Epic Fireworks Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Catherine Wheel’

One of our loyal customers decided to do something a little fancy. He decided that he wanted to make his own catherine wheel using our 1kg machine pressed conic fountains.

He used 5 of our super conic fountains to drive the wheel sending out sparks left, right and centre. As you can see from the video below, it really does start to pick up speed – we think it’s very cool

Click here for another fountain experiment.

The Catherine Wheel is a beautiful firework with a gruesome history. It is thought to have been named after the breaking wheel, an instrument of torture. The victim’s limbs were brutally smashed with large blunt objects. His (or her) still-living remains were subjected to… the wheel. This meant the mangled arms and legs were threaded through the spokes. The wheel was then hoisted into the air using a long pole. Hungry vultures and crows picked at the body.

It gained notoriety in the early fourth century as when Emperor Maximus condemned Catherine of Alexandria to death on the wheel following her attempts to highlight the ‘error of his ways’ regarding the persecution of Christians (yes, another nagging woman). Unfortunately for the emperor, on touching the wheel, it broke. Undeterred, the emperor ordered her to be beheaded instead. This did of course earn her a Sainthood, and the Catherine Wheel was born.

The Catherine Wheel of today is a type of firework consisting of a powder-filled spiral tube or an angled rocket with a pin through its centre. They vary in price from just £1.62 for the Colourful Wheel to the Ring of Fire at just £8.10.

The largest Catherine wheel detailed in the Guiness Book Of Records was designed by The Lily Fireworks Factory and fired on the eve of the village feast of our Lady of Lilies on June 18th, 2011. http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records-1/firework-largest-catherine-wheel/

A year beforehand, they had tried but due to stronger than usual winds, the structure was damaged, much to the dismay of all involved in the project.

However, 1 year on, the new device, stronger and more visibly larger than the previous one successfully achieved rotation again and again much to the organisers and spectators delight.

So, whatever your taste, historically we have here in the UK had an infinity with the humble Catherine Wheel and will continue to do this for many years to come.

A short video explaining the science behind a Catherine wheel Firework.