Flaming Colours

Flaming Colours.

Flaming colours was an experiment worked on by all the buskers in 2017. Multiple forms of the experiment were developed by each busker but the main forms are Paddy's flaming colours (cotton balls over a bunsen burner) and Alice/Ben's form which is dissolved in meths and burnt in an evaporating dish. Another form is the flaming aurora webs, which is soaking strings in the salt/meths solution. The last form is to put copper chloride or strontium chloride around the neck of the big bertha to make green flame.

Chemicals to use for Flaming colours: Copper chloride, copper sulfide, barium chloride, potassium chloride, strontium chloride, calcium chloride, sodium chloride

Science behind it: the meths heat up the chemicals and the electrons gain heat energy so they move faster and then when they cool down they emit light and the difference between the highest temperature and the lowest temperature it reaches determines the colour of the light.

Paddy prepping for a test run. 2018

Paddy and Ruby practicing for a show 2019

Ruby and Emily working on the Aurora Web.

Copy of IMG_0434.MOV

Ideas: In a crucible (little porcelain?dish for heating) mix the salt with meths and line the sides/edges of the crucible with it. Then fill the crucible a little less than a third with meths and set on fire. It looks cool and the colours show very well. This should be how we should do flaming colours.

Also, in a petri dish, mix a spatula of a salt with (a lot) methylated spirits and soak a long piece of string in it. Us test tube holders to clamp both ends of the string and hold out and light on fire. (SEE VIDEO) We should dip parts of the string with different salts to make different colours. BTW THIS HAS EVOLVED INTO FLAMING SPIDER WEB

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