Winokur's 40 Glitter Compositions

[flying fish]

I find it odd that the publisher says right there in the article (pyrotechnica 2) that the only reason why the article was not just given away was because of printing and shipping costs (remember, in 1978 you couldn't just use a word processor to type up your works, nor the internet to spread it like pink eye at a full contact staring contest.)

 

But now...they are selling cheap photocopy reprints for upwards of $10 even though the "internets" are now very available...

 

Well my complaining aside, it is a GREAT article. The documented study is just so extensive with useful information on glitter (including a variety of controlled tests for comparing glitter enhancers, fuels, delays and such) that it is impossible to sum up all the useful results in his 40 "preferred" formulas alone. As they say in the prologue, it is some damn good "Glitterature."

[Swede]

Well, I am going to try Win 23 as my 1st glitter. I have both dextrin and red gum, but I've noticed (with my very limited experience) the RG seems to bind better and easier for me. Any problems with a Win 23 using RG, wetted 75:25 alcohol:H2O?

 

I am going to ball mill the non-metallic components for a very short time, really just a lazy man's screening, then add the al flake. I plan on pumping some small stars, 3/16". We'll see how it goes.

[Mumbles]

Red gum will kill the effect I do believe.

[Swede]

I decided NOT to alter anything, to be smart and use the published recipe.

 

I knew ground-testing of glitters would be worthless, and it was. A star ignites, burns pathetically, and turns into a thick cinder. I knew I should use a star gun, but I noticed I had an electric leaf blower sitting there on my walkway.

 

So I go out in the street, with an electric leaf blower in one hand, and I ignited a big star with a torch. Then I hit it with the leaf blower! The star took off down the street, and there I am, chasing it with the blower, cackling like a madman, because it worked perfectly... I had a beautiful spray of flashing glitter from this big star.

 

The neighbors... well, I don't know, let them think what they want!

[Pretty green flame]

Hahaha, Swede, that must've been a sight

A star gun is easier I belive, but not near as much fun.

[qwezxc12]

...I noticed I had an electric leaf blower sitting there on my walkway.

 

So I go out in the street, with an electric leaf blower in one hand, and I ignited a big star with a torch. Then I hit it with the leaf blower! The star took off down the street, and there I am, chasing it with the blower, cackling like a madman, because it worked perfectly...

Sir,

 

You get the award for the most creative use of lawn-care implements in Pyrotechnics! I bow before you...

[jacob]

Swede, your post, and the mental image that popped into my head after reading it, made me literally laugh out loud, thanks for sharing that

[jadesource]

In another data base they have Win 12 totaly different than the one you have here so here is a differant Win.12

Pot.Nitrate = 55

AL atom 325= 14

char.airfloat= 11

sulfer= 8

antimony tri. needle= 5

dextrin= 4

strontium carb.= 3

 

excellent white glitter with long tail, fine grained and dense.

 

The reason i put this up is a fine gentlman on passfire shared this with us that if we use a very fine AL which i bought some of the 3 to5 UM AL on ebay and trade the strontium carbonate for barium nitrate this glitter shimmers I have always loved this affect And thought some of you might also.

When I tried it , It does shimmer indeed very nice.

[Mumbles]

This reminds me. I was planning to go through here and update it based upon Pyrotechnica II. A bad formula may also explain why my last batch of Win12 went bad.

[flying fish]

I do have a photocopied reprint of Pyrotechnica # 2. If you need the formulas I can probably post them this weekend some time. I am just missing one of the formulas (win 20 from "table 10") because who ever copied it did not get the whole page.

[Mumbles]

I have an original, possibly in the garage. It's a first print though, so there is at least one error in it. #31 or #32 or something. The one that only adds to 92.

[elstevo]

with these comps would i screen in the Antimony sulfide with the aluminium? Cause i know not to mill it.

[Mumbles]

Yep, that would be correct.

 

I personally don't mill any of the chems. If they're fine already they'll work just fine and give a longer delay.

[Steps]

Can anyone recomend a good white/silver glitter out of these formulas? Edited March 18, 2009 by Steps

[optimus]

The Barium Nitrate/Aluminium comps tend to make fairly decent whites. I don't have my notes at hand, but IIRC no.5 worked well for me.

[Ventsi]

Haha Swede,if only someone filmed you doing that and sent it to one of those funny home video shows...

 

 

I just whipped up a 100g batch of #23 [1/2, 3/8 and two 3/4 comets] , wish them luck I'll be testing them tomorow night, maybe.

[Ralph]

Red gum will kill the effect I do believe.

learned that one the hard way needed a batch of stars in a hurry so made 500g of glitter (was my own recipe which is normally very nice) and it sucked had almost no glitter effect at all and was more like a streamer dont use red gum unless it calls for it

[flying fish]

Last year I made a bunch of winokur 22 and some similar varients to it. Simple yet effective glitter. Although I found I really needed to find that trade-off between a longer glitter delay and less fallout (by varying the bp speed and amount)...ended up using smaller stars to compensate for fallout problems.

 

Last night I made a batch of Win 19 and Win 39. Never made either before...but in testing wet stars from each batch (just lighting on the ground), they both look promising. Win 39 seemed a surprisingly dense white glitter. Win 19 looked bright and snappy, as Magnalium glitters generally do. I just hope I don't have fallout problems when it comes to shooting them in the air.

 

I plan to try some of the "pink" glitters (win 1-5), but I think I will try binding them with NC to avoid problems with Sr(NO3)2 hygroscopicity. I've made successful glitters with NC laquer before so it may just work.

 

One other interesting thing that I noticed: Both Win 39 and 19 burn at reasonable speeds when consolodated. When powdered, Win 39 performs more or less like the consolidated star. But win 19 "BLOWS UP" WITH A BLINDING FLASH when you light the loose powder. Well, I've never worked with magnalium before so I guess I'm learning. Pretty reactive stuff there...

[pyrogeorge]

which is the best composition of all winokur compo?

[yellowcard]

Why do you think there are 40 ?

[pyrogeorge]

??

[TheSidewinder]

Why do you think there are 40 ?

 

Please explain your question.

 

Taken at face value, the answer is, "Because there *ARE* 40 of them, and Mumbles listed them in the initial post for this thread".

 

Admittedly, the original post is 3 years old now but I've not heard of any new additions to the list *by* Bob W.

[Mumbles]

I haven't heard of any additions since 1972.

 

There is no answer to which is the best. It's all preference. Read the descriptions, and find something that fits your desired style, and chemical inventory, and you wont be disappointed.

[flying fish]

I'm liking Win 39:

 

I also tried win19. This one looks good up close, but further away the star doesn't look as much like glitter, due to the excessive speed of the star, short tail length and short delay. At least, with my preparation method. I milled the millable ingrediants (KNO3, Charcoal, Sulfur & Dextrin) for 1 hour before mixing everything else in. Perhaps that was too much milling time. Perhaps I shouldn't have milled it at all.

 

Preparation method was also the same for Win 39.

[FrankRizzo]

I believe that Yellowcard meant his response to answer George's question of which one was best. That there are 40 different *published* variations, all with their own unique effect, means that there are bound to be people who enjoy any number of them.

 

I'm partial to Win12, 13, 20, 39, and 39J.