Going to Deer Park and blowing things up has been a tradition for the past couple of years. Last year I built a sparkler bomb and set it off after the public fireworks show. The result was incredible. 1300 sparklers finished burning in less that two seconds, but what a two seconds it was. Since I was the one who lit the fuse and ran away, I got to feel the heat of the fire and watch the audience glow white and “Ooooooh” at the display. This year my friend Paul and I built three smaller ones (around 600 sparklers each) and managed to get some video. The first one was set in a piece of steel pipe to try and direct the flames upward. It worked fine but the pipe was way too hot to use after that. The other two were also fun, but the camera couldn’t autofocus well in the dark. Pictures of preparation are here. I also made videos of the ignition:

Pipe sparkler Regular sparkler

Both movies are H.264, so you’ll need a modern player to view them.