Name: A1 Perchlorate Glitter
Source: Baron Eric von Baum (Firemaker: Volume 1, Issue 1, Dec 1996)
| percent | parts | component |
|---|---|---|
| 47.65% | 47.6 | Potassium Perchlorate |
| 19.02% | 19.0 | Sulfur |
| 13.31% | 13.3 | Sodium Bicarbonate |
| 9.51% | 9.5 | Charcoal (airfloat) |
| 6.71% | 6.7 | Aluminium (-325 mesh, spherical) |
| 3.80% | 3.8 | Dextrin |
Screen together well using a 60 mesh screen.
Bind with 3%-5% plain water and pump 3/8" stars.
Prime with meal while still moist.
A gold glitter of exceptional beauty.
Bright gold flashes of fine density and good delay. Quite slow burning, needs good priming to engulf fully and not burn to the ground. Larger comets should only be used in high-altitude breaks.
High Sulfur content suggests a relatively sensitive mix but the strongly negative Oxygen balance gives a quite safe composition.
This is a good composition in which to use your homebrew Potassium Perchlorate as Sodium impurities are of no consequence. The first recrystalisation is sufficiently pure and greatly reduces the effort required, which is best saved for high-purity KP and AP for your colour compositions. Note however that Chlorate absence is *strongly* recommended because of the Sulfur content.
Von Baum suggests 12% water to pump, I find this excessive. The article also offers two other compositions, called B5 and D7. B5 is almost identical but uses more Aluminium and notes that it is "very coarse, approximately 20 mesh". The D7 composition contains somewhat less Bicarbonate, still more fine Aluminium and half the Potassium Perchlorate is replaced by Barium Nitrate.