Polumna's are Mexican in origin, and look like and equailteral triangle when completed. They are completely made out of paper and celotape, so there is no sharpnal to worry about when these cool little things go off.

ICHEMICALS:
Black Powder or for a sharper crack use flash powder
50mm of fuse

MATERIALS:
Thick wad of newspaper
Celotape

METHOD: (Steps correspond to numbers on picture)

1. First of cut a 50mm wide by 600mm long strip from the newspaper. Use a whole newspaper and a craft knife to cut through all the pages so you get a thick strip. The take the bottom right corner and fold it over the the left edge, making a smalle triangle.

2. Take the bottom left corner of the triangle and fold it along the top edge of the triangle so it flips the triangle along its horizontal axis.

3. Take the left corner again and fold the triangle diagonally so the left corner touches the right-hand side.

4. This will form and pocket inside the triangle. This is where you pour in about 2 grams of BP or flash powder. Fill the pocket so it is 3/4 full, then place the end of the fuse in the mix.

5. Carefully keep wrapping the newspaper around the triangle as described in steps 1,2 and 3 until you you've used up all the paper. Use a bit of celotape to keep it wrapped up.

6. Light and throw!

BP_polumna_01.mpg (746 kB) - Video of polumna going off