A quarter stick can hold 20 grams of flash powder, more or less. All similar modern-day large 'M' firecrackers containing more than 50 mg of powder are in fact illegal bootlegs, with no standards for either names, powder content, or powder composition, so an exact definition is hard to pin down. They are generally 3.5 inches long and 1 in diameter. Colors may vary. Some proclaim that Quarter ticks and M-80s are the exact same which is incorrect, as M-80s had use in the past as military simulators which were made to exacting specifications. Some even say an M-80 is equivalent in explosive power to 1/4 of a stick of dynamite; nothing more than fiction. In fact, a classic M-80 contains three grams of flash powder, while a quarter of a stick of dynamite would contain 35 grams of nitroglycerine. Furthermore, nitroglycerine is a high explosive, while the flash powder used in flashcrackers does not function as a high explosive, although it is classified as such by the BATF. Despite this, a "quarter stick" is still powerful enough to mangle a human limb if it explodes nearby. Explosive devices containing more than 50 milligrams of flash powder are illegal to manufacture, use, or possess in the United States without a license from the BATFIn pyrotechnics a salute is a device primarily designed to make a loud report (bang), rather than have a visual effect. Most salutes will also have a very bright flash and may have titanium added for a cloud of sparks (titanium salute.) The salute may be fired on the ground (ground salute) or launched from a mortar as a shell (aerial salute). Due to the nature of the effect, large salutes are some of the more hazardous fireworks. Most of the "salutes" are made with flash powder. Flash powder has a very fast burn rate, unlike black powder. Flash powder also produces a flash and a bang because it burns so fast.
The amount of flash powder contained in any salute can vary widely, due to their bootlegging by different manufacturers. The vast majority of designations, with the exception of the true M-80, are made to suit and vary from maker to maker. In addition, due to varying powder grinds and formulation even firecrackers known to have the same quantity of powder can have widely divergent yields.
Though both news reporters and black-market dealers often make comparisons between the power of illegal salutes and a particular quantity of dynamite ("1/4 stick" or "as powerful as a fourth of a stick of dynamite"), such comparisons are not grounded in reality. Even a fractional stick of dynamite, with the requisite blasting cap needed for detonation, releases far more energy than any normal salute. For reference, a typical stick of dynamite contains over 10 times more explosive material than an authentic M-80 (35 grams of nitroglycerin versus 3 grams of flash powder). Furthermore, dynamite is more powerful than flash powder (compared by mass or volume), and it is denser. Thus the physical size of a flash powder salute is several times larger than its "equivalent" chunk of dynamite. Subjectively, the quantity of flash powder required to approximate the noise and shockwave of a stick of dynamite is several hundred grams
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Dangg that a nice grill to blow up! :P
Stang444 6 months ago
A good self defense weapon to say the least! The power of Nitroglycerin. Heat really sets these things off.
cimplexsounds 1 year ago
Why the hell did you blow up a seemingly functional, nice grill???
dawson01912 1 year ago 2
thats a nice grill thats a nice half stick lol!!!!
midnitesquirldog 2 years ago
how much fash powder did u have in this Device?
QuarterSticks 2 years ago
ha that was awesome!
humansymphony 2 years ago
wow that was sick
midnitesquirldog 2 years ago