Kind: captions
Language: en
this is the biggest hottest and most
explosive oh my God video on fireworks
ever covering everything from the
invention of gunpowder to how fire can
burn underwater how fireworks are made
the colors shapes fuses to how they're
launched we'll even see what it's like
to fly through fireworks
Mr Beast has got nothing on this
video was sponsored by kiwico more about
them at the end of the show
[Music]
I cannot believe the Precision with that
huge camera on there Gene is going to
try to fly the fpv Drone actually like
through the fireworks as they explode
you ready Gene
think so Gene makes a channel called
potato Jet and he does tech reviews but
also lots of very filmic stuff a lot of
a lot of drone work lately a lot of
drone stuff okay a lot of fast drones
fpv drones like this one are you willing
to fly this into a firework as it's
exploding that's the goal if I can catch
it that's that's the hope but we set it
up just for that so I think we can get
it
[Music]
the first recorded instance of something
like a firework occurred in China over 2
000 years ago where people would get a
piece of bamboo with the ends closed and
they would throw it in a fire so as it
heated up everything inside would get
hot and expand and eventually burst
creating this bang which they thought
scared off evil spirits then they
developed black powder and they put
black powder inside the bamboo to make
an even bigger bang that was much more
impressive
I want to test out the earliest known
recipe for gunpowder it involves three
ingredients that you can find out in
nature the first is potassium nitrate
which actually comes from fat and bird
guano once they poop in the cave and it
dissolves in water you get these white
crystals coming out the second
ingredient is sulfur these yellow
crystals you can just find on the side
of Hills or around thermal vents and the
third ingredient is honey that is a
major fuel for the gunpowder now I'm
going to mix this all up looks like it
could be frosting
so yummy
earliest known recipe for gunpowder what
people observed was when they heated up
this mixture it would spontaneously
Catch Fire I have no idea how big of a
thing this is gonna be this is only
about a gram a bit so I don't think it's
going to be huge as we heat up that very
primitive gunpowder we should see it
burst into flames it's got to be close
here we go here we go yes
we have made gunpowder now that took a
long time before we saw the fire so why
is that well honey contains a lot of
water and that's going to slow down the
rate at which this is going to start to
combust people figured out that a better
fuel was charcoal there are three things
you need to make fire fuel oxygen and
Heat
in most fires the oxygen comes from the
air but in Gunpowder the oxygen is
supplied by one of the solid ingredients
the potassium nitrate gives you the
oxygen it's kno3 so there's a lot of
oxygen in here and then the charcoal
provides the fuel that carbon charcoal
is basically just carbon but it works
better than other forms of carbon like
graphite because it contains these
microscopic pores and that enables the
reactants to mix much better they can
actually get inside those pores so if
you mix potassium nitrate with the fuel
charcoal and add heat from a lighter you
should have all the ingredients you need
to make fire so the question is will
this burn
it seems like little bits of it are
catching on fire and just like sparking
up from there but the trouble with this
reaction is that it has a high
activation energy so it needs a lot of
heat to get going whoa
there it goes
that is cool
I can see little balls of molten stuff
in The Crucible there that is awesome
so we do have oxygen and Fuel and we can
get that reaction but it's just not a
very explosive reaction
this is where the sulfur comes in Sulfur
starts reacting with the other
ingredients at lower temperatures and
those reactions give off heat the sulfur
is going to act like kindling it's going
to create that initial bit of heat that
potassium nitrate needs to really break
it open and then you know everything can
react so that's what I want to do I want
to try to mix sulfur potassium nitrate
and charcoal which is like your
quintessential recipe for gunpowder and
the amounts that you need of this have
been pretty stable for like 800 years
which is about 75 percent potassium
nitrate 10 percent sulfur and 15
charcoal those are the right mixtures so
that you have just the right number of
each type of atom to fully react and
release the most energy possible so I
want to test how long it takes for fire
to burn down about a meter of this
homemade gunpowder let's Let It Rip
there it goes
hey
it's going so slow
come on you can do it
go go go go go go go
wow it made it to the end you know what
I think the problem is the granules of
charcoal that I've got and these grains
of potassium nitrate even the sulfur
they're all a bit big so to actually get
that reaction to happen fast uh it's not
not really working so what I want to do
is compare that to store-bought
gunpowder from you know a factory that's
actually ground up all those particles
to be really tiny so all the reagents
are really close together
impressive
[Music]
oh yes that
that is gunpowder that makes mine look
so amateur
the chemical reaction that occurs in the
combustion of gunpowder is complicated
to say the least but a number of the
products formed are solids and that's
why burning gunpowder creates a lot of
smoke the neighbors have got to be
looking at this and being like what the
thing about gunpowder is if you burn it
when it's just exposed to the air it
doesn't really explode and I think of
gunpowder as explosive but in order to
see that what you have to do is confine
it because when you can find gunpowder
you increase the concentration of all
the reagents they don't just blow away
from each other when they catch fire so
they're forced into closer proximity so
they react more plus you trap more of
the heat so the reagents get moving
faster they have more energy and so they
can react more readily
so I put 10 grams of gunpowder in a
cardboard tube and taped it shut
okay that's better but it wasn't as big
of a bang as I was hoping for oh it's a
bit more of a pop than uh than a bang
maybe we need a tighter vessel I think
so I'm going to use some Fiber
reinforced tape to strengthen the
container and then we should get a
bigger Bang
right past me
it's more of a bang that's a bit more
like it here I have 20 grams of black
powder so I guess the question is with
twice the black powder do we get twice
the bangs here we go everyone get back
this is essentially what a firework is I
mean fireworks consist of a shell with a
lot of gunpowder inside so this is an
inert shell it's colorized so that you
can see the individual pieces better a
real shell everything in here would be
black because it would be primed or
covered with black powder actually a
note about terminology for a long time
the terms gunpowder and black powder
were used interchangeably but these days
the formula for gunpowder has changed to
make it smokeless so what's used in
fireworks is called at least in the US
black powder to distinguish it from
Modern smokeless gunpowder just know
that in this video we'll use both terms
to mean basically the same thing the
shell itself is made out of cardboard
and what looks like and is a form of
paper mache with craft paper and a glue
and you go around and around once you
put the two shell halves together is
that like the standard size you'd see
when you go out so on a Fourth of July
display you'll see anything from two and
a half inch up to five inch typically in
most cases six inch and above are
reserved for locations that you have a
huge property you're out in some desert
shoot site or on a barge somewhere but
they can go even bigger than this up to
12 inch 16 and even larger in very
special occasions this is the hemisphere
for a 16 inch diameter aerial shell that
is a huge Firework the biggest aerial
firework ever was 1.44 meters wide and
it weighed about the same as a car
oh
wow
to launch a firework into the air the
way it's done is with more black powder
in a typical shell you're going to have
a baggie of black powder that's
underneath the shell and that acts to
fire the shell out of the mortar to the
800 feet in the air which is what this
eight inch show would go to shells as
large as say a 16 inch those can use Pat
literally pounds of black powder
underneath them
to ensure the shell goes straight up
it's placed in a big plastic tube called
a mortar a pyro technician gets two
bangs for everyone the audience does you
get a bang when the mortar fires and
then a bang when the shell explodes
it's literally like a cannon shooting a
cannonball in the air so the audience
doesn't get to hear see or feel that but
the Pyro crew does
everything burn up before it reaches the
ground the internal contents yeah so all
the stars the burst all of that stuff
the casing will come down in pieces
that's why we have a Fallout Zone what
we call it or the exclusion Zone where
only the crew is allowed with all their
ppes because you do get debris that
comes down it literally sounds like rain
at the end from all of the debris from
that finale shelves going off all at
once
how often do they malfunction uh it's
rare but it does happen you'll have a
wooden rack with a few HDPE high density
polyethylene mortars in it and that
particular material is meant to expand
and split from the energy of a
malfunctioning Shell versus explode and
throw shrapnel everywhere we actually
experienced an incident like this with
the biggest shell we had set to launch
okay and three two one
oh
that one did not look like it uh
but because we follow all the rules and
regulations at a professional display
It's usually the crowd going whoa and
the crew going whoa
and then the show goes on is typically
what happens after a few safety checks
when something like that goes on
thankfully everyone was safe because we
could trigger the fireworks remotely
from outside the blast radius but
igniting explosives safely has long been
a challenge
and the mining industry their delay
method back then was to literally
sprinkle out a trail of black powder
through the mine to give them a delay to
the dynamite the simplest fuse just
consists of cotton string that's been
soaked in black powder and then allowed
to dry out this is known as black match
it burns well but pretty slowly that
alone would burn two to three seconds an
inch but once you encase it in craft
paper that's literally all this is you
change that burn rate from a couple
seconds an inch to anywhere from 30 to
100 feet a second
this has the same effect as containing
the black powder it traps in the Heat
and reagents so the reaction goes much
faster this is actually how we shoot our
finale so fast we're not actually
pushing buttons that quickly this type
of fuse is appropriately known as quick
match now before I had ever seen quick
match in action it was suggested that I
try to race the signal down the fuse
what I'm going to do is light this
little piece of black match right here
and I'm going to try to erase the signal
to the other end but still I was not
prepared for what came next
you are kidding me
you didn't tell me it was going to do
that
the force of the combustion products
causes the quick match to whip around
wildly it's crazy how much just
containing the reagents and containing
the heat from the reaction
accelerates it
it certainly Burns much faster than the
black match without the paper
man every time every time that gets me
one problem with these basic fuses is
they aren't waterproof
even though they contain the fuel and
the oxidizer so they don't need the
oxygen in the air to burn they do need
heat and water is just too good at
conducting the heat away from the fuse
so it snuffs out the reaction
and it Fizzles out the same problem
occurs with road flares
I thought since the flame comes out with
such high pressure it might be able to
stay lit under water three two one
and it did for a little while
[Music]
but eventually the water got in there
and stole the heat so I think that the
water is putting it out by pulling the
heat away from it so it doesn't have
enough energy to keep burning
[Applause]
let me bring it out
come on come on ah
[Laughter]
and
there are special flares made for
underwater applications but even those
have similar problems
you can see the gaseous combustion
products being released here and
bubbling to the surface and while this
flare lasted longer the water still
eventually put it out
come on why did that go out
but it is possible to make a waterproof
fuse
so this is your traditional visco fuse
you're going to see this in a lot of
your consumer fireworks
[Music]
very big fireworks sir
[Music]
I feel like we have to get this
spins
animates fire
yeah I'm excited about this one
here we go in three two one
it's really got a powder core with a
fiber wrap to it
thank you
foreign
[Music]
is typically lacquer coated so these
fuses are typically waterproof whoa
wow
that was impressive fuses are not only
used to light fireworks they are a core
component inside a firework so that
quick match flashes really quick down
into the black powder lift that ignites
and while it's pushing the shell out of
the mortar it lights the time fuse so
this is what would actually be in the
Shell to give you the time delay from
the time the lift charge fires to the
time the shell hits apogee and explodes
in the sky you know it's about a quarter
inch in diameter and is really a black
powder core rigid fuse compared to the
more flimsy visco type it's really
important that the time delay fuse keeps
the combustion contained inside it so
the firework only explodes when you want
it to at the very peak of its trajectory
so we tested it under water what do you
think it's waterproof should be all
right it's taking its time there we go
that looks like a firework type fuse
these function by not spitting any fire
out the side so that the shell doesn't
get lit prematurely so you should only
see it spit out the end once it's made
it's all the way through what's
containing it like what kind of material
is containing well there's a number
there's there's weaves of fibers in
there and a layer of asphalt that really
provides that waterproofing so you can
kind of see how the signal is
progressing you can see how the fire is
progressing through there because
obviously it's getting hot some of the
gaseous products are coming up
oh is it going to come out
was that it that was it
that is all that is needed to ignite the
core of a firework
so after that time fuse hits its end
it'll light a piece of black match
that'll then flash into the burst charge
so that's what's represented by this
blue material which is typically rice
holes or something similar to that
coated with black powder what are right
oh rice hulls yes rice hulls not holes
sorry I was like they're making rice
holes like donut holes the reason we
coat rice holes is because you get a
very granular powder in the center of
the shell now which allows the flame to
propagate very quickly through the shell
igniting everything simultaneously
creating that significant over pressure
very quickly to blow the shell open so a
traditional peony shell would be your
most basic of fireworks where these
Stars would literally be lining the
hemisphere and then you'd have your
burst in the middle
and that would give you a very
symmetrical round sphere in the sky your
traditional firework that you see but
it's just interesting to think that when
you see a firework go off you know all
those little points of light are about
that size yeah but they look I mean I
would say that they look bigger right
because they're so bright I guess yeah
[Music]
so fast how fast does this thing go
pretty quick and it is definitely
trickier when it's dark like this
okay can you see anything once you once
I go start looking here I'm like I'm not
sure how do you get focused to something
that's not not there yet and you're not
quite sure where it is or where anything
is because it's all pitch black because
I basically have locked the exposure on
this are we gonna at least see how the
exposure is
yes
amazing
blue
[Music]
oh shoot okay fpv is down oh dang I
didn't realize I was so close to the
ground all right hold on I just want to
see what this looks like you know I want
to check this out so
whoa that is cool
I dig that
these stars are made of black powder
mixed with chemicals to give them
different properties so brocade Crown
star would be the big bushy gold tail
that you would see in the sky so imagine
a big glittering gold shell
I could actually see the little pieces
coming off and glowing pretty Bright Now
imagine those leaving a tail as they fly
through the sky it's a really
spectacular effect
this isn't gonna be blue
often the chemicals mixed into the stars
are used to create specific colors
each of these Stars would be coated with
a primer composition which is a really
fine black powder the reason for that is
a lot of color compositions take more
heat to ignite so they have a higher
ignition temperature so by coating with
black powder with that primer you're
ensuring ignition of all the stars which
then transfer the fire to that color
composition
[Music]
and then it started taking off on you
that's cool I like that
Jesus bright
the colors of fireworks are actually
thanks to quantum mechanics
an element absorbs energy from the
combustion raising an electron to a
higher energy level and there are only
certain transitions which are allowed so
when the electron drops back down to a
lower energy level it gives off light
with the specific energy of that
transition which corresponds to a
particular color
some elements are particularly well
suited to create certain colors so as
the copper ions go in there they absorb
energy from the fire from the combustion
and then the electrons drop back down to
a lower energy level and they give out
that blue light predominantly and that's
why we get such a great blue color
what a thing of beauty
this is just a little interjection
because I was looking at our flame tests
and the copper salt tests you know
anywhere you look copper fireworks are
meant to be blue like bright blue but
those flame tests look kind of green and
so I didn't really know what was going
on but I was sitting here playing with
my kids with the kiwico flame test kit I
know like they did sponsor this video
but didn't tell me to put a section like
this in but what I found is that okay
I'm using a copper salt here and it
starts out green and then if you leave
it for a while come zoom in here
it starts to get blue oh look at look at
that blue to get the beautiful blue
color I think you need more heat I think
it's a higher temperature that we need
that we didn't achieve in our flame
tests out in the field here we got some
calcium chloride oh yeah oh
that is a beautiful Orange
look at that
here we're getting some potassium
chloride to give us some violet
I'm not seeing too much Violet but maybe
just a little
barium chloride
of course that's just small scale our
pyro technician mixed up some color salt
and fuel in a mortar what's in there is
about two gallons of methanol with boric
acid on this one
and copper two
three two one
that was awesome
that is the beauty of quantum mechanics
the electron transitions that give rise
to the color of fireworks are at least
in my opinion way cooler than colored
smoke bombs so the combustion products
here
are solid that's why they make so much
smoke in this case there's just dye in
the Smoke to give it its color
to make so-called ghost shells the stars
are coated in layers of different
chemicals which allows them to change
color mid-flight
so assuming your shell construction was
very uniform your casing all your stars
are the same mass you're going to get a
very uniform explosion in the sky so
it's really as simple as how you lay out
the stars in the shell and it'll break
in that pattern in the sky so what's
your favorite uh
patterned jellyfish are pretty neat if
you've ever seen a jellyfish it really
looks like a jellyfish you get the Dome
and then you get tentacles coming out
the bottom that sounds amazing now
do they just do it by by changing the
color and position of the Stars up here
like how do you get a dome and then
tentacles if this was the shell and you
have another half this way only the top
half would be covered and that would be
your Dome and then you'd have a couple
larger stars to create the large
tentacles that come out the bottom
these days fireworks aren't usually
triggered by lighting a fuse by hand but
by pushing a button each one of these
buttons would correspond to an
individual firing circuit going out into
the field the button sends current down
the wire to an electric match a little
filament in the match heats up
triggering a chemical reaction
which then spits fire into whatever
you're trying to light
yeah I think it's just
dust in the motors I think so this might
be a pretty quick repair
we are about to have a fireworks finale
in the middle of nowhere in the pitch
dark
for like a minute and we're gonna try to
fly
fpv drone through it
so what does it actually look like to be
in the Middle where all the fireworks
start exploding in
three two one
[Music]
thank you
[Music]
foreign
wow can we get some light on the ground
here oh
that was easy
the fireworks finale triggered my car
alarm they were like two times where I
was like I'm not sure if I'm upside down
or not but but I gotta hold this shot
get up in there here
[Music]
oh man right through them right around
them it was this part right down into
them oh
that is so weird
yeah there we go
you're upside down right there
[Music]
foreign
s are this perfect combination of
chemistry light and sound if their
purpose is to banish bad spirits I'd say
they achieve it
hey this video was sponsored by kiwico
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what is it guys
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