Me and a friend of mine wanted to create a firework, a really great firework. For New year's eve 1978 we bought some 300 small-size firework rockets, and thought it would look nice if we could send them up in “waves”, 75 at a time.
My friend had an old table without a tabletop.
To this we stapled some plastic mesh with 5 millimetre holes, and put the rockets in nice lanes, pointing all the
fuses in the same direction. Between the lanes we poured gunpowder. Our intention was to launch one lane of rockets
at a time, by setting fire to the gunpowder lane by lane. The picture shows the rocket table before arming, in
my friend's basement.
Our theory had one minor flaw. The first rocket
that went off, immediately set fire to all the gunpowder, launching all the 300 rockets at the same time. Not according
to plan, but definitely very attractive. A bucket of gunpowder standing in the snow nearby was also launched at
the same time, giving a nice ground effect.
What do you do when 300 rockets suddely flare up before you? All you can do is tilt your head backwards, muse, and think “How absolutely beautiful”.
The next day we could see the remains. A very black table and a somewhat molten down bucket, standing in the snow in a somewhat blackened corner of the garden.
