The sound of fireworks - whistles

Ron Lancaster demonstrates the different sounds of fireworks and how chemicals such as potassium picrate can be used to change the sound.
Reverend Ron Lancaster MBE is the founder of Kimbolton Fireworks Ltd who are the company who have put on some of the greatest fireworks displays of our times, including the 2012 Olympic games ceremonies, the Queen's Jubilee and New Year's celebrations in London and Edinburgh. The Chemistry of Fireworks lecture was filmed at Kimbolton School in Cambridgeshire.
Warning: These demonstrations have been tailored for this lecture. If you are to perform similar experiments in your laboratory, please make sure you carry out a full risk assessment.

[@mcpaintcraft8709]

Man, I just love the third whistle's sound. It reminds me of whistling Italian mines.

[@goodmaro]

At its heart in both whistles and strobes is a mechanism with negative feedback on the reaction rate.

[@lindenly22]

Generally, the reason for whistling components in some fireworks are understandable - when you see a bomb drop from a warplane in World War II, you hear the whistle as the bomb is dropped - just before the bomb impacts and explodes on its target. That is why bottle rockets - a lot of them - have whistling elements that you hear before you hear the report ("explosion"). But there are some bottle rockets that do not have such whistling elements - just only a report after the lift charge is done.

[@jordanhess2061]

Whistle wasn't invented to copy the sound of a bomb dropping. That is just a coincidence. They probably just discovered a cool effect and thought hey this could be used in pyrotechnics.

[@charlessmith263]

My guess here is that to make a downward glissando whistle of a firework device (such as a bottle rocket) before the detonation (bang, boom, pop) - the fireworks manufacturer or maker tightens one part of the hole of the firework so that the air is heavily packed, and as the hole is opened in the firework's ignition process after the fuse goes inside, this lets out more air less and less constructively, causing the pitch of the whistle to go downward--having the effect of what happens when an RAF pilot drops a war bomb during World War 2 in one's bomber plane. The pilot sees the bomb drop and hears the whistle of the bomb as the bomb is dropped - until the pilot sees the explosion of the bomb as it impacts on the ground. In war movies, when a soldier hears the whistle of a already-fired munition towards that person, he would say "INCOMING! HIT THE DECK!" something like that.

[@adrianadams6033]

Who else is here because of a baked KZbin binge

[@RunningMan40510]

You should take it to an airport. If caught setting it off, just tell them, im doing my job to scare away the birds.🐦

[@sandmanbub]

@Whoop!!