The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives - Sciencemadness Dot Org

66 PYROTECHNICS
alcohol, which consists of potassium chlorate 16 parts, barium
chlorate 8, red gum (gum yacca) 4, and powdered charcoal 1.
This is covered with a piece of paper on which is painted a
scratch mixture similar to that which composes the head of
a safety match. The top of the fusee is supplied with a cylindrical
paper cap, the end of which is coated with a material similar to
that with which the striking surface on the sides of a box of
safety matches is coated. To light the fusee, the cap is removed
and inverted, and its end or bottom is scratched against the mixture
on the top of the fusee.
Weingart 18 recommends the first four of the following compositions
for railway fusees; Faber 19 reports the fifth. Weingart's
mixtures are to be moistened with kerosene before they are
tamped into the tubes.
Potassium chlorate
Potassium perchlorate
Strontium nitrate
Saltpeter
Sulfur
Fine charcoal
Red gum
Dextrin
Sawdust
Sawdust and grease
Calcium carbonate
Scratch Mixture
Typical scratch mixtures are the pair: (A) potassium chlorate
6, antimony sulfide 2, glue 1; and (B) powdered pyrolusite
(MnO2) 8, red phosphorus 10, glue 3, recommended by Weingart;
and the pair: (A) potassium chlorate 86, antimony sulfide 52,
dextrin 35; and (B) red phosphorus 9, fine sand 5, dextrin 4,
used with gum arabic as a binder, and recommended by A. F.
Clark.
Marine Signals
Other interesting signal lights, reported by Faber, 20 are as
follows.
18 Weingart, "Dictionary and Manual of Fireworks," Boston, 1937, p 61
19 Faber, "Military Pyrotechnics," 3 vol?, Washington, 1919, Vol I, p 189.
20 Loc. cit.
48
12
5
4
10
36
14
4 1
4
1
16
4
5 1
5
36
5
2
12
72
10
4
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