ROAD FLARES - LONGEVITY AND IDEOLOGY QUESTIONS

We used "em" and railroad flares to dig up yelloe jacket nest. Light it and lstuff it in their entrance hole. Throw a scoop of dirt on top. The fumes would knock the jackets out. We'd dig "em" brush off the jackets and put nest in a paper sack. At home we'd put the sack in the freezer for a short time to stun any jackets we missed. Then we'd take the nest out and remove any jasckets we missed. Yellow jacket larve makes great bream bait.
 
There is an art to flare patterns. Many if not most drivers have never seen an old-fashioned road flare pattern in use.
Any tips for the many drivers?
I've seen some crazy numbers including double the speed limit for the spacing of each in feet.
If I only had three on a straight road I'd do 20 ft. - 100 ft. - 100 yards.
 
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A fellow Jail Deputy back in the early 70's was a reloader experimenter extrodinaire.
He decided for some reason that Road Flare powder would make a good filler for most of the empty space in his 38special rounds he was reloading. He expwected some dazzleing fireworks.
So with those in hand along with his brand new S&W Mod 37 3" revolver, he touched off a few at a range fest one morning before our 2-10 afternoon shift.

A sorry site that alloy frame revolver was.,,and a total loss.

We were all Jail Deps and had to supply our own 38cal revolvers.
 
I'd have to go out to the truck and find the DOT manual to be sure on spacing of warning devices. Having said that, IIRC, you're supposed to start 100 feet back at/near the lane edge and work to the berm in about 50 foot intervals with your 3 devices. Now, that works on straight, level roads. If curves/height changes are in play, you need at least one warning item on the other side. If you have extras you might consider putting at least one out for oncoming traffic.

Too bad there's no motor vehicle equivalent for the railroad torpedos. For those unfamiliar, they're percussion devices used (back in ye days of olde) to warn engineers of problems. When the engine ran over one, it really got the crew's attention. 3 in quick succession was emergency stop. Wonder if they're still used? OK, drivers wouldn't know the signals, but the noise should get their attention.
 
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