A  little background information is probably necessary. I like to shoot off fireworks. Two of my neightbors like to shoot off fireworks. A cul-de-sac a street or two over likes to shoot off fireworks. Every year we seem to compete to see who puts on the best show.

Well, on the morning of the fourth I walked over to Brad's to find out if he had any black powder. I had an idea that included black powder, scotch tape, and a lot of running and hiding.

Brad was busy mounting our launchers to a platform to keep them from blowing over:



Being a good neightbor, Brad DID have some black powder. I explained my idea, and he approved. A test ensued whereby the black powder-coated scotch tape burned as expected, setting off 2 bottle rockets. Fortunately, one flew into the road and the other flew UNDER Brad's car instead of into the side.

And so began the process of refining the idea to set off our stash in the most spectacular way possible. Here is my third of the stash:


While waiting on the rest of the launchers, Brad and I (mostly Brad) started building a carrying support frame around the launchers. The idea had morphed from tape into a groove cut into wood the black powder could be poured in, with holes drilled into the groove for the fuses to rest in:





Since our test groove worked great (see above picture), we added the powder channel frame to the carrying frame (which we hoped would also act as a shrapnel frame in case the Grand Idea didn't work). Brad happens to have some ice carving tools, and his V-chisel made a perfect groove.

We broke out the black powder and placed a couple shells into the launchers to test. How I got nominated to light the test launch, I will never know:



It worked great and here is a shot Michael took while the two flame trails traveled down the powder groove:



Brad and Jimmy got back with their portion of the stash and the rest of the launchers, and we moved the platform out into the street. I told Brad it was going to be the greatest firework show ever or a one way ticket to the Darwin Awards:




The results were spectacular. We managed to launch 5 super-launches, which I have a video of below. Here is one final, blurry snap shot of what the launch frame looked like mid-light:



And finally, here is the video you have got to see!

Big Video (16 meg)
Little Video (2 meg)