Polumnas (Triangle Firecrackers)

Polumna’s are Mexican in origin, and look like an equailteral triangle when completed. Dead simple to make, they are completely made out of paper, sticky tape and of course black powder, so they are pretty harmless but cool little firecrackers.

Materials

• Black Powder (or for a sharper crack use flash powder)
• 50mm of fuse
• Thick wad of newspaper
• Tape

Method

Click the image below to get a visual guide on how to fold a polumna. The numbers in the image correspond to the steps below…

Diagram with instructions on showing how to make a polumna.

1. First of cut a 50mm wide by 600mm long strip from the newspaper. Use a whole newspaper and a craft knife to cut through all the pages so you get a thick strip. The take the bottom right corner and fold it over the the left edge, making a smalle triangle.

The layers of newspaper used to make a polumna.

1. Take the bottom left corner of the triangle and fold it along the top edge of the triangle so it flips the triangle along its horizontal axis.
2. Take the left corner again and fold the triangle diagonally so the left corner touches the right-hand side.
3. This will form and pocket inside the triangle. This is where you pour in about 2 grams of BP or flash powder. Fill the pocket so it is 3/4 full, then place the end of the fuse in the mix.

Wrapping the newspaper into a triangle, filling it with blackpower, and then adding a fuse.

1. Carefully keep wrapping the newspaper around the triangle as described in steps 1,2 and 3 until you you’ve used up all the paper. Use a bit of celotape to keep it wrapped up.

The finished polumna.

1. Light fuse and get to a safe distance!

The remains of a polumna.

Video

A video of a small polumna being lit.