Display Operator Certification Demos

Hands-on Demo:

Each Student should fire 2 3" color shells

Demonstrations of properly working fireworks:

10 ft of Piped Match with 2 ft bared
1 Electrical match
1 3" Color Shell
1 4" Color Shell
1 3" Salute
1 Cake
1 Finale String of 3" Shells
1 Shell Fired through Plywood (fire a 4" color shell through a 4'x4' piece of 3/4" plywood)
1 Candle (optional)
1 Cremora Pot (optional)

Demonstrations of Malfunctioning Fireworks:

Dud (remove all stars and burst from a shell and replace with an equal weight of sand)
Misfire (a piece of match taped in place leading into the mortar)
Flowerpot (color shell upside down)
Hang-fire (insert visco fuse between the leader and the shell)
Salute in mortar (3" salute turned upside down in buried mortar)
3" shell in 4" mortar as a low break
Muzzle Break (lay a three inch shell with lift removed across the top of mortar)
Low Break (3" shell with 2/3 of the lift removed, fired from a 3" mortar)

Demonstrations of Damage Effects:

Suspend two thawed chickens about 4 feet off the ground from a wood frame
Chicken 1: Hang 2 3" color shells near a chicken, one at 2", one at 12".
Fire the distant one first, then the closer one.
Chicken 2: Hang 2 3" salute shells near a chicken, one at 2", one at 12".
Fire the distant one first, then the closer one.