Re: beraq construction

I'm curious what you mean by 'poster board.' Do you mean a bristol? Solid
bleached sulphate? Certainly not a coated ***? There used to be a cheap
colored newsprint-like *** called poster, but it was not a board. I have not
seen it in years.

The product I mean by chipboard is a material made from groundwood pulp or
recycled mixed papers of the lowest quality, and is not coated or laminated. It
replaces the strawboard spoken of by Weingart. It is the 'carta grigia' of the
Italians. have seen it as thin as maybe .008" and of course all the way up to
..040". Thicker board is made by laminating multiple plies of this material and
is called binder's board.

There used to be a product known as bogus bristol that typically had a thin
layer of color on the surface, but when torn revealed a grey center. This
material used to be used for theatre tickets, etc. There was a similar but
thicker item that was called railroad board.

Apropos of the use of barium nitrate in the priming slurry, one of my Maltese
correspondents said that the basic slurry for beraq was meal powder mixed with
gum arabic water and that various diluents, one of which was barium nitrate,
could be mixed with this to slow it down. I really don't know how commonplace
such a practice is since many techniques are peculiar to one village.

As for the use of barium nitrate in traditional Maltese pyrotechny being 'rare'
- I would certainly take exception to this, as they have there all the typical
compositions using it, as, e.g., in green stars, in the strong white with
aluminum and sulphur, the analogous strong yellow, etc.

Various techniques are used for piercing. One maker has a sort of turntable
fitted in an opening through a wall. There are notches in the edge of the wheel
to hold the beraq. In use a worker on one side of the wall places one of the
filled reports in a notch, and turns the wheel so the report is carried round to
the other side where another worker with a very long-handled awl or piercer
(your 'nail on the end of a long wooden dowel') pierces it. The wheel is then
turned around again and the pierced report is taken out on the other side. This
way, only one report is in the room where the piercing takes place, so that
should it explode, it will not communicate fire to the others. The length of the
piercer's handle keeps the hands of its user at sufficient distance from the
report to limit the potential of serious injury.


In article <1136350793.053855.263170@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
missmonkeyshine@xxxxxxxxxxx says...
>
>Mike,
>
>The casings are more suitably rolled from material similar to
>posterboard than chipboard, and just about any lightweight paper will
>do just fine. The number of turns ranges from 2 to 6 depending on the
>desired timing. Also, the small reports held with a long, notched stick
>while they are pierced through with any of three sizes (diameter) of
>sharpened nails on the end of a long wooden dowel. The thickness of
>the case wall and the diameter of the piercing determine the timing.
>The larger diameter holes deform the case wall in such a way as to
>create a not only wider hole , but also a "longer" hole by pushing the
>hole's sidewalls into the shell somewhat.
>
>The most experienced builders can modify the timing somewhat also by
>varying the pressure with which they squish the prime into the hole.
>The harder you push, the longer they prime's pathway is into the
>report. They try to get them all the same, but the beginner's shells
>will be heard in the air as having loose timing due to the
>constructor's lack of consistency.
>
>The use of barium nitrate in traditional maltese pyrotechnics is very
>rare.
>
>Regina
>

.