COloured Flames...

(UK) does anyone know where I can get hold of chemicals to produce colored flames?
We played with Boric acid and meths but the other chemicals on Malcoms list are not your average Boots (pharmacy) chemicals!

Does anyone do them by mail order (oohh and a bit of dynamite too while your at it!!)

Thanks!!

i could always 'borrow' some from the uni labs i guess although i'd be probably kicked out if caught - and then i'll have all the time in the world to play with my Poi - now there's a thought Sammie huh ??? i'll ask some friends and get back if i get any positive replies, sad thing is that i can probably get them in Cyprus but i don't think it's exactly the best idea to bring them over when i fly back...
happy swinging,
Simos

I got all mine from boots!

Boracic acid is BORAX - $2.1 for 750g - it's in the 'Domestic' section

Magnesium Sulphate is EPSOM SALTS - $2.50 for 500g - helps relieve constipation!!

Sodium Bicarbonate - ask for by name - $0.63 for 200g - Can be used in cooking

Ethanol & Methonal - Surgical Spirit - $2.45 for 500ml - if it's no good for poi you can always drink it! NOTE: (Joke - Drinking it will actually kill you. - this note added by Malcolm)

Sodium Carbonate - Soda Crystals - $0.69 for 1Kg from Sainsbury's!!

White spirits & Meths - about $2 for 500ml of either - Robert Dyas

Now I've got all this stuff can someone send me the best receipe!

I've tried getting hold of stuff from Big Chemical companies but they're not interested....

[This message has been edited by Malcolm (edited 18 December 2000).]

Just thought I'd add some stuff...

Surgical spirit isn't always ethanol, and definitely isn't methanol. It can be isopropyl alcohol, also known as propanol-2 (if I remember correctly). Ask the pharmacist, get them to look it up if necessary.....they have all sorts of big books hidden behind the counter I know you weren't serious, but don't even joke about drinking this stuff, okay?! Isopropyl burns too brightly, so the colours don't come through as well as with ethanol. It's also not that nice as far as fumes go. Ethanol is the safest thing to use, don't *EVER* use methanol. It's poisonous, it can make you blind, it can kill you. None of which sounds like much fun. Remember that methylated spirits (aka meths)is mostly ethanol with a tiny bit of methanol added to stop you from drinking it. That's what I use....it's not ideal, but it's okay. If you can get 'grain alcohol' or 'everclear', use it. They're both ethanol, but made through a fermentation process instead of manufactured out of crude oil like the industrial ethanol in meths is. Basically that means they're a purer and less toxic.

Sammie - I'll post some stuff about coloured flames etc later on. Just thought I'd post this so people don't go burning or drinking bad stuff!

x

Hey just a brief note to make it stand out - Jonathan WAS joking DON'T drink surgical spirit from Boots, i bought that as well and Xaeda is right, if i remember correctly it does contain both methanol and ethanol which can make you blind and i think the reason they do this is so that you cannot drink it and therefore it's not taxed as the other spirits you get from bars....i could be wrong on this but i would never put that thing in my mouth...reading Jonathan's list it seems that you can get a lot of stuff over the counter - but being very inexperienced with fire perhaps someone could explain to me the procedure to make coloured flames; do you mix the chemical with the fuel from before hand? if yes what's the correct analogy to use in each case - grrrrrrrr if i had known about Poi in high school i would have paid more attention to those chemistry classes
happy swinging,
Simos

Sammie where is Malcolm's list with chemicals you mention - there are some ideas in this website if you want to check it out
http://www.geocities.com/firepoi/
so from what i gather just dissolving more chemical will just have an effect on the colour of the flame, or am i wrong?

[This message has been edited by Simos (edited 18 December 2000).]

WoOW! Mea Culpa!

When I made the quip about drinking surgical spirits i WAS joking! (Says on the back Ethanol & Methanol) - I just thought (mistakenly) that nobody on a site like this
would take me seriously - my sincerest apologies to anyone who even remotely considered drinking it - I wouldn't even recommend putting anything flammable in my mouth to breathe fire with!!

I've got Monday night off, so I'm gonna be trying the various mixes of stuff to see what colours I can get - if anyone wants to stop me blowing up my garden shed, they can e-mail me the basic formulae to:

nul_string@hotmail.com

Keep swingin' !

Simos,

I don't have anything on colours as yet . I hope to put Xaeda's tips on a special "coloured flames" page on my site .