Steve's random ramblings and technical notes

Thursday, May 06, 2004

Pyro Dictionary

Glossary of Pyrotechnic Terms
I thought this would be nice to keep for future reference.

Monday, May 03, 2004

Independence Day (The Fireworks Song)

I went to a Fireworks Shooter's School put on by Premier Pyrotechnics this weekend (May 1, 2004). It was great!
- Side note: The 72nd person signing in at our class was the 10,000th student of Premier Pyrotechnics' Shooter's Schools.

Of course we spent several hours in the classroom going over R&R (rules & regulations) like NFPA-1123 (display) as well as State Laws, US DOT (transport) and BATF (manufacture and storage). We also went through how shells are made and "how they do what they do" before covering the basics of coreographing a display. All-in-all it was very informative, then... we got to have some fun!

At the shoot site, we started by hand-firing a few 3-inch salutes (who needs those flashy-colored fireworks, these go BOOOM). Then we toured the rest of the site and learned about the different options for electronically firing shells. I'd much prefer electronic over hand-firing. Overall safety is much, much better - you're farther away when lighting them and mortars aren't re-loaded during the show so no chance of a hot ember in the bottom...

The big finale of the day was a display wired up by the "upperclassmen" and choreographed to this song.
- I'll have to find this in MP3 format...




Independence Day


(Parody of God Bless The U.S.A. by Lee Greenwood)

There's a holiday to celebrate
The American way of life
Gonna have a bar-b-que
With all my children and my wife
Picked up some cherry bombs
At a roadside stand today
Gonna blow stuff up for freedom
And they can’t take that away


If you’re proud to be an American
Set your fireworks off with me
And be careful or you’ll lose an eye
So hide behind that tree
Everybody stand back fifty feet
And enjoy this big display
Cause this stuff is powerful contraband
God bless The USA


Got a dozen roman candles
Quarter sticks of TNT
A box of bottle rockets
I bought illegally
From Detroit down to Houston
And New York to LA
There’s a fire in every American yard
Every Independence Day


I’m loud I’m free I’m American
And as proud as I can be
And I’d like to thank the Chinese guys
Who made this stuff for me
Everybody stand back fifty feet
Just incase this heads your way
Cause I’d hate to see you lose a hand
On Independence Day

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