowder composition pressed inside, similar to a very small rocket motor. It works exactly as the time fuse, for the same purpose, used both in shells (usually known as "ritardo") and also in the ground to give spacing between mortar firing (known as "ripasso"), for example. In old times Spolettas where made by hand hammering a certain amount of times, but today and industrialy they are made by ...