Flares

[3dfan]

Originally Posted by Chuck Baier

White flares are generally used for rescue or any other purpose other than to announce an emergency. So if you don't believe you will encounter any situation that would require white flares you are not required to carry them. The choice is up to you.

We have white flares on board - I am sure they will help if something will be wrong!

[hellosailor]

Sabre-
Consider how the militaries store minutions: In sealed metal tins, like sardines. Keep your flares in a DRY airtight container, and they typically will last for decades. Plastic is not airtight, it usually allows some oxygen through. Get a metal surplus ammunition can, which as a rubber gasket and good tight seal. Clean it up, stow the pyros in there. That way if they catch fire by themselves--they are contained. No air, no fire.

No air, no moisture, no degradation. Stick an inventory on the outside of the can, so there is no need to open it (and add new air and moisture) for inspection.

How long can munitions last? Well, a 1770's cannonball filled with DuPont black powder was recovered in the 1990's (200 years later) after being packed in dense mud. It detonated just fine, with the fuse replaced. And WW1-era ammunition buried in the deserts of the mideast is still being found--and used. No special storage, just hot dry desert sand in former trenches.

Work every time? No, but if 80% of your old flares still work--that's a pretty good return on investment. With just 3 or 6 flares on board, the world only has what? Two minutes to see you?

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

... How long can munitions last? Well, a 1770's cannonball filled with DuPont black powder was recovered in the 1990's (200 years later) after being packed in dense mud. It detonated just fine, with the fuse replaced...

Black powder, but NOT DuPont powder.

The the du Pont family immigrated to the United States from France in 1800, and Eleuthère Irénéé du Pont established his first powder mill on Brandywine Creek produced its first gunpowder in 1803.
➥ #221 Brandywine River Powder Mills (1803-1921) - Landmarks

[hellosailor]

I had read at the time that it was produced by E. I. DuPont Denemours & Co., quite possibly as French aid to the colonies.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

I had read at the time that it was produced by E. I. DuPont Denemours & Co., quite possibly as French aid to the colonies.

Yes, American Co founded 1802, funded (in part) by French investors.
DuPont - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia