Flash Paper

If anyone has experience with using large amounts of flash paper or flash cotton, I'm wondering if the fire alarms might go off? I'm thinking about cutting the title "The Crucible" out of flash paper and lighting it on a dark stage at the start of the show. I realize that all the letters need to be touching but I'm also wondering if it will work properly if I lightly mount it on plywood or luon.
 
Depends on the detectors. Are they heat or particulate detectors. As well as if you have a fire system built into your HVAC system. Best to check with your facilities manager or whoever is in charge of maintaining both systems as they will know for sure.

You could space out the letters just need a fuse for each letter.
 
Well particulates are going to pick up the smoke so really you will have to find out how much smoke this whole thing is going to give off.

Looks like you get to do some testing. :dance:
 
Any Pyro effect, and certainly one of the scale you are talking about needs to be supervised by a licensed pyrotechnician and approved by your AHJ. Odds are that either one of those people could give you a definitive answer regarding the systems in your facility.
 
Any Pyro effect, and certainly one of the scale you are talking about needs to be supervised by a licensed pyrotechnician and approved by your AHJ. Odds are that either one of those people could give you a definitive answer regarding the systems in your facility.

Agreed here also. I'm not sure what the implications are when using flash paper in large quantities but I've heard that sparklers can be downright explosive under the right conditions. Sounds like you need the right effect for the job, and the assistance/supervision of a licensed professional. We generally use lances for lettering, but we've only done these outside as they create a lot of smoke and flame. However, I wouldn't be surprised if there are indoor effects as well. Seems like flash paper/cotton would react too quickly to read, and perhaps with quite unpredictable results. Fire alarm detection does sound like a real possibility.

I can only speak for my company, but we never look in to what types of detectors are in use. We just inform the venue that the system needs to be in standby/test/etc. It's up to the AHJ on what they want to do in regards to monitoring the building. In most cases they send someone out.

This is second-hand information, but I have heard that return air duct detectors are particulate.
 
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Large volumes of Flash paper create LARGE volumes of flame and Smoke!
Far be it from me to fly in the face of Creativity but I would wonder if this gag were not better served by the use of a projection, wherein you could control the rate of burn and readability or even by videoing the flash paper effect then projecting that.
There are also economic reasons for this. If you have to place your Fire alarm system in "stand by" while you have an audience in the theatre wyou will be required by your AHJ to provide "fire watch personnel" this means someone with a flashlight and fire extinguisher at every point of egress and ingress, to the theatre as well as the wings along with at least one <depending on the size of your venue> 'roving' fire watcher whose sole duty id to keep an eye out fire in the rest of the zone that has been put in stand by. That's a lot of folks to pay and that must factored into the cost of your effect.
Also, having worked with a lot of flash paper over the years I can tell you it's finicky, and inconsistent. You almost never get the same burn rate from book to book. It's extremely temperamental.

Again, I like the idea, I'm concerned about the practicality, economics and consistency.
 
If you do choose to do the effect, you might want to look at fireworks fuses. I'm taking a manufacturing class right now and one of the problems most of us had this week was cutting our internal fuse (I'm sure there's a name for it) slightly too long, so that our fireworks went off a little too late. For the stuff we were working with, we had burn rates of 3 seconds/inch of fuse and 7 seconds/inch of fuse.
There's still the problem of fire and smoke, but that might help with consistency.
 
If you do choose to do the effect, you might want to look at fireworks fuses. I'm taking a manufacturing class right now and one of the problems most of us had this week was cutting our internal fuse (I'm sure there's a name for it) slightly too long, so that our fireworks went off a little too late. For the stuff we were working with, we had burn rates of 3 seconds/inch of fuse and 7 seconds/inch of fuse.
There's still the problem of fire and smoke, but that might help with consistency.

Sounds like you're referring to Visco fuse? Of course this gets in to the murky waters of pyrotechnic manufacturing, on top of the implications/difficulties related to the original discussion.
 
Build one. Test it outside at night. Invite the local authorities. Video record it. (Share it here?)

Depending how big a large led display might be better and easier than projection. Possibly behind some black scrim.
 
Build one. Test it outside at night. Invite the local authorities. Video record it. (Share it here?)

It's a trap! ;)

I know how @BillConnerFASTC must feel about the effect, and honestly I agree with him. I love using pyro in large arenas and the like, but I think this effect warrants something a bit more tame. It's a lot of risk for such a quick little gag. Granted, it would look really cool if it worked correctly, but maybe something rear-projected would do just as well.

Ah! That would make sense.... Shutting up now...

Haha, you're fine!
 
I think all of us want to see this happen. And we all know a projector just doesn't have that real life in the moment effect.
 
I think all of us want to see this happen. And we all know a projector just doesn't have that real life in the moment effect.

I'd love to see it. But only if all necessary precautions are taken and the right people are involved.

FWIW, if you were to cold-call a pyrotechnics company, they'd probably propose a propane flame effect since they are much more reliable and consistent (and no/very low smoke). None of this dealing with flash paper business.
 
Perhaps I'm wrong, but I don't think a size has been mentioned, and I suspect we all have somewhat varying notions of how large this is. I think the test outdoors would be safe and give an idea of the hazards and the effect. I am also concerned just from the aesthetic side it will burn too fast to be legible long enough to read it.

Some cool you tubes on making your own flash paper and "nitro-cotton" though.
 
Perhaps I'm wrong, but I don't think a size has been mentioned, and I suspect we all have somewhat varying notions of how large this is. I think the test outdoors would be safe and give an idea of the hazards and the effect. I am also concerned just from the aesthetic side it will burn too fast to be legible long enough to read it.

Some cool you tubes on making your own flash paper and "nitro-cotton" though.
What did you do with the Real Bill Conner?
 

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