Lab 027: Here Comes the Boom

Okay, so we've got to talk about the elephant in the room. As soon as we thought that the list, like you couldn't pile anymore on top of us. In twenty twenty, we've had enough. Then y'all started shooting off fireworks every day.

But what are we celebrating? I don't know. And that's the thing. It's like all the rules have been broken, like people are. I heard fireworks two nights ago in my neighborhood. I heard fireworks during the day.

We can't even see those anywhere, you though, what's happening.

I'm t T and I'm Zachiah and from Spotify.

This is Dope Labs.

Okay, Zee, listen to this. What is that?

I know you know this sound because it has been keeping us all up at night. It should have sent shivers down your spine. Is the fireworks and this sounds specifically, are fireworks in my neighborhood that I was hearing at night not too long ago.

I don't know what's going on. Did everybody get together?

I mean I missed the meeting because I didn't get any fireworks. I don't know who was handing them out or what. But it's mind boggling, and it's driving a lot of people nuts. I've seen a lot of people ranting on Twitter and on Instagram about fireworks and being kept up late because of fireworks and how it's driving them crazy.

I was initially thinking, Okay, this is just limited to the Internet, these are jokes. But then The New York Times ran a piece talking about the conspiracy theories, and that told me that we needed to investigate. So today's lab is all about fireworks. We're going to tell you exactly how they work and what you should probably consider before you jump in on this. Let's get into the recitation.

I mean we know that, you know, fireworks can be cultural and that folks love them. They range in what they look like, what they sound like, and their size.

But beyond that, I don't know too much. I know I enjoy them, which is crazy to me because the things I enjoy I really like to really dig deep. So what do we want to know? We want to know what are the basics behind fireworks. I don't really know how they work.

And I want to know why are there so many fireworks going off in neighborhoods?

And I don't know if everybody else got their pyrotechnic license, but I feel like there's some basic safety we need to cover.

I want to know how the field, like, how the fireworks field has changed over the years, and what can we expect in the future.

I saw on Twitter a couple of weeks ago some drones doing a firework display? Is that the new firework drones? So you're gonna be able to shoot a firework from your iPhone? Yep? Is you're going to be an app? You know, you send the message, now you can send it with confetti. It is going to be a real firework in a sky. Yes. For closer to the hunger games that we thought, let's jump into the dissection.

In this lab, we brought in pyrotechnics expert Fran Scott.

I'm Frank Scott, and I'm a pyrotechnician and engineering presenter and a general maker.

Pyrotechnics is the science and art of self contained and sustained reactions, and those reactions make heat, light, gas, smoke, sound, you name it. Fireworks are just one type of pyrotechnic.

Okay, So first we had to figure out, like where do we even start with fireworks?

Yeah, and it seemed.

Like a good place to start would be with fire.

I've always been fascinated with fire, like I like candles, like it's nobody's business. And yes, I like the aroma, But I think half of that, maybe seventy five percent, is just striking a match. You know. I can remember as a kid, and I don't even think I told my parents this. My grandma used to keep matches in the bathroom, and you would light a match if it was really stinky in there. Uh huh man, I was a match light and ful. Okay. I would go in there,

Tet No, I'm not a pyromaniac, so I don't. I don't have these I don't have these problems. But now I'm worried, see I am, because you do have a lot of candles in your house.

I was just reflecting.

I was like, hmm, okay, so now I know what my friend has been doing during the quarantine, relaxing, keeping herself busy.

Light fires.

So with fire, fire is something that I feel like most people interact with, but none of us know really what it is.

Yeah, fire is a plasma, so it's a charged gas.

With fire, we'll all.

Gladly sit round it and look at it. But if you were to ask someone what is it. Is it a liquid, is it a gas. If it's a gas, why can we see it? Why does it change color? Why is it orange? Why is it red? Why does it flow in that certain way? All of these questions that most people, including myself, would be like, hang on, just let me google a little bit, because it's so intriguing, and yet we we actually as a population, know so little about it.

So a fire starts when a material is rapidly oxidized, so that means that it's losing electrons at a really really rapid rate, and energy is also released in the form of heat, light and other things, and then a flame is produced. And when you think about how quickly we see a flame when it comes to fire, that's how quickly those reactions that I was talking about happen.

It's happened so quickly that there's really we don't visually see any time between when we light a match and when we see the flame. Right, I never thought about it that way. Usually we don't. But I have these matches and they're really cheap and there is a delay. No, I'm serious. I got them from home goods. They're really cute. They say stuff like you go girl, and you know stuff like that. Stay calm, be focused. That's exactly what's happening.

So yeah, once that flame is produced and all these reactions are continuing to occur over and over and over again, that's the reason why that flame stays alive and it's releasing gas. That reaction is the foundation of what Fran does as a pyrotechnician.

The whole basis of explosions and pyrotechnics is the faster something burns, the fraaster it produces hot gases, which means when it actually expands, that it expands so quickly that you hear a bang.

So what's in a firework? What are the main ingredients?

The main ingredient for most of the firework is basically gunpowder and gunpowder if you don't know, it's like what we call black powder. They're basically the same stuff, and they're a mix of charcoal, sulfur, and potassium nitrate.

So from the charcoal you get carbon, and carbon acts as your fuel, and from the potassium nitrate you get oxygen. When you mix carbon and oxygen together, they're going to burn, but they burn pretty slowly. Dting the sulfur is what makes all the difference. Sulfur is the intensifier. It melts at one hundred and twenty degrees celsius.

For those of y'all who don't live in celsius, that's around two hundred and fifty degrees fahrenheit lower than you'd even set your oven.

And so when it starts to melt, then it starts to accept some of the oxygen that's already in this reaction, and that turns the sulfur into sulfur dioxide. Sulfur dioxide releases energy in the form of heat, and that heat will interact with the carbon and the oxygen that's already there, so that keeps that initial burning reaction going and it speeds it up. And so that's how you get the bang because all of these reactions are happening so quickly.

So if you cram that black powder into a tube and you have it open at one end, if you like that tube, that that hot gas needs to go somewhere, So it comes out at the bottom of the tube and shoots it up into the air.

But once it's in the air, I'm still waiting for the beautiful display. What gives fireworks their colors?

I think before we get too deep into the firework color that there's some basic things that we need to establish first.

All right, let's hear it.

So, each element in the periodic table is made up of atoms, and atoms are made up of protons, neutrons, and electrons. The protons and neutrons are at the core, and the electrons are all just spinning around that core.

So those are elements. And when you combuiny more than one element, that's a compound, and some compounds.

Give off energy in the form of light when you apply heat. We talked a lot about these things in the Conda Forever episode, So you should definitely go back and.

Listen to that. It was so much fun.

But with fireworks, there's a different metal compound in each firework that when you add heat, gives off light with a specific color, and that's what's happening when the fireworks burst in the sky.

Now, once they're up there, there's actually another part, and that part is basically where all the effects are, and in there there's more black powder. There's also things called stars.

And stars are like little container for the metal compounds. So are there some preferred elements that people using fireworks?

So if you use barium, then it will become green, if you use strontium, it'll become red.

So that's the basics of a firework. So the charcoal, sulfur and potassium nitrate that's gonna get you up in the air, and then these other metal compounds that burn and give you different colors from that reaction.

Yeah, and it's just the build up of that gas inside of this contained space that causes that huge boom, that sound that's keeping us all up.

But the basics of a firework haven't actually changed since they're invented about a thousand years ago.

Let's go back to six hundred to nine hundred AD. We're in China. I'm your favorite cook, and I'm just whipping it up in the kitchen. You know, I'm seizing up these chicken legs. I have some little beef tender loins. I'm getting it right. Okay, I hope I'm invited. M It depends on how you act. And you know, I'm mixing things together. I'm reaching for my saltpeter. That's potassium nitrate,

My friends, we ask Fran what's her theory on all these fireworks going off all the time.

It's funny because firework soft off can go into two compartments in society. I would say, they can be the celebration part and they can be the anarchy part. And at the moment, I would say, in society we're sort of in both is those phases.

That is very true. There's a lot going on right now.

A lot of folks were not celebrating the fourth of July because not all people were free on Independence Day, and also people were celebrating the fourth of July.

So sometimes the fireworks are a celebration or a way of saying, hey, we're still here, We're glad to be alive. This is a little bit of boom, a little bit of celebration for that. And then sometimes it's a little bit of anarchy, like we're still alive, but what the heck is going on?

You're right, and trying to draw attention and make sure people are still paying attention, you know what I mean. It's a great metaphor for what's going on actually and what we've been talking about so far in the show. With the firework, it takes, you know, a light to it, and then these electrons get excited and then you get this big boom. And that's the same thing. That's what's happening with people with us, with what's going on right now.

Everyone shifts to a hot to a different state. Yeah, response, Everyone responds to that event right exactly, and then boom. When we get back, we're going to get more into the field of pyrotechnics at large and it will blow your mind.

Okay, so we're back, and now we're going to talk about the field of pyrotechnics more broadly.

One of my favorite things I learned when we were talking to Fran was about the small pyrotechnics that exist in our day to day that we don't even think about.

And so we talked to Fran about the materials she uses in her demonstrations, and one of her favorite materials is flash cotton.

Flash cotton is I'm a little bit obsessed with it because it's basically nitrocellulose.

Nitrocellulose is this compound that is formed by adding nitrogen groups to cellulose.

And what that means is it's just packed with oxygen, which means it burns to completion.

Now you want to know what's crazy about this one. I use nitrocellulose in the lab. What do you use it for? When I ran Western blots, nitro cellulose was the membrane I used to kind of capture the proteins, so I would separate the proteins in a sample, and then when you want to image them, you got to hold them into something. You trap them on a nitrocellulose membrane. Why didn't they catch on fire? They're flammable at two hundred degrees celsius and I didn't have a spark or

So hydrogen is an absolute It's a dream for developing demonstrations because it just sets on fire so easily.

Worlds are pyrotechnics used.

They are all around us. So like airbags, for instance.

I bet you didn't think that you had pyrotechnics in your car.

So in an airbag, you have a small electronic match, and once you light that match, that produces the hot gas, which then actually inflates the airbag. Yeah, when you are impacted that that will actually set off a switch which then sets off the match.

The future of pyrotechnics is really wide open. What you understand the basics. So Fran told us this really interesting story of lighting a hydrogen rocket with her finger. She said she was inspired by some YouTube videos of people lighting buns and burners with their fingers, but I feel like a bunsen burner and a hydrogen rocket is pretty different. Now, this is a my ministry, so I'm gonna have tt explain how it worked.

The way that she was able to do this was that she used a Vandergraft generator.

We've all seen it.

It's a spherical silver ball that usually people put a piece of glass around and then you'll see all these little things that look like lightning bolts jumping out and touching the glass around it.

And when I used to think of what a scientist was, it was Albert Einstein touching a Vandergraft generator.

Yes, and it makes it makes your hair stands, your hair stand up. Yeah, what it is. This is an electrostatic generator. And so from this electrostatic that's generated, if you touch it and then you touch something else, you know, you can shock it. Which I think we've all kind of done something like that, whether it's using a Vandergraft generator or rebinar feet on the carpet and then touching our friend.

Ooh, that's a pastime. That static.

She can use that to make a spark. So she was able to use a Vandergraft generator and through many, many iterations, so she did a lot of research in the lab. She was able to generate a significant enough spark to light this hydrogen rocket.

And I want to point out something friend is an expert. Okay, so I don't want y'all at home rubbing your feet on the carpet trying to light your gas stove. Right, Please, don't do nothing stupid. We're just here to give you the information so you could talk about it with your friends. Don't try this stuff at home. This is one of the major things that stood out to me when everybody. When I was hearing fireworks everywhere, I was like, Uh, what are the safety protocols for this? And these fireworks

So we ask Fran, what are the big safety precautions that folks should be taking when they are shooting off fireworks.

Distance is the biggest thing you can do to make it safe.

One aspect of distance is distance from flammables.

People think, oh, a flammable that's kind of but tane or light of fuel or whatever. No, it's your lawn. It's your pile of leaves that you've just swept up. It's your wooden shed that you haven't looked after for like three years. It's that type of stuff that's the things that can catch fire.

So if you think about your grass it's been a really dry summer, if you have hair rain recently, maybe wet the lawn. The second aspect of distance is distance from you, and then Aside from distance, France says, we should consider the weather, and.

It's quite scary as well, because especially you know in the northern hemisphere right now, you know we're going into summer, things are getting dry. All it takes is a little ember and that's it. That's an entire fire started.

Fran told us that in the UK that the time of year that they're most likely to be shooting off fireworks is in November, and part of that is because it's a lot cooler and a lot wetter during that time of year. In the US, we are shooting fireworks off during the hottest, driest time of the year, which sounds like a recipe for disaster. Yes, so if you already have fireworks in your possession, how should you be storing them?

So I would say keep it in a lockable, unflammable cabinet, because the most dangerous thing I would say that could happen in households is people getting hold of them that shouldn't so your kids, your neighbors kids, and so by putting it in a place that's got key, then you know that it's only you that can access them.

So a minute ago, we just said distance is one of the most important things for kind of keeping you safe if you're going to light fireworks. But luckily there have been some advances in technology that can also get you a little bit of space away from that lit fuse.

Fireworks nowadays, instead of you know, someone going around and just lighting them with a stick, they're all done electronically, so you can get these electronic matches, which again I

But those things can also go wrong. I don't know if anybody else remembers there was a fireworks display in San Diego and instead of a thirty minute show, all those fireworks were on an automatic fuse and they all went off at the same time. Please google it. It was just one big loud bang, and there's someone took a someone was taking the video and you can see people like grabbing their partner trying to run away because they knew something was definitely wrong. Right, it was a pretty big fail.

Recently, I was out in Singapore and I actually saw a firework display in inverted croma is done by drones, and it was totally different to a firework display because it's like a firework display on mute.

I think that could be really cool, but I would miss the sound. I like the boom.

Yeah, I feel like part of fireworks is the sound that goes along with it.

But also I think it might.

Be pretty cool because once you start thinking about drones and what drones can do and how they move, I mean, the possibilities are endless. You could be drawing all types of stuff with those fireworks.

I think there will always be room in our lives for things that go bang, because there is something so innate that basically a bank scares us, and by scaring us, it entertains us in a really weird way.

I think that's true. That's why I continue to watch horror movies. You know, we love all things scary. Yeah, I don't need any more political thrillers. That's happening in real time. Just turn on your news. I'm excited about the potential drones, but I'm all about the boom. I like the display.

I'm sorry we couldn't give people like advice on how to stop the noise. Yeah, if you want to buy some soundproofing stuff for your apartment or for your house.

We will put some links in the show notes. Maybe we'll have to tell them how to create basically a podcast studio at home, because that's what you're doing.

Mm hm.

The longer we're inside, I feel like the more that they're going to be going off. Even while we've been recording this, we've heard fireworks going off in Chicago and in Maryland. So I don't know if there's an end in sight. I'm sorry, but at least you know a little bit more about how they were.

Are you setting off fireworks? I want to know who's doing it. Show yourself. I'm not going to report you. I just want to know. I want to see is anybody under the sound of my voice.

That's it for Lab twenty seven, but we have so much more for you to dig into on our website, so make sure you head over to Dope labspodcast dot com.

On our website you can find a cheat sheet for today's lab, along with a ton of other links and resources in the show.

Notes, and if you want to stay in the note with Dope Labs, don't forget to sign up for our newsletter on our site too.

Special Thanks to our guest expert Franz Scott. You can find out more info about her on her website Franscott dot co dot uk, or you can follow her on Twitter at frans underscore Facts. Yes, also, we love hearing from you. What did you think about today's lab? Do you have ideas for future labs? Call us at two zero two five six seven seven zero two eight and let us know.

You can find us on Twitter and Instagram at Dope Labs.

Podcast tt is on Twitter at dr Underscore t Sho, and you can find Zakiya at z said So follow us on Spotify or wherever else you listen to podcasts.

Dope Labs is produced by Jenny Radalit Mass of Wavernner Studios.

Mixing and sound design are by Hannes Brown.

Our theme music is by Taka Yasuzawa and Alex Sugiura, with additional music by Elijah Alex Harvey. Dope Labs is a production of Spotify and Mega Own Media Group, and it's executive produced by US T T Show Dia and Zakiah Wattley. When I think about everything that's going on right now, the last thing I have time to do is to go to another state to buy fireworks.

But they tracked. They traced most of the fireworks in New York back to Pennsylvania.

You know, Pennsylvania has been causing a lot of trouble over the last few years.

They've been dropping the ball. They gotta get it together.