What follows is the Veline color system, as published by Robert Veline, and as
used in the Kosankie's 'Chemistry of Fireworks (Chemistry of color) class'.
This class (the color chapter) was taught by Wes Smith at the last Florida
Guild Fall Festival, and was a complete success.  It was full of revelations,
too.

My personal opinion of these colors is that they are quite bright, adequately
saturated, 'true' as to hue, and VERY easy to make good stars with.  And, of
course, they mix compatibly to produce nearly every color in the spectrum.  And,
of course, there's no _guessing_ as to what colors to use to achieve others,
because the colors mix strictly according to the color mixing 'triangle' Mr.
Veline published with the formulae (cannot duplicate it in text, get the
Kosankie book).

A couple of personal notes:  The wood meal in the prime appears to be for the
purpose of making the stars a little 'fuzzy', so they'll light more easily.  I
attempted to make some of the prime without the wood meal, substituting air
float for it, and the stars often blew blind.  WITH the wood dust, they nearly
always light (apparently, mechanics is every bit as important as chemistry).
I ended up using sifted Spruce sanding dust; worked fine.

Also, wear breathing protection when using the green formula, and ALWAYS when
using the prime, because of the potassium dichromate.

I very deliberately used all of Veline's spelling, capitalization and punctua-
tion, just as he did on the original sheet.  I wouldn't change a thing!  It's
a terrific system, and I thank him for the contributions.

These stars make great Roman Candle balls!

LLoyd E. Sponenburgh

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A COMPATIBLE STAR FORMULA SYSTEM FOR COLOR MIXING  --   BY ROBERT VELINE

                RED                  A FEW NOTES ABOUT THESE FORMULAE

Potassium Perchlorate   55         The numbers are in percent by weight.
Strontium Carbonate     15      The Potassium Perchlorate is a fine powder,
Parlon                  15      the swedish stuff is what I used. The Parlon
Red Gum                  9      was Hercules brand, but Superchlon brand
Magnalium (50/50) -200   6      from Ishihara co. ltd. also works.  Nothing
Dextrine                +4      special about the Red Gum, just fine powder.

              ORANGE               The best Barium and Strontium Carbonates
                                are obtained from Barium and Chemicals of 
Potassium Perchlorate   55      Stuebenville (spelling?) Ohio.
Calcium Carbonate       15
Parlon                  15        Copper Carbonate may be used rather than
Red Gum                  9      Black Copper Oxide without much change in
Magnalium (50/50) -200   6      performance.
Dextrine                +4
                                 The Calcium Carbonate was -200 mesh 'Whiting'.
               GREEN            I have tried finer more pure forms and found
                                they have slowed the burn rate, and degraded
Potassium Perchlorate   30      the color...
Barium Nitrate          24
Barium Carbonate        15        Note that all of the proportions are the same
Parlon                  15      for the different colors, the exception being
Red Gum                  5      the green.  The idea is to have as many
Magnalium (50/50) -200  11      characteristics, burn rate, brightness, flame
Dextrine                +4      size, color purity, and density of powder, 
                                common between the different powders, as is
                BLUE            possible.

Potassium Perchlorate   55         While these formulas do not excel in any one
Black Copper Oxide      15      characteristic, they are all part of a matched
Parlon                  15      set.
Red Gum                  9
Magnalium (50/50) -200   6          The green...
Dextrine                +4        I was unable to get a suitable green star for
                                this family without using Barium Nitrate.  So,
          SUPER PRIME           in order to compensate for the reduced oxidizing
                                ability of the nitrate, a more energetic fuel
Potassium Perchlorate   55      mixture was used.
Air Float Charcoal      20
Wood Meal  -70           6                    NOW THE FUN STUFF
Red Iron Oxide           5
Magnalium (50/50)        5        YELLOW               55 green   45 orange
Potassium Dichromate     5        CHARTREUSE           80 green   20 orange
Dextrine                 4        AQUA                 80 green   20 blue
                                  TURQUOISE            55 green   45 blue
                                  MAGENTA              50 red     50 blue
                                  MAROON               85 red     15 blue
                                  PEACH     60 orange  25 red     15 blue
          Copyright               PURPLE     5 orange  15 red     80 blue
        Robert Veline
                                                WELL, THAT'S IT!

                               These stars are the results of a couple of years
                               of hard work, they are offered as some form of
                               repayment to the many people who published
                               information which I have feasted on all these
                               years.

                                THANK YOU!!!!
                                Robert Veline II
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