These fireworks shells are measured from their outside diameter. The smaller shells are 2.5 to 6 inches and are shot out of a pipe, mortar or rack that is staked to the ground. (photo/diagram) The larger shells are 8, 10, 12, 16 inches and are shot out of a steel, plastic or cardboard pipe that is buried in the ground or placed in 55 gallon drums filled with sand. (photo/diagram)

Aerial shells are lowered to the bottom of the pipe with the fuse hanging out approximately 3 inches from the top. This allows 3 to 6 seconds to retreat when the fuse is lit.

Usually cakes are tubes with a clay plug in the bottom that are either glued or banded together and then placed in a box. Each tube has a lift charge and an insert with a disc on top to hold the contents in place. Each tube also has a hole in either side to allow a connector fuse to pass along the bottom of the insert. When the cake is lit, the fire passes down to the bottom of the cake and then from tube to tube in a rapid fire method.

Candles are a tube that has a clay plug at the bottom. Most 1, 1.5 and 3 inch diameter candles have 8 separate shots that are separated from each other with a disc and timing fuse. As the first shot of fire ignites and launches from the tube it lights the next shot until all the shots are fired into the air.

Most shells are made of cardboard. The ball is made of two separate spheres which are placed together and then taped tightly together. The shell is then wet wrapped with 30 pound pasted craft paper. The shell will be set aside to dry for 3 days. Later the time fuse is attached and the shell will be finished.

These are pellet type items that are the color agents in an aerial shell. Chemicals are combined to form the desired color.

These include serpents, whistles, tourbillions and salutes. They are powders that are loaded into a tube and closed at one end. The chemical mixture is loaded into the tube and then fused.

The shells from china or the canister multi-break shells from America are composed of two shells, one on topof the other (color on top, salute on bottom). When the shell is lit, the lighting fuse passes fire to the lift and lights a passage fuse that lights the time fuse on the top shell at the same time.

They are usually 3 and 4 inch shells that are made up of a composition that burns when it leaves the tube.

These are 3 and 4 inch shells that, when lit throw the stars and inserts into the air from the tube to a height of 80 feet.

These are individual shells that are fused together into chains. This allows the pyrotechnician to light one fuse and ignite many shells.

On average we need 70 foot clearance per inch of diameter of shell, in all directions (ie to the nearest parked car, spectator, building, public road...). For example, a 5 inch aerial shell would need 350 feet in all directions. Schaefer Fireworks adheres to strict safety rules. We double our shooting distance if we are near a hospital, mental health facility, correction facility, flammable material site or any site that we view as a special danger.