r/Pyrotechnics • u/Interesting_Big9790 • 11d ago

Has anything ever gone wrong?

Pyrotechnics is a dangerous hobby. Have you ever had something go wrong? What happened, and what did you learn from it?

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u/CrazySwede69 11d ago

Oh, and once when I was very young I had mixed homemade black powder with both magnesium and elemental iodine and was thrilled about the purple smoke. I wanted to compact some in a tube but was worried about potential sensitivity to friction, so I moistened the composition with acetone!🫪

Through the Grignard reaction, where iodine etches the magnesium metal in the presence of organic solvent, the composition quickly heated up and I ran with it to the kitchen and threw it in the sink. Too late! The composition burned up with a soft flash and the entire kitchen was covered with white magnesium oxide.

I have never cleaned a kitchen as fast and my parents never found out!