Copyright 2009. Photos by Brian Reed. Visit Brian Reed Photography
The first in this series you can see the atomized fuel as I spray it into the air. I have already achieved ignition with a torch. I pulled the torch away because I know, I can feel that I have enough combustion to continue the chain reaction that is a fireball.
In the second shot, the fire is still in the process of catching up with my lungs. You can see the fuel spray dancing outside the top edge. The fireball has begun to reach back towards my mouth and is also stretching up with the spray. Note that the very top is all white and fuzzy. That white fire is hot and catching up with the fuel, which is still reaching ahead of it. The hot white fuzz always precedes the mushroom (for lack of a better word.)
The mushroom happens when the fire completely catches up with the fuel spray. In the third image of the series we catch the mushroom as it really begins to kick in. That is the fireball. The spot with the most fire. I continue to feed it fuel with my spray.
The fourth image in the series shows me as I continue to spray fuel into the fireball. The mushroom head is really rolling. I am feeding it fuel and it is consuming the oxygen in the immediate area. There is a lot of fire happening. Fire uses oxygen. This stage sits approximately 8,500 feet in the air, there is not much oxygen up here.
In the fifth image we can see the fireball mushroom head dippin out on us. I have been slowly increasing the rate at which I atomize the fuel. This keeps the fireball from tracking down the fuel and into my face. When that happen, Asbestos used to say that the "dragon is kissing you." The fire stream continues up into the sky.
The 6th and final image has the last of the mushroom head as it turns into unburned carbon matter and smokes off with the wind. The fuel in my mouth is almost gone and the real glorious moment of the fireball is passed. This fraction of a second is the denoument of the fireball. Its final huzzah. a snaky lightning bolt of fire dancing off my face.
