When I was a kid, every red-blooded American boy wanted to get his hands on some M-80s this time of year:
M-80s were originally made in the mid 20th century for the U.S. military to simulate explosives or artillery fire; later, M-80s were manufactured as fireworks. Traditionally, M-80s were made from a small cardboard tube, often red, approximately 1 1/2 inches (3.8 cm) long and 9/16 inch (1.4 cm) inside diameter, with a fuse coming out of the side; this type of fuse is commonly known as cannon fuse or Visco fuse, after a company responsible for standardizing the product. The tubes usually hold approximately 3 grams of pyrotechnic flash powder. The “M” is designated by a U.S. military convention for “standard” equipment and “80″ is for the 80 grains (5 grams) of flash powder within it.
They’re not quite legal:
Because an M-80 is a pyrotechnic device containing a charge in excess of 50 milligrams of pyrotechnic flash powder, civilian use requires a license issued by federal authorities. This is the result of the Child Protection Act of 1966 and regulation by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, with the purpose of limiting the potential property damage and bodily harm M-80s can cause. This law also covers cherry bombs.
In 1975, federal regulations were passed to limit all consumer-grade fireworks available for general sale to the public in the United States to a maximum of 50 milligrams flash powder, down from a previous maximum of 200 milligrams. However, firecrackers mounted onto a rocket stick, or other aerial firework devices, such as rockets, Roman candles, and the larger version of M-80s (M-1000 etc.), may still have significantly more, up to 130 mg, or more, depending on device and classification, and can be legally purchased by any American civilian citizen, except where prohibited by state law.
A person with a federal explosives license, issued by the ATF, may be allowed to purchase M-80s. Federal and state officials sometimes distribute them to farmers to scare away wildlife damaging their crops.
An M84 flash-bang grenade contains 4.5 grams of magnesium and ammonium nitrate, by comparison:
Upon detonation, it emits an intensely loud “bang” of 170–180 decibels and a blinding flash of more than one million candela within 5 feet (1.5 meters) of initiation, sufficient to cause immediate flash blindness, deafness, tinnitus, and inner ear disturbance.
My nephew, an orthopedic surgery resident, is doing an emergency room rotation this Fourth of July. He says they expect to see a lot of what they call “spaghetti hand” in youngsters who held on to their M-80s too long. When I was a kid, someone at the other end of the playground had an M-80 go off in his hand. I ran away, but the sound of his screams echoing off the sides of the old school building still lingers.
Ah…to live in a free, hopeful, lily-white land of high-school riflery drills, mail-order uranium hobby kits, and corner-store schoolboy flashbangs…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JR10AThY8M
I was born too late to get real M-80s, but the myth I was told in the ’70s was that they were equivalent to a quarter stick of dynamite. 5g of flash powder has a bit less kick than the 250kJ that a quarter stick of dynamite carries.