Flowerpot – the most important ingredient of a Diwali celebration. It is every one’s favourite. Very often flowerpots are lighted to show happiness and joy. As it does not produce any sound, it is the most popular item of crackers in every celebration. Also, each kid loves to play with its wonderful colours during a festival season. It is normally available in red, white, gold, silver, blue, green and many more colours. While celebrating Diwali with flowerpots have you ever thought how it is made? How is it able to exhibit different colours? Why is it not exploding once lighted? Through this article let us find answers to these questions.

Cone filling – in a snapshot

There are fixed sized cones used for filling the ingredients, later wrapped up with colourful papers and displayed. It is also given the black thread dipped in gun powder that is helpful for lighting purpose. According to the variation of a special ingredient the colour display may change. That’s the reason why we get different colours of flowerpots in markets.

Flowerpot production begins with preparation of cones

Cones are nothing but cardboards, beautifully cut as rounds and later joined to form cones. Since it closely resembles a flower pot, this colourful item got the name, ‘flowerpot’. Also, while it’s lighted it emits light as if flowers are spread out from a pot. Throughout the process of flowerpot making, a special gum extracted from plant stain is used. Later it is dried and kept one above the other for future uses. It varies in sizes, according to the desired purposes.

Second part is the preparation of medicine for cones

Medicine is nothing but the explosive prepared for filling the cone. The secret behind those bright sparking flowers are simple aluminum grains. Aluminum grains are just aluminum particles used for such illuminations in Diwali works and fireworks. It adds glitters to flowerpots. They are not powdered type, but granules. In addition to it, 3-6 aluminum powder, barium nitrate and sulphur are used in all flower pots. This combination gives silver colour that means colourless.

If you want to add colours a certain quantity of another chemical is to be added also. Let me give the name of chemicals used for getting different colours.

• Strontium nitrate – Red
• Barium nitrate – Green
• Cupric Oxide – Blue
• Combination of carbon, sulphur and potassium nitrate – Gold

According to the desired colour you want you can use anyone of the above substance while preparing the filling.

Third step is filling of cones

A small pore will be present. So, it is needed to be covered first before filling the medicine. For that, a coloured paper is used.

Desired amount of the above substance is filled in the cones. If you fill more amounts, it will illuminate for more time. But the truth is that, just one or two spoon of medicine is used for filling and the rest is filled by waste and other waste materials to give a complete shape.

For filling the rest, the gum that I have mentioned before, sand and soil are used. A round shaped card board is placed to partition the medicine and mud mixture. That means, before putting the sand-soil mixture to the cone, a round shaped cardboard is placed to avoid the contact between these two. Then finally its mouth is covered using paper and gum. It is placed in sunlight for drying.

Fourth step is giving black threads to cone

For lighting a thread a black thread is placed in the pointed end of the flower pot. In my previous article I have explained how black threads are produced. But there is a slight variation in contents. Here, in addition to charcoal, potassium nitrate and sulphur, 3-9 Aluminum powder is used to get a perfect finish for the flowerpot. In normal gunpowder 999 Aluminum powder is used. Since it is not used for sound, a slight difference is there in its ingredients. All other steps are the same in the preparation of black threads.

So, the black thread of 4 or 5 cm length is fixed and the fourth step is completed.

Now, the final step is decoration

Everyone goes for crackers that are decorated well. So, flower pots are also made attractive with multi-coloured and designed papers before selling. Usually a thin, coloured, square shaped paper is used to cover its mouth and a glittering paper to cover its body. While covering the body, the worker should ensure that black thread is not covered. Also, make that tip stronger to ensure that black thread won’t fall or lose. Now flowerpots are placed in sun for drying and later packed well or send to shops as per requirement.

Why flowerpots often explode?

It is normally seen that flower pots are also not free of dangers. So we should ensure our safety while lighting flowerpots. Never allow kids to light it. Just keep them at distance. Have you ever thought why flowerpots often burst even if it is meant for exhibiting colours and flowers?

The answer lies in the fixing of medicine inside. The procedure of placing medicine inside the cones is also done under strict instructions. It should never be applied too much pressure or never too tight. If so, it will explode when it is lightened. Man is not free of mistakes and a simple error in the fixing of the ingredients may result in explosion.

Conclusion

So, we have come to an end of this article. Though I know the exact measurement of chemicals used in flowerpot preparation, I am avoiding those secret details for safety. My article is just to make you acknowledged with, how a flowerpot is made and what are the chemicals used for its production. Hoping you liked this article a lot.

Such colours and sounds are just a part of our funs, festivals and celebrations to enjoy the moments with peace and cheer. So, do light a flowerpot next time when your family is celebrating something nice or a function is organized. Yet let me tell you, handle such firework items with great care! Never try to open or light again a fused one. It may invite a danger. Thank you.