Flames, thunderous noise, drama and the threat of explosive, combustive doom: That’s why this sculpture by Dave Umlas will please your inner fire-starter. Made from stainless steel, propane gas-air jets and what seems to be a turbine-like system somewhere in its construction, it exists merely to thrill you with flames. If the still photos of the sculpture aren’t enough for you, check out the video. It’s freakin’ firey. galleryPost('fireeffect', 5, '');
Created for this year’s Burning Man festival, the Flamethrower Shooting Gallery looks like one hell of a stress-relieving sideshow amusement. It was created by Matisse and Roxie and recently debuted at the Oakland The Crucible’s Fire Arts Festival… presumably to a warm reception. Check out the short video to see it in action—though you might want to turn the volume down, the happy screams are a little loud.
Everett Bradford is a student with a wannabe superhero streak, so for a project in his mechanisms class he’s built his own flamethrower. A wrist-mounted one, to give an arm-directed puff of flame like Pyro from X-Men. As you can see from the video, it actually works… so ten out of ten to Everett. But minus several million for the instant when he puts it to his face to puff on the pilot light. Didn’t his Mum tell him not be careless with fire? [Gadget Lab]
Flashlights are generally there to help you out in a time of need, such as when your power goes out and you need to fumble around in the dark. A flashlight that lights stuff on fire because it’s so powerful might be neat for goofing around with your pyro friends, but something tells me that if you accidentally burned your house down trying to find candles you’d be pretty pissed about buying such a ludicrous item. Luckily, at US$300 it’s way too expensive to be a good substitute for matches, so your house is probably safe for now. Hit the jump for a video of the firey flashlight in action.
