The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives - Sciencemadness Dot Org

STARS 87
powder mixture, given a yellowish or whitish color by the addition
of appropriate materials, and used in rockets and shells in
the same manner as lampblack stars, procjucc gold and silver
showers, or, if the stars are larger and tcwor in number, gold and
silver streamers. The following formulas are typical.
Potassium nitrate
Charcoal
Sulfur
Realgar. .
Sodium oxalate
Red gum
Gold
16
1
4
,
8 1
Silver
Twinklers are stars which, when they fall through the air, burn
brightly and dully by turns. A shower of twinklers produces an
extraordinary effect. Weingart in a recent letter has kindly sent
the following formula for yellow twinklers:
Meal powder
Sodium oxalate
Antimony sulfide
Powdered aluminum,
Dextrin
The materials are mixed intimately while dampened with water,
and the mixture is pumped into stars about % inch in diameter
and % inch long. The stars are dried promptly. They function
only when falling through the air. If lighted on the ground they
merely smolder, but when fired from rockets or shells are most
effective.
Spreader stars contain nearly two-thirds of their weight of
powdered zinc. The remaining one-third consists of material
necessary to maintain an active combustion. When they are
ignited, these stars burn brightly and throw off masses of burning
zinc (greenish white flame) often to a distance of several feet.
Wemgart 33 gives the two following formulas for spreader stars,
the first for "electric spreader stars," the second for "granite
stars," so called because of their appearance.
38 Op. dt, p 118.
24 43
3
1
10
2
3
3
1