John A. Conkling and Christopher J. Mocella: Chemistry of Pyrotechnics: Basic Principles and Theory

Abstract

In view of the books that I have recently reviewed from this publisher, I was beginning to think that nothing short of 1000 pages was regarded as worth publishing. It was, therefore, a surprise to find that this one was a monograph of a mere 225 pages in length. However, I found it more stimulating to a variety of thoughts and subjects than some of the weightier tomes. The first thought that came to mind was that, as this second edition is appearing 25 years after the first edition, it is clearly not a rapidly advancing subject. Indeed, I suspect that the famous Sinologist, the late Joseph Needham, would have argued that the Chinese had discovered most of what is worth knowing about fireworks some 1000 years ago. The second thought was that although nowadays there are many academic institutions in the UK offering (to my mind) rather weird courses, none have got round to offering one on explosives and pyrotechnics for fairly obvious reasons. Even chemistry students expressing interest in such things are liable to arouse suspicion in security circles. According to the preface of this book, in the USA the New Mexico Institute of Technology offers a programme in ‘‘Explosive Technology’’. Perhaps this course is sponsored by, and run for, the benefit of the military, otherwise I cannot imagine it lasting long. Where, therefore, does one acquire a knowledge of pyrotechnics? In the USA, short summer seminars arranged by Washington College have been run by the authors and their colleagues at this institution for many years. This volume appears to be the textbook for the course and it would seem that those attending come largely from a non-scientific background since the first quarter of the book consists of an introductory basic chemistry course. It is an admirable introduction that could be used by students in other fields in similar circumstances. The rest of the book deals with the general topics of oxidising materials, fuels and binders before going on to more specific topics such as ignition and propagation, sensitivity, and colour and light production. All of these are dealt with fully and comprehensively but I suspect that after studying this book very carefully, I would be totally unable to make a single firework successfully. The first reason for this is that government regulations are nowadays so strict that it is well nigh impossible for an amateur to purchase the required materials. I found out recently that the sale of sodium chlorate, which I used to use as a cheap and effective weed killer, is now banned in the EU. The second reason is that although this book may give all the science there is clearly a lot of art involved and the only way to acquire the latter is by joining a company producing fireworks since amateur efforts to gain this are very difficult, again for reasons of safety and security. In view of the need to increase the intake of students to chemistry, it is a pity that the more entertaining aspects of the subject are now so difficult to demonstrate. One thing that is clear from this book is that fireworks are big business. In the UK fireworks were once confined to November 5th but nowadays hardly a week passes without some public or private event involving a fireworks display. During the 1995 celebrations of VJ Day in London in 1995, E. R. Adlard (&) Burton, South Wirral, UK