No. 100 Tau

[FinnAmerican]

What does "No. 100 TAU" mean..?
http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=5593&stc=1

[jamisonlm3]

Apparently (https://pyrodata.com/PyroGuide/index.php%5Etitle=Tau.htm), it's got to do with the ammount of charge in string of firecrackers. It's a very old system not really used by us since we have limits on how much flash goes in them. It's easier for use to go off the number.

[RalphieJ]

What does "No. 100 TAU" mean..?
5593

A measurement for the total amount of the charge in a roll or pack. It never correlated to anything that made sense to me.........I don't think they care about "truth in advertising" LOL.

[displayfireworks1]

Currently Tau means , a way to confuse a retail fireworks customer with a large number. What I find interesting is, when some of the pyrotalk members post these old firecracker labels , I see additional wording along of the lines "Contains approximately X number of firecrackers" I wish it would go back to that. Even though I am now selling DF1 firecracker rolls I still feel it should say that. Surprisingly, no customer ever complains, most likely because these Tau rolls are not expensive and/or you impressive you family when you light that 16K roll off. "Ok folks here goes 16 Thousand firecrackers". LOL
.
On a side note, there is actually an unofficial holiday called "Tau Day"

[halk]

We still have no solid definition of use of the word tau (Chinese for 'size') as it pertains to firecrackers. There is no indication the unit is meant to deceive buyers. Nor any indication that it has to do with the powder content of each cracker in a string. The best explanation seems to be the word represents the total weight of powder in units of braided crackers. We know the tau system exaggerates the actual number of crackers in strings from a factor of about 2 to 5. Here is how the tau size' works for strings marked 100,000 or less:

100 Tau=48 pcs.
200 Tau=90
300 Tau=128
500 Tau=168
1,000 Tau=336
2,000 Tau=620
3,000 Tau=888
4,000 Tau=1,000
5,000 Tau=1,388
10,000 Tau=2,491
20,000 Tau=4,582
25,000 Tau=5,000
30,000 Tau=6,869
50,000 Tau=10,920
100,000 Tau=16,294

Hope this helps. Thanks to old friend Tom Massarella for the compilation of the list of tau numbers.

[gweilo]

Thanks for posting Tom's translation Hal!

[displayfireworks1]

We still have no solid definition of use of the word tau (Chinese for 'size') as it pertains to firecrackers. There is no indication the unit is meant to deceive buyers. Nor any indication that it has to do with the powder content of each cracker in a string. The best explanation seems to be the word represents the total weight of powder in units of braided crackers. We know the tau system exaggerates the actual number of crackers in strings from a factor of about 2 to 5. Here is how the tau size' works for strings marked 100,000 or less:

100 Tau=48 pcs.
200 Tau=90
300 Tau=128
500 Tau=168
1,000 Tau=336
2,000 Tau=620
3,000 Tau=888
4,000 Tau=1,000
5,000 Tau=1,388
10,000 Tau=2,491
20,000 Tau=4,582
25,000 Tau=5,000
30,000 Tau=6,869
50,000 Tau=10,920
100,000 Tau=16,294

Hope this helps. Thanks to old friend Tom Massarella for the compilation of the list of tau numbers.

Thanks for posting that translation. To be honest I don't trust it as gospel. LOL ... Some of you guys with those old firecracker labels that listed both Tau and towards the bottom it said something like "Contains approximately (X) number of firecrackers" ... When you find time , can you post a few pictures of those again.

[halk]

A couple pics that shows how the tau system worked.
Also a couple packs.
http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=5605&stc=1
.
.

http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=5610&stc=1
.
http://www.pyrotalk.com/bulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=5607&stc=1