MadMat Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 I was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction for literature on rising effects. All I have read so far has been like a side note in an article on shell construction (such as gluing a comet to the outside of a shell). A thought occurred to; is it possible to create rising effects by tweeking the comp in a spolette? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost808 Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Yeah definitely, there are a few things you can add to the spolette such as aluminum, titanium, and even charcoal. It depends on the spollete composition. Aluminum and titanium will give it a nice glitter effect, however this should be larger particles. You can even use star comps in the spollete to create that rising effect. Be sure to test it though as changing the comp might change the burn rate. Even a simple TT composition e.g. 50/40/10 or something along those lines will create a nice effect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost808 Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Yeah definitely, there are a few things you can add to the spolette such as aluminum, titanium, and even charcoal. It depends on the spollete composition. Aluminum and titanium will give it a nice glitter effect, however this should be larger particles. You can even use star comps in the spollete to create that rising effect. Be sure to test it though as changing the comp might change the burn rate. Even a simple TT composition e.g. 50/40/10 or something along those lines will create a nice effect.Sorry forgot to mention the lager particle metal will leave a slightly longer trail as the burn for a longer time while the finer metals will burn quicker leaving a different glitter effect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mumbles Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 The best source of information for rising effects is Shimizu's Fireworks: Art, Science, and Technique. It covers almost every rising effect I can think of. They all have somewhat poetic names, but it's all in there. The one notable exception is a rising whistle. You can get some degree of an effect from the spolette. Adding coarse charcoal or titanium for instance will give some semblance of a tail. It's pretty mild though. For small shells it might work though. I highly suggest comets if you want a real rising tail. Once notable exception, and one not covered in Shimizu, is the whistling spolette. They're covered in some depth here: http://www.amateurpyro.com/forums/topic/9715-whistle-spollettes/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lloyd Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 Mumbles said it right. I almost always put a little metal in the spolette of any bottom-shot I may have, in order to be able to track it easily and differentiate it from the other breaks in a shell. But a spolette "rising effect" will be sparse, at the least. It's a small volume of powder, and just cannot emit enough particles to be considered among the desirable rising effects. Lloyd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadMat Posted December 30, 2015 Author Share Posted December 30, 2015 (edited) I kinda figured that a spolette rising effect would take a lot of experimentation to get burn rates down pat. My thought was, would all that trouble be worth it for the minor effect it would create. Edited December 30, 2015 by MadMat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lloyd Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 "My thought was, would all that trouble be worth it for the minor effect it would create."-0000-NO! Not in a spolette. The only reason I add metal to one is for a bottom-shot, and only so I can track it visually among (potentially) other burning effects still moving. The effect is minimal, and certainly NOT what one would reasonably call a "rising effect". Lloyd 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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