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Science

Disney Launches Fireworks With Compressed Air 441

Posted by simoniker from the zoom-zoom dept.
rtphokie writes "When Disney debuted its new firework show at Disneyland recently, they also debuted some new technology which uses compressed air to lift fireworks. This virtually eliminates the need for smoke-producing black powder and other materials at launch, significantly reducing ground-level smoke, and apparently: 'Disney is in the process of donating all seven patents associated with the new air launch technology to a non-profit organization so these patents can be licensed to other pyrotechnic providers'. Something to think about for those of us attending fireworks shows this weekend in the U.S."
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Disney Launches Fireworks With Compressed Air More

Disney Launches Fireworks With Compressed Air

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  • because rockets are only used by terrorists... (Score:3, Funny)

    by MMHere ( 145618 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @03:47PM (#9554396)
    ... that's why compressed air launch is necessary.

    • Re:because rockets are only used by terrorists... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 28, 2004 @03:51PM (#9554443)
      ... that's why compressed air launch is necessary.
      I can launch a terrorist with compressed air

    • Re:because rockets are only used by terrorists... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Total_Wimp ( 564548 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @03:58PM (#9554543)
      because rockets are only used by terrorists... ... that's why compressed air launch is necessary.

      I know this is meant to be funny, but I would think anyone making a rocket propelled weapon wouldn't really care whether the propellent was black-powder based or air-based as long as it gets its payload to target.

      Actually, the U.S. military has a preference for non-flamable launch/propellent technologies because it's safer for the troops who're fireing the rockets. Basically a flamable propellant adds little or nothing to the damage to the target, but if the ammo store is hit, it adds quite a lot to the destruction of the ammo store.

      TW

      • Not true about the propellant (Score:5, Interesting)

        by neilcSD ( 743335 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @04:34PM (#9554890)
        http://ayup.co.uk/shuttup/shuttup2-0.html

        Falklands Island war between the UK and Argentina - the Sheffield was sunk by an Exocet SSM whose explosive payload did not detonate. The damage (and subsequent sinking) was caused by the rocket fuel.

    • Re:because rockets are only used by terrorists... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by saderax ( 718814 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @04:18PM (#9554729)
      The big news is not in the compressed air:

      Disney is in the process of donating all seven patents associated with the new air launch technology to a non-profit organization so these patents can be licensed to other pyrotechnic providers'.

      Its nice to see a company using patents correctly, and donating them to an organization who oversees the pyrotechnic industry.

      • Re:because rockets are only used by terrorists... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Rei ( 128717 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @05:31PM (#9555490) Homepage
        Amen. I was kind of troubled when my family took me to Disney World.... being there, everything seemed almost the embodiment of annoyingly crass commercialism, almost like a disembodied head of the pro-globalization movement. Nothing was more than a millimeter deep, and everywhere you looked was the hawking of 100-fold price-jacked-up pieces of quickly discarded worthless merchendise made by sweatshop labor overseas. If "Disneyworld" was supposed to be all tinkerbell and fairy dust, all I could see was the support strings and the fairy-dust-inhalation-induced cancers.

        But then a company like that goes and does something like this... creates an actually clever twist on an old piece of technology, and then gives it away for free. And I also remember how they took on, not too long ago, the Christian Coalition and its ilk in order to provide domestic partner benefits....

        It all leaves one conflicted; are they evil or are they not? :)
    • Finally! The technology I need for my X-Prize entry. Scaled Composites, look out!!

    • Will only supplement normal launch methods (Score:5, Informative)

      by pyrofx ( 602240 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @06:54PM (#9556121) Homepage
      The Disney gatlin gun uses compressed air to launch shells in the 4 to 8 inch range. At least this was the sizes they launched a few years ago when I saw the system, maybe they they go up to 10 inch but Disney doesn't shoot many 12 inch shells anyway.

      They have a large several hundred horsepower air compressor at each air launch system for the lifting oumph. No nitrogen involved as it is too expensive to use in the quantities required.

      The shells are plastic encased shells that are a little enlongated (not sperical like normal shells, think eggish). Inside each shell is a little electronic circuit and electric match. The circuit is engergized by a inductive coil in the base of the fiberglass launch tube. The circuit doesn't use altitude per se but a timed interval instructed in the coding pulse at the launch event.

      The bulk of the show will still be fired normally as they have lots of ground level effects and lots of smaller shells that would be too numerous to fire in the air launch system unless they have made great strides in its firing rate. I shot many a show that had 100 of 3 and 4 inch shells going up per second.

      Still plenty of smoke to be smelled around the lake in Epcot.

      Ken

      • Re:Will only supplement normal launch methods (Score:4, Informative)

        by RadioTV ( 173312 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @10:37PM (#9557366)
        No nitrogen involved as it is too expensive to use in the quantities required

        I don't know if Disney uses nitrogen or not, but it is possible to generate compressed nitrogen in fairly large quantities. My step-dad works on a natural gas drilling rig. When they hit a gas pocket they switch from compressed air drilling to nitrogen drilling to reduce the risk of a down-hole fire. They do this with a special compressor that outputs 98%+ pure nitrogen gas at more than 3000 CFM at several hundred PSI.
        • There are a number of ways to make relatively cheap, low purity (~98-99.5%) nitrogen. Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) units compress & dry the air, then force it through a molecular sieve that preferentially adsorbs most of the oxygen.

          Put a couple of units in parallel to allow one to be "cleaned" of the adsorbed O2 while the other is producing nitrogen, and you have a continuous flow of (relatively) cheap nitrogen.

  • The mighty Thor (Score:5, Funny)

    by Timesprout ( 579035 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @03:48PM (#9554405)
    needs no puny patents to create an aerial light and sound extravaganza.

  • Fireworks with no cannon?? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 28, 2004 @03:49PM (#9554409)
    What's the fun in fireworks if there's no boom when they're shot?

  • not fun anymore (Score:5, Funny)

    by TedCheshireAcad ( 311748 ) <ted AT fc DOT rit DOT edu> on Monday June 28, 2004 @03:49PM (#9554410) Homepage
    this takes all the entertainment out. like my mom used to say, its not fun and games until someone loses an eye.

  • If It's Monday... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 28, 2004 @03:49PM (#9554414)
    I forget, are we supposed to like or dislike large entertainment corporations on Mondays?

  • Kinda ruins the fun. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by wafwot ( 739342 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @03:49PM (#9554422)
    Part of the whole fireworks experience for me, and I'm sure for others, is the bombarding of the senses: sight, sound, and even smell.

    Fireworks with no gunpowder smell? With no black snow falling? I have so many memories of watching the fireworks over the lake in Epcot, the clouds of smoke only visible when the fireworks explode and light up the sky.

    Sounds like something I could just watch on my computer or TV, if I wanted. I'll pass. It was bad enough that they had to take away Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, now they're robbing of me of smoke filled fireworks.
    • I agree. As an Orange County resident, I will miss the big cloud of smoke disappating from Disneyland. I know that years ago, the fireworks show was done by a guy in a fireproof suit running around with a lit flare. They changed to a remote controlled setup before he retired.

    • Re:Kinda ruins the fun. (Score:5, Funny)

      by kunudo ( 773239 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @03:59PM (#9554545)
      Plastic fantastic. Disney is making fireworks "family friendly", just like they did with cartoons and (grrr....) dragons, amongst other things. How is this a surprise? They're like a fluffy king midas, everything they touch turns cuddly and sweet.

    • Re:Kinda ruins the fun. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by athakur999 ( 44340 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @04:10PM (#9554662) Journal
      They're using compressed air just to launch the fireworks into the air. The actual fireworks themselves are still going to contain gun powder and such, so you'll still have the big bang when the firework explodes and still get some black snow. There just won't be that big cloud of smoke when it goes up.

  • Disney? (Score:5, Funny)

    by deuist ( 228133 ) <ryanaycock@gmai l . com> on Monday June 28, 2004 @03:49PM (#9554426) Homepage
    In other news, Disney has decided to release all of its old movies into the public domain. Says spokeman David Franz, "We realize that the DMCA and the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act were both mistakes that hurt the American public."

  • explosions? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 28, 2004 @03:50PM (#9554431)
    I wonder what happens if the firework explodes before the air tank is empty? Burning hot shards headed 200mph in all directions?

    • Re:explosions? (Score:5, Informative)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Monday June 28, 2004 @04:36PM (#9554916) Homepage Journal
      If they are using nitrox and not nitrogen they do not have a big tank, because they're compressing the air on-site.

      If they are using nitrogen, it's a non-issue.

      From what I understand the fireworks are self-igniting based on input from some onboard logic so it's not like you have to worry about blowing them out - I'd use nitrogen gas.

      Having self-igniting fireworks is potentially very cool, especially if you could get a nice cheap altimeter on a chip. If you coupled that with an accelerometer on a chip (analog devices makes a couple of different models) you could detect launch, free fall, terminal velocity, and make sure that the fireworks are over a certain altitude before firing.

      • Re:explosions? (Score:4, Informative)

        by Aumaden ( 598628 ) <Devon.C.Miller@g[ ]l.com ['mai' in gap]> on Monday June 28, 2004 @05:02PM (#9555217) Journal
        The actual detonation is probably handled by a MagicFire [magicfire.com] device.

      • Re:explosions? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by merlin_jim ( 302773 )
        If you coupled that with an accelerometer on a chip (analog devices makes a couple of different models) you could detect launch, free fall, terminal velocity, and make sure that the fireworks are over a certain altitude before firing.

        Only problem is that you want ground air distance, not height above sea level, which you can't do with a cheap altimeter...

        Besides the accelerometer will take care of it. You'll definitely see the launch. BTW, after launch an accelerometer is worthless; it'll report 9.8 m/

  • Wait a sec!!! (Score:5, Funny)

    by chrisgeleven ( 514645 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @03:50PM (#9554432) Homepage
    Disney apparently didn't get the memo about patents. They are supposed to hold onto them, write out thousands more of them in much more fuzzy terms, and then sue every person/company on the face of the earth if they have a one letter resemblence.

  • I Wonder... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by lenmaster ( 598077 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @03:50PM (#9554435)
    ...how long it will be before you'll be able to buy one of those compressed air launchers at rest stops in South Carolina along route 95.

  • Hmmm... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by lukewarmfusion ( 726141 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @03:51PM (#9554442) Homepage Journal
    The release is very much lacking in details, but the concept is interesting. A friend of mine, a "licensed pyrotechnician," spent nearly three hours at our backyard launch (that rivaled any of the local shows) preparing powder and launch lines. The result was quite an investment in the firing equipment and materials; if the compressed air mechanism is really that efficient it will be reusable. Be clean and save money.

    • Re:Hmmm... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by JazzHarper ( 745403 )
      OK, that's a good rationale. I must admit, when I first saw the headline on "quieter fireworks", I thought it was another wrongheaded Left Coast idea.

      However, if the launchers can be quicker to set up, consume less material and be more reusable, that will lower the cost of putting on a display, which leads to bigger and better fireworks for everybody. I'm all for that.

    • How FireWorks Work (Score:5, Informative)

      by syr ( 647840 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @04:25PM (#9554801)
      In case anyone is interested, here [howstuffworks.com] is the fireworks page from How Stuff Works.

  • Tax Scam (Score:5, Insightful)

    by GigsVT ( 208848 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @03:51PM (#9554452) Journal
    Start using the methods and devices commercially and you prevent them from being patented, everyone can use them freely.

    Patent them and donate the patents to a non-profit, and you get a huge tax write off based on the assumed commercial value of the patents.

    Disney isn't really doing anyone any favors here, they patent the common potato cannon and then donate the patents to a non-profit for the tax write off.
    • And something tells me that the non-profit that they donate them to will be tightly controlled by them. This organization will then make significant "donations" to some Disney ventures using the licensing revenue they collect. Its all about maximizing those profits, or should I say "increasing shareholder value".

    • Re:Tax Scam (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gurps_npc ( 621217 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @04:23PM (#9554781) Homepage
      1) Disney deserves teh tax benefits, they did more work than you think.

      2) If they did NOT patent them, someone else could try to patent them and we would have to try and proove Disney's "Prior art".

      I think Disney did a good thing here, not a greedy one.

    • Re:Tax Scam (Score:5, Insightful)

      by mabu ( 178417 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @04:25PM (#9554802)
      You might be right. I'm not disagreeing with you, but isn't it still a nice idea to put this earth-friendly technology in the public domain and allow others to use it? That seems to be a very positive, uplifting story during a time when there are so few nice things to read about. Can we suspend our intense cynacism for even a few moments?

      Then again, I'm probably just a shill for Disney, so ignore me.

  • Bah!!! (Score:5, Funny)

    by The-Bus ( 138060 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @03:52PM (#9554462)
    Leave it to Disney to severely edit yet another Asian product...

    • Re:Bah!!! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by rleibman ( 622895 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @04:08PM (#9554646) Homepage
      Leave it to Disney to severely edit yet another Asian product...

      Are you refering to Mulan? If so, Disney didn't edit it, they pretty much wrote a new work *loosely* based on the original poem (which I've read in what I'm told is a good translation into Esperanto). I found particularly funny one line in the poems that mentions Mulan leaving "little brother" behind, in the Disney movie that's her dog's name.

      Still, all in all, it's probably one of my favorite Disney movies, its heroic, has a good message (particularly for little girls: you can do anything a man can do) and balances well a G rating with the harshness of war (that scene when they go into the recently hun-plundered village makes me gasp every time).

      • Re:Bah!!! (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Blakey Rat ( 99501 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @04:39PM (#9554945)
        More likely, he's referring to the fact that The Lion King is almost entirely ripped-off from a 60s Japanese TV cartoon called "Kimba the White Lion." (Even the name Simba sounds like the name of the hero from the Japanese series!)

        See this page [kimbawlion.com] for more details about this.

        To my knowledge, Mulan is 'in the clear' copyright wise, but The Lion King is obviously in violation.

  • Someone has to say it (Score:5, Funny)

    by Cytlid ( 95255 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @03:52PM (#9554463)
    That blows.

  • Disney does something environmentally sensitive... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Tofino ( 628530 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @03:53PM (#9554473)
    Disney does something environmentally sensitive, by developing this technology and then DONATING it, and it gets run into the ground. Sigh.
    • They donate it to a non-profit (corporation) for licensing. This is quite different than just allowing the patents to expire (or not even getting them) and making an announcement to the public. No doubt the Disney-appointed people running the non-profit will be well paid by said non-profit.
    • Interestingly, Disney has been working on making pyrotechnics that are much safer in terms of their toxicity. To get those pretty colors, toxic elements such as strontium (crimson), gallium (as gallium nitrate in whistling fireworks), antimony (salutes), barium (deep green), plastics (such as PVC, Saran, Parlon), arsenic (in copper acetoarsenate), and so forth. When you're a huge consumer of fireworks like Disney (just ask any pyro guy how hard it is to get GOOD fireworks, thanks to Disney buying whatever they can), those chemicals have to go somewhere. The long-term result is contaminated soil and water.

      People like Mike Hiskey at Los Alamos have been contracted by Disney to make fireworks that are based on organic molecules, and use smaller amounts of chemical salts for the color. He also works on high-nitrogen explosives, along with several others working in the specialized field of novel explosives design and synthesis.

  • Safety (Score:4, Insightful)

    by DreadSpoon ( 653424 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @03:53PM (#9554479) Journal
    I imagine these are safer for the technicians as well, no? I don't know how many people are injured each year by misfired rockets, but if this technology helps at least with the launching (if not with fireworks that explode in dengerous ways _after_ launch) this is of course entirely a good thing.

  • Colors in smoke... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MisanthropicProgram ( 763655 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @03:53PM (#9554481)
    One of the things I love about fireworks is the light that's reflected in the smoke.
    The cloud that's created from launch turns into the color of the current firework going off. It just adds to the experience. So does the smell of the gunpowder. I guess that's why laser shows bore me.

    I also hate the crowds at firework shows. That's another rant.

    • Re:Colors in smoke... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Ironica ( 124657 )
      One of the things I love about fireworks is the light that's reflected in the smoke.
      The cloud that's created from launch turns into the color of the current firework going off. It just adds to the experience.

      Personally, I've never seen a professional fireworks show where I could see any of the smoke from the *launch*... just the smoke from the explosion in the air.

      Perhaps that's the smoke you're waxing rhapsodic about?

  • 4th of July (Score:4, Funny)

    by torqer ( 538711 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @03:54PM (#9554489)
    If it can't kill, main, or otherwise cause bodily injury... It's no longer the 4th of July.

    It'll reduce Bottle Rocket wars down to an aiming contest. Instead of a crap-shoot on wether or not you'll escape with your hands intact.

    • God yeah, when I look back now some of it was insanely dangerous, no wonder so many people end up hospitalized when the fireworks come out. Jeez it was great fun though.
    • It'll reduce Bottle Rocket wars down to an aiming contest. Instead of a crap-shoot on wether or not you'll escape with your hands intact.
      Naw, aim only matters when you play with those small 10-shot roman candles. Bottle Rockets can never compete... unless they're the kind that go bang at the end. that might spice things up.

  • In other news.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Eric(b0mb)Dennis ( 629047 ) * on Monday June 28, 2004 @03:55PM (#9554499)
    SCO launches new Linux Distro with Compressed Methane!

    Posted by BREAL69 on Monday June 28, @1:06PM
    From the ba-da-bing dept.
    breal writes "When SCO deputed its new CD-Delivering service, they also deputed some new technology which uses compressed methane to launch CDs to potential customers. Darl McBride reports that it significantly reduces the cost of their distribution. We're able to use employees and users alike to deliver our product! SCO also says it has patented the technology, which they call "Gas on DEMAND" which they plan on donating the patents to many non-profit organizations.'"
    Looks like something at SCO smells fishy again.

  • HOTT DAMN!!! (Score:5, Funny)

    by RegalBegal ( 742288 ) <regalbegal@[ ]il.com ['gma' in gap]> on Monday June 28, 2004 @03:55PM (#9554501) Homepage
    The potato gun of my DREAMS!!!!!!!!
  • I work at Disneyland, and this is something that has been talked about quite a bit at work. I do crowd control for Fantasmic!, which also works during the fireworks to set up standing areas and keep walkways clear. The two reasons for using compressed air was, like the article said, to reduce smoke at launch, and to reduce the noise of them being launched. The former was achieved, but the latter seems to have turned for the worse. The fireworks do make quite a noise when they launch, but they seem to make an even louder 'boom' while bursting in the air. The residents in the surrounding neighborhoods have been complaining for years about the noise these fireworks produce, and the new series 'Disney's Imagine - A Fantasy In The Sky' was supposed to calm the burning tempers. It seems to have failed. Complaining about the fireworks at Disneyland is like complaining about living next to a railroad track. They were there when you moved in, so you must have known what you were getting yourself into. Oh, and by the way, the new firework show is quite lame. The music played has nothing to do with the fireworks that are going off, nor does it seem to 'fit in.' Okay, so maybe the music from the Lion King (The Circle Of Life) fits in, as they do launch circular fireworks, but who wants to see a hallow circle? Save your time and stress from the crowd by going to a traditional park on the 4th. It will be much more fun, I promise.

  • Another reason why this is a good idea (Score:4, Interesting)

    by rewt66 ( 738525 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @03:56PM (#9554516)
    One year when I was a kid, we got front row seating at a fireworks show where the launching was done from an island in a small lake. (The lake shore defined what was the "front row".) We were close enough to see the people on the ground, and the glow from the fuse as the firworks went up in the air.

    It rained on the day of the 4th, and apparently some of the powder in the launch tubes got wet. Quite a few of the fireworks went off at lower altitudes than intended. One particular launch went up about ten feet, came back down, lit on the ground of the launch site, paused a moment (during which the launch crew scattered), then went off on the ground. A couple seconds later, several more tubes launched. I don't know if the crew launched them, or the "extreme-low-altitude" firework did.

    Obviously, launching with compressed air is immune to this problem...


  • Something to think about for those of us attending fireworks shows this weekend in the U.S.

    So this brings up the question: where to see the best fireworks this weekend?

    [Usually the best ones are over water because the added safety lets them use fireworks that are more dangerous over land, etc.]

  • Local Firework Company (Score:3, Interesting)

    by TheFlyingGoat ( 161967 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @03:57PM (#9554527) Homepage Journal
    Our local company, Bartolotta's [bartolottafireworks.com], and a number of other companies have already greatly increased the safety factor by using control panels to light off most of the fireworks. This means that for most of the fireworks, there are no people anywhere close to them during the actual show.

    As an aside, the Bartolotta's do the Big Bang in Milwaukee each year, at the start of Summerfest. [summerfest.com] This year there were an average of 6000 fireworks set off each minute for well over 20 minutes. It's impressive. I grew up about 3 miles from the Bartolotta grounds, where they would occasionally test fireworks. Pretty neat seeing fireworks in the middle of the winter. :)

  • Used to have a boss who work with this (Score:3, Interesting)

    by crosseyedatnite ( 19044 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @03:59PM (#9554551) Homepage
    I think the note about it being years in development was correct. My boss from about 6 years ago worked on the imagineering team that was developing this technology. His portion was the miniature electronics on the projectiles that controlled the timing of the detonations.

    He had some wooden balls that were used as test projectiles for the launching mechanism, and would amuse us with stories of how they'd have to seek cover for when the balls would return. A lot of his effort went into making sure that the communication between the launch tube and the projectiles was correct (apparently, the chip inside the projectile had to be told to stop listening for a few milliseconds during launch or it would see some false signals)

  • Safety First (Score:4, Insightful)

    by purduephotog ( 218304 ) <`moc.tibroni' `ta' `hcsrih'> on Monday June 28, 2004 @03:59PM (#9554554) Homepage Journal
    Lets face it. Fireworks are nothing more than mortars with a slightly mistimed fuse and a non-fragmentary casing.

    Using any form of explosive to launch this is dangerous. The tubes must withstand the tremendous launch pressure. There is also the severe risk of burning ashes falling back into the cylinder complex and igniting a shell from the top down- at which point you have a buring bomb waiting for the heat to fry the launch charge.

    Modern shows alleviate nearly all of these problems... but I've still witnessed a number of accidents- the most memorable (for me) was when an ash fell into a mortar array atop the Citibank tower in Indianapolis- the entire rooftop 'lit up'. Someone was severely burned, and (I believe) lived... burned over a good portion of his body.

    Non-flammable launches won't eliminate (I'm going to miss the downwind smell, sigh) misfires in the tubes, but they should lower the risk during launch. It won't eliminate (or even affect) an ash falling into a shell, but at least you have less explosive contained in a small space waiting to go off.

    Just my opinion, of course.

    Thank you, Disney.

    • Re:Safety First (Score:2, Informative)

      by Apocalypse111 ( 597674 )
      There is also the severe risk of burning ashes falling back into the cylinder complex and igniting a shell from the top down

      This is why all professional pyrotechnic groups cover all their launch tubes with a layer of plastic wrap, then a layer of tin-foil. Both are thin enough for the shell to fire through, and the combination of the 2 protects the shell from both rain and sparks. This protects against accidents at any time during or before the show, and the waterproofing means that it can even go off

  • You haven't seen fireworks (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Alice_Pleasance_Lidd ( 657711 ) <cisidae AT yahoo DOT com> on Monday June 28, 2004 @04:05PM (#9554611) Homepage
    until you've spent Chinese New Year in Shanghai. The sights and sounds are amazing, and fantastically diverse. Beats the most expensive 4th of July out of the park. And, of course, amazingly dangerous.

    I wish we had more holidays like Earth Day- where people are encouraged to participate. Modern life in the US has sort of lost the old idea of holidays- where you'd interact with a community, at the very least building relationships.
    How helpful are the UN's "Special Days"? [un.org]

  • My dad built original Dland fireworks computer (Score:5, Interesting)

    by gsfprez ( 27403 ) * on Monday June 28, 2004 @04:06PM (#9554624)
    Disneyland builds/built a lot of their computer control equipment in house. My dad made a lot of it, including "Mickey's Match" - the original computer-based fireworks launch system that was programmable.

    Before that, a man named Mickey (i'm not making this up, the guy's name was Mickey) physcially ran around and attempted (pretty well, from what i hear) and manually lit the fireworks to coincide with the music. Eventually, he started using electrically fired squibs. My dad's system allowed folks to pre-program sequences to launch with electrically fired squibs that would be in time with the music.

    Since you didn't run to Fry's in the mid 80's to pick up a Pentium III to run Star Tours ride control (actually, Star Tours runs on a 486 for its ride control, with one redundant computer for each simulator), a ton of the hardware for ride control, gate counters, etc. have all be built by hand by the Disneyland Sound department and WED.
    Many of the rides at Disneyland have my dad's name on the circuit boards in them.

    Just about every system, even to this day - are Z80 based. Its simple, its cheap, and they are bulletproof.

    Some of the Disneyland items he's made...

    - Invented/installed the fireflys in Pirates of the Carribean

    - Came up with putting the green-eyed rats at the end of Pirates as you go up back to ground level. We have a bunch of them at home and put them in windows and under the Christmas tree

    - Invented the light flicker-ers that have been used at Dland for almost 30 years to make plain lightbulbs in opaque houseings look like they are flame

    - Real-time population counter for Disneyland. Even went to the president's office and installed the LED display on his desk (prior to the popularization of "computer networks")

    - Completed the transition of all of Disneyland's audio and attraction control tapes to solid-state ROMs for playback. They used to have rooms FULL of huge tape bins with 1" wide magtapes that would spool into a big 1" x 40" x 20" bins and be one big long lopp track - literally. This took a long time becuase back in the early 90's when they did it, they needed to send out the tapes to special subcontractors that could digitize it.

    Its neet to see Disneyland, and how its starting to come back a bit after the 90's trashing by Eisner (ptooey!) now that he's been emasculated a bit. Things are getting better, and he's still making all kinds of neat stuff.

    I need to get to Disneyland more often now.. i haven' been in years.. and i used to go 3 times a month when i was a kid.

    • Re:My dad built original Dland fireworks computer (Score:5, Informative)

      by Tofino ( 628530 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @04:23PM (#9554777)
      Some of the Disneyland items he's made...

      - Invented/installed the fireflys in Pirates of the Carribean

      - Came up with putting the green-eyed rats at the end of Pirates as you go up back to ground level. We have a bunch of them at home and put them in windows and under the Christmas tree

      - Invented the light flicker-ers that have been used at Dland for almost 30 years to make plain lightbulbs in opaque houseings look like they are flame

      Tell your dad he's my new hero for today. Those three things are, no joke, three specific details that my brother and I were discussing a few months ago when we were talking about the old-school Disneyland detail.

      • i'm lucky.

        My dad has been a hero of mine for 32 years. I know lots of guys who had shitty dads.. but not me.

        mine's not perfect - but pretty cool none the less.

        He was very into make sure me and my brother were technologically inclined.. from the ColecoVision to the C64 when it first came out....

        ever since then, we've both entered technology fields and have done pretty well... i attribute it all to my dad.
    • My dad was a truck driver.

      I got to help him change the oil.

      Sometimes he brought home pallets so I could build a fort.

      Why couldn't you have been a cool engineer like gsfprez's dad, you bastard!

      Sorry, just still workin' thru some issues.

    • Before that, a man named Mickey (i'm not making this up, the guy's name was Mickey) physcially ran around and attempted (pretty well, from what i hear) and manually lit the fireworks to coincide with the music. Eventually, he started using electrically fired squibs.

      Ya, I can see why. It's a lot easier to press a button for the squibs than it is to light a match when you're wearing big, white gloves.

    • [ ...Massively cool list of dad's Disneyland feats... ]

      Damn! So at Career Day in class when kids would bring in their parents to describe their jobs, everyone else must've just sunk their head in their hands and sobbed, "I suck!"

      Seriously, how does one follow an act like that? "I adjust actuarial tables to reflect trends in home insurance claims." (Kids begin to fidget and cry.)
  • Remember the good 'ol days of aqua-net hairspray, a bag 'o potatoes, and a compressed air gun made out of PVC??? :)
    I've never thought about putting fireworks in there... Thanks Disney!
    spudtech [spudtech.com]
  • I'd like to preface this by saying I really don't like the Disney Corporation. I really have to give them credit though. Developeing the technology to clean up the local air problem (seen here [disneycorner.com]) caused by their nightly fireworks and then giving away the patents on the technology is amazing. Wow, I am actually impressed.

    All we need now if for Microsoft to give back the double click and I can die a happy man. :)

  • I are a pyrotechnician (Score:5, Insightful)

    by smurd ( 48976 ) * on Monday June 28, 2004 @04:22PM (#9554771)
    When I set up a show, I bring mortar racks, shells and a firing system. The press release was kind of sketchy but I'm assuming I would need to bring a high pressure compressor (a Home Depot 175PSI compressor is not gonna launch a 5Lb shell 1500 feet with any reasonable mortar length). I would also need hundreds of feet of high pressure tubing (A finale rack is at least 100 feet from the main guns), and lots of fast (read expensive) air solenoids. It would take forever to set up a show like that.

    Then there is the safety problems, thy don't say how they ignite the time fuze and verify it's burning before a tubeload of rapidly decompressing, cooling air hits the shell. I would like to see some dud data.

    For a recurring display where you can leave the equiptment and just drop shells in the same tubes every night or week, this sounds like a dream though. I just can't see it coming to a municipal 4th of july show near you any time soon though.
    • I do some work for the Mouse. They've been working on this for several years. When I heard about it, the solution was similar to a gatling gun. All shells for a show could be fired from a single piece of equipment mounted on a truck bed. Add space saving to the list of advantages.

  • Didn't read the article... (Score:3, Informative)

    by cr0sh ( 43134 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @05:49PM (#9555653) Homepage
    ...haven't read all the comments, so take this remark with a grain of salt.

    Something people here seem to be wondering is how this system will compare in safety of preventing ground explosions of the shells (in the event of a misfire or other mishap).

    Something that I hope a lot of you know about is that the shells used in many displays are becoming very sophisticated. For a couple of years now they have had microcontrollers and other electronics in the shells, which can be programmed to cause the shells to do various effects (almost to the point of a custom effect shell). Some of these effects allow for timed designs - if the shell goes off right, you now have an expanding circle of "pixels" - so of you may have seen happy faces and hearts and similar designs done with shells. The microcontrollers can be programmed right before the launch to know when to explode (time or altitude based). I wouldn't be surprised if they don't have RF-based (hopefully over a secure encrypted channel) detonation. Perhaps even in-flight reconfiguration?

    Fireworks have recently become really high-tech, thanks to virtually throwaway low-power microcontrollers which are small and easily integratable into the shell. While none of this removes the possibility of a ground explosion, it does help lessen it (electrical ignition rather than timed fuse), and allows for more impressive effects and displays...

  • Disney-fied Fireworks -- No Thanks! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by dalesun ( 140319 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @06:57PM (#9556135)
    Disney-fied fireworks sound like a really bad idea. I'm a huge fan of fireworks displays, and feel it would just not be the Fourth of July without smelling a little sulfur!

    I've been to most every display on The Mall in Washington, DC for over 20 years. For July 4, 1986, I went to the Statue of Liberty centennial in NY, which was the most fantastic and outrageous display I've ever seen (they somehow removed ALL the cars in lower Manhattan to accommodate the crowds); it was surreal.

    I highly recommend seeing a display close up. On The Mall in DC, I love to get as close as possible to the launch site near 17th Street. The experience of HEARING each launch, and the anticipation of seeing the shell rise above you before exploding in all its glory is FANTASTIC. You know when they're coming, and have some idea of how big they will be. It's much different than watching from far away, there's no delay between the flash and the bang--and you FEEL the big bangs. There's also all kinds of sizzling, screaming, and crackling that you don't here from far away. Most of the ground level smoke comes from personal sparklers, firecrackers, and such (I expect that these things are prohibited in the magic--and antiseptic--kingdom); smoke from the official display is not a problem.

    The best place to see the fireworks on The Mall in DC would be from the Washington Monument grounds, but this area is mobbed with people from early in the day. Better to go just before Showtime to the much calmer and uncrowded Constitution Gardens (enter near 20th and Constitution Ave.). People think that the trees here will obstruct the view, but they don't, because most all of the fireworks will be STRAIT UP. They don't allow people to get TOO close, but you may see the rare bit of shell fragment or ash falling, don't be alarmed as they will burn out before getting to the ground. However, please do PAY ATTENTION to what's going on around you if you're out anywhere on the Fourth.

    Fireworks would not be the same with some sissy air launcher. This cleaned-up fireworks technology might be appropriate in Disneyland, but I really hope that it stays there.

  • Disney, home of inconsistencies. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Thedalek ( 473015 ) on Monday June 28, 2004 @10:23PM (#9557313)
    Am I alone in finding Disney's conflicting practices downright befuddling?

    "We're a multi-billion dollar conglomerate buying up controlling interest in virtually every market."

    "Watch 'Home on the Range,' a movie about small time businessmen getting ground under by the heel of evil corporations."

    "We oppose the flow of information and ideas through copyrights expiring. 75 years isn't long enough!"

    "We just made some revolutionary technology. Here, have it for free."

    What corporate schizophrenia is going on here?

  • Terrific News... now, get rid of the shells too (Score:3, Insightful)

    by SubtleNuance ( 184325 ) on Tuesday June 29, 2004 @06:56AM (#9558822) Journal
    This is a wonderfull development. Seeing as what a massive source of pollution Fireworks are. The blackpowder used to launch the shells will no longer release carcinogenic sulfur-coal compounds into the air directly ONTOP of our population centers.

    Everytime you watch a fireworks display, you are watching tonnes of heavy-metal and radioactive [angelfire.com] materials being peppered on your community. Making the evening not as wonderfull as Id like.

    But, tell me, how is a prudent environmentalist to come out against fireworks? What will the public think about the environmentalists who want to take something generally considered joyfull and request its abolition?

    on a more practical note, people need to be aware... we are capable of putting *some* amount of 'pollution' into our environment, but a wise person would not want to see so much that it adversly affects our (and nature's) health. If everyone decided "yes, we will release x,y and z of quatities a,b and c for this display and instead will stop buying/making/behaving in manner T" The trouble is we are not near this level of organization/understanding in the will of the public. Like most environmental issues that the public is directly connected to (consumption) they dont A) care or B) recognize their very real contribution to our looming problems.

    So, who wants to martyr themeselves on the Anti-Fireworks Brigade?

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