Stuck with the thought that I needed some sort of fire toy for Burning Man 2001 I set to work designing and building my first two burning art pieces. My criteria-they've got to be portable, easy to use, reliable and able to with-stand the harsh playa elements. The first one was mounted on a tri-pod on an adult tricycle. The expansion tank is a 5 gal. propane tank with a 3/4" valve mounted directly on top. The ignition system is a 12 volt neon transformer wired to an automotive spark plug. The most fun I've ever had in Black Rock City was the first evening I pedaled from Illumination Village to the center of town via the Esplenade blasting huge balls of fire 30' into the sky.

The second one came about after realizing I could make the expansion chamber out of any thing and any shape so long as it's strong enough to withstand thr pressure. Spying some assorted lengths of good size copper tube in the pipe rack I went to work putting them together in some sort of artful way To get the volume I needed for the 3/4" valve I ended up with a torch that is about 9" long and weighs approx. 45 lbs. If it wasn't for the gas powered golf cart I had to carry it around with I probably wouldn't have had so much fun.

Back home, after getting as much playa dust cleared as possible, it was time to start thinking about the next generation of fire flaunting devices. At that time my dream was to get ahold of a 1 1/2" valve with a 25 gal. expansion tank and create something really dangerous. Then it happened. One of my friends found an ugly old 1/2" valve for three dollars. I got an idea and went to work making a much smaller unit out of copper tube. It weighed approx. 10 lbs and at 50" long and used a 1.5v ignitor. This new torch turned out to be so much fun that I knew immediately that I had a viable new invention that people would love to play with and watch. The last challenge was to make it even lighter and to improve its looks. The answer was to replace the copper with nice polished aluminum. This, along with the brass and stainless steel, and a newly designed ignitor, made a unit that was extremely light weight and at the same time, great to look at. I've got more ideas on the drawing board and in the future you might be able to tell an '03 model from the '02 one.