At this point, the pyrotechnician has no answer. Nobody knows, says Alef. Even his boss, Lutz Kegler, an expert in his subject who heads Weco’s research and development department and will retire after 35 years and 32 weeks in February, does not know. Sparklers have been around since the 19th century, he reports, and probably emerged when alkaline earth metals were first used. He, too, has experienced again and again just how sensitive sparkler production is. Take the example of iron powder: steel is sprayed into cold water to harden it and the steel breaks apart, yielding a square-edged grain. “The heating of the sparkler also causes tension tears. Sparks start to fly from the mass of the sparkler material, and continue to burn and get hotter, then burst again, which causes the star effect.” But according to Kegler, the consistence of iron powder presents a frequent problem. If it is too soft, it only yields threads, “and you could forget about that.” The powder has to be brittle, so that it breaks again. The precisely conceived mixture of finer and coarser granulation creates and outer and an inner bouquet – which is decisive for the high quality of sparklers which, as in the case of Weco, are immersed by hand. The “diver’s” job is a quiet business. With a practiced, careful hand he takes the board, dips the sparkler stems into the gray “brew” and with the same rhythm pulls them out again. After letting them partly dry, he repeats the process. The movement must be consistent, and the results not disturbed with uneven movements or even strong breezes, in order to maintain consistency. TK <strong>Magazin</strong>e | 1 | 2004 | STICHWORT SPARKLERS 19 If this is not done right, drops from a burning sparkler could run off and leave burn marks on clothing and carpets, or even cause a small burn to a child’s hand. And then the magic of the evening would most definitely be gone. It is not the technology that leads to a certain wonder, especially in children’s eyes, when a sparkler is ignited, but the dreams and – as the Germans would say – the wunder. It looks so harmless, and simple, but Alef stresses that there is frequent experimentation in an attempt to produce an even more brilliant, longer-lasting light. Metallic coatings have even been tried, Alef explains. “They looked good, but production was too difficult.” A BURNING SYMBOL So for now, at least, the wonder workers at Weco will leave the recipe unchanged. Sales are increasing, and the iron powder and the sander dust will be more than adequate to give people a little thrill. Alef notes that the material mixture is more potent than many people realize; iron burners are used as “a real industrial igniter” to fire the thermite mixture used to weld together railroad tracks. The sparkler has long become a symbol – for the sparks that we hope will fly from heart to heart, for the people who need to bring a little light into the darkness, but also for the “burnout syndrome,” in which people shine brightly at work but finally give too much, and have nothing left. A sparkler lasts only a very short time, after all. It is a symbolic, mysterious and even wondrous little thing whose discoverer we do not even know. 7
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