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PGI Judges Challenge Award Renamed After Passing Chief Judge Gerry Gits
Published: on Wednesday, January 09, 2008 - 10:44 PM IDLW- 6842 Reads

The PGI competition team lost a very special member on Christmas Eve, 2007 with the passing of Chief Judge Gerry Gits. To honor Gerry's manifold contributions to the PGI competitions over the years as competitor, judge, and most recently chief judge, the judges have decided to rename the Judges Challenge competition as the Gerry Gits Challenge, and the prize to be the Gerry Gits Memorial Trophy. The Gerry Gits Challenge for 2008 is a Caduceus Rocket "The caduceus rocket is known to most pyrotechnists only by its illustrations in old fireworks texts. Ruggieri, in his 1821 Principles of Pyrotechnics, provides the illustration shown in Figure 1, and gives the following description:



The caduceus is an assemblage of two rockets which are arranged on a 
traverse, "A", one of them on one side of the traverse, or taquet, and 
the other on the opposite side as shown. The two ends where each of 
the fusees is attached must be hollowed out, or notched, so that 
everything is even.

One can separate the throats of these fusees by nearly as much as he 
wishes; but it must be observed that the more the angle formed is 
obtuse the more the caduceus revolves, and the more it is acute the 
more it rises. That is because the purpose of the caduceuses is to 
create revolving rockets,which in the air represent that of which they 
bear the name. Thus, the two motions of the caduceus (the one of 
ascension and the one of rotation) being opposed, one will choose 
which of the two he wishes more to sacrifice to the other.

When the fusees are attached, they are matched in such a way that they 
take fire at absolutely the same instant; otherwise, the one which 
lights first will carry the other sideways and prevent the caduceus 
from rising vertically.

If one wishes to add a garniture to the caduceus (as seen in Figure 
1), he must be careful that it not exceed the weight of one of the two 
fusees.

The stick for the caduceus should be thirty times as long as the 
spindle, or one and one half times those of the rockets in the first 
article. It should be round and somewhat flexible. The rules of weight 
for all these sticks must not be forgotten.

A photo of them can be seen at: http://www.pyrotom.com/album/PhotoAlbums/PyroMisc/index.htm
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In order to balance safety with the opportunity for creativity, there 
are only two restrictions for Challenge entries: the maximum bore of 
the rocket motors is 5/8", and no salute headings are allowed.

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