Fireballs

This site is dedicated to the art of blowing fireballs.

What is it and how does it work?

Fireball (noun) is defined as "A brilliantly burning sphere"

"Blowing a fireball" is the act of spitting flammable liquid onto an open flame, which ignites into a ball of fire. This liquid is most typically high-proof grain alcohol. Large fireballs may be three feet (about 1 meter) in diameter or last as long as 5 seconds.

Fireballs work by ejecting flammable liquid as a mist over the open flame. The fine droplets of mist allow for quick evaporation and create a rich fuel-air mixture that is highly flammable. When the flammable fuel/air mixture reaches an ignition source, it quickly begins to burn and turns into a brilliant ball of fire.

In a normal scenario, the ejection of flammable liquids from one's mouth happens fast enough so the flame front doesn't travel back into one's mouth. The closer to one's mouth, the larger the droplets of liquid and the less time it has had to evaporate and mix with air. So the fireball is unlikely to ignite inside your mouth, although it is still possible.

Background

For over 7 years, blowing fireballs has been a Garage Crowd tradition. It all started in the fall of 1999 with a bottle of "Diesel" (a brand of 190 proof grain alcohol), a video camera and a bunch of crazy crowd kids.

This site will explore the art of producing fireballs with pictures of how it is done