Snakes

[alexthegreat00]

Do you guys know those little fireworks for kids called snakes? You would light them off with a magnifying glass and they would expand into some sort of foamy, ashy, snake looking thing. Bad description but here is a picture: LINK.

I was not having much success at making them with the recipe floating around the internet which calls for sugar, baking soda, and alcohol. My younger brothers really like them so I would like to make some. Anybody have any ideas? I was thinking about just adding an oxidizer, but I am not really experienced to figure that out by myself. Thanks.

[Peret]

Very difficult to make, actually. They're made from a toxic mercury compound or nitrated pitch. I don't know what the kind sold in toyshops were made of but I doubt it was mercury - there have always been lawyers. From Weingart:

 

PHARAOHS SERPENTS EGGS.

This remarkable substance consists of small pellets of sulphocyanide of mercury which has the remarkable property of swelling 25 to 50 times its original size when lighted, producing a long snakelike ash. To prepare, make a concentrated solution of mercuric chloride and add little by little a solution of potassium sulphocyanide, stirring constantly. A greyish precipitate will be formed and when the last drop of sulphocyanide added no longer produces cloudiness permit the mixture to settle. Drain off as much as possible of the clear supernant liquid, remove precipitate to a paper filter placed in a glass funnel and wash slightly. When thoroughly dry reduce to a fine powder. When ready to form the eggs moisten very sparingly with a weak solution of gum arabic to which may be added a pinch of saltpeter and form into cones.

 

MAGIC SERPENT, (Black).

This German device produces an immense long black snake, otherwise quite similar to the Pharaohs Serpents but in no ways related chemically.

Naptha pitch 10

Linseed oil 2

Fuming nitric acid 7

Picric acid 3%

Reduce pitch to fine powder; add linseed oil and rub in well; add strongest fuming nitric acid, little at a time. Allow to cool for one hour. Wash several times with water, the last time allowing mass to stand in the water for several hours. Thoroughly dry; powder fine and add picric acid, rubbing it in well. Moisten with gum arabic water and form into pellets about the size of a #4 star. The naptha pitch can only be obtained in Germany and then with considerable difficulty. A fairly good article may be made by melting together equal parts of Syrian asphalturn and roofing pitch. To the final product add 5% stearine when forming into stars.

[Mumbles]

Step one would be to find a real recipe. I've seen the instructions you've described, but often dismissed it as crap.

 

There are two major forms, mercury based, and non-mercury based. Mercury based makes orange or yellow snakes, while non-mercury makes the black or gray snakes.

 

Pharaoh's Serpent:

 

Mercury Thiocyanate - 100

Dragant - 5

Gum Arabic Soln to wet enough to bind when pressed

 

 

Current Formula

 

Nitrated pitch 72-75%

Ammonium Perchlorate 28-25%

 

Bind again with gum arabic soln

 

If you want instructions on preparing nitrated pitch, see shimizu.

 

 

The manufacture of the black, non-mercury snake has been described in many books. See for example Weingart's "Pyrotechnics" (1947), pp. 183-6; Davis's "Chemistry of Powder and Explosives" (1941), pp. 120-2; Lancaster's "Fireworks Principles & Practice," (1998), pp. 306-8; Shimizu's "Fireworks: The Art, Science and Technique" (1996), pp. 278-9; and Hardt's "Pyrotechnics" (2001), p. 145.

[DeepOvertone]

I heard of people getting bored at PGI. They got together and milled up thousands of those little black snakes. They pressed the powder into a 4 inch comet and let her rip. They said it was pretty wild. I'd like to do that on a smaller scale. Maybe 1" or so.

[dagabu]

I heard of people getting bored at PGI. They got together and milled up thousands of those little black snakes. They pressed the powder into a 4 inch comet and let her rip. They said it was pretty wild. I'd like to do that on a smaller scale. Maybe 1" or so.

 

HEY! Stop reading my mind!! LOL! That sounds like a great idea and a quick look at the phantom display gives you 12 pieces of snakes for $.99.

 

-dag

[Peret]

Step one would be to find a real recipe. I've seen the instructions you've described, but often dismissed it as crap.

<snip>

The manufacture of the black, non-mercury snake has been described in many books. See for example Weingart's "Pyrotechnics" (1947), pp. 183-6; Davis's "Chemistry of Powder and Explosives" (1941), pp. 120-2; Lancaster's "Fireworks Principles & Practice," (1998), pp. 306-8; Shimizu's "Fireworks: The Art, Science and Technique" (1996), pp. 278-9; and Hardt's "Pyrotechnics" (2001), p. 145.

 

In search of a real recipe, let's look up those references you cited. I quoted Weingart above. Here are the others -

 

Davis: "The best which we have seen are prepared from naphthol pitch by a process described by Weingart."

Lancaster: "Weingart and Davis have written at some length on the manufacturing procedure so there is no need to repeat this"

Shimizu: "Lancaster described this item in detail, but a supplementary account is given here."

Shimizu: "According to Weingart and Lancaster..."

Hardt: "Shimizu reports the first composition; the second [Weingart - Peret] was in use in the United States prior to the cessation of domestic manufacture of this article approximately 30 years ago."

 

As you can see, no matter how many books may have have described it, there's only one recipe - all references lead back to Weingart.