The effect has exploded in popularity in 2000 and 2001. There are numerous commercial silk torches available.

• History
• Crashing the price barrier - Spencer unit
• Variations
• End of the line
• Do It Yourself

It was rapidly followed by commercial versions by Le Maitre (Le Flame), American DJ, Antari (Diablo), and other effects companies. As of this writing in the spring of 2001, these things are all over the place.

Here is an early description of the effect, posted to Halloween-L

Subject: Le Flame' artificial fire (silk fire)
From: "Tim Cahoon" 
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2000 23:17:24 -0400

a few months ago people were talking about making a fire effect using
lights, a fan, and silk.  I tried to imagine it but today I saw the real
thing and WOW!!!

At the Pegasus Light & Theatrical garage sale (I spent wisely and too
much) they had in the new stuff display a fire effect called LE FLAME'. 
It was a bowl about 10"-12" in diameter hanging from 3 chains.  out of
the top of the bowl was active, flickering, flames about 6" high. 
looking closer it was silk lit up by lights with a fan under it.  Even
close up it looked real!!

How it was done.  There was a 4" fan in the bottom (like found in
computers) blowing air upwards (if there was a hole in the bottom of the
bowl I don't know, didn't look). in the center of the fan was a small
blue light (small bright bulb in a reflector). above that were 4
parallel rows of silk. The two interior rows were 4-6" in height and
were the main body of the flame. Cut sorta jaggy to pointed when getting
to top.  The outer two rows were 2-3" high and were the outside of the
flame. Jaggy all around. (picture these 4 rows of silk forming a
rectangle 4-6" long by 3" wide).  At opposite corners of this rectangle
there were yellow/orangish bulds in reflector (just like the blue one)
that shined the light across and up the silk on their side of the bowl. 
The silk appeared to be a off-white to white-yellow-orangeish color.  

Now as the fan moved the silk (at a fairly aggressive rate)it would move
in and out of the beam of light on its side, in the middle of the silk
it would pick up a little of blue to make it seem soo real.

In late July 2001, Spencer Gifts crashed through the price barrier offering a a silk flame in a hanging bowl for the breakthrough price of $30.

The unit is made by VEI. It is 8 inches in diameter, and runs off of 110 VAC.

This unit is actually typical of the many different units that followed in 2001 and 2002.

We will use this one as a typical example. Let's take a look inside...

This is the VEI unit in action. The flame appears quite realistic, as long as your view is kept from looking down into the bowl.

This photo was taken with the bowl propped up on a stand. It comes with three light chains that can be used to suspend it.

There are small slits in the bottom, which provide air intake for the fan. If you use some different mounting method, make sure you don't block the vents.

Here's the box it came in.

The picture implies that a blue and an orange lamp are used. My unit has two orange lamps.

Looking down into the bowl, you see two pieces of silk, crossing each other in an X.

The silk pieces attach with velcro. You can see a bit more with the silk removed.

Note that the lamps are pointed up with a slight inward angle.

The silks are cut in a jagged flame pattern.

By Halloween 2002, silk flame units had cropped up everywhere and manufactures added features to stand out from the competition. This Gemmy unit includes a canned sound chip with bubbling sounds.

Jo Ann wanted $24.99 each. I got four for $6 each, a week before Halloween 2002.

Target had a skull with flames coming out of the top.

On 8/31/2003, Kermit Woodall posted on the Halloween-L e-mail list:

The real find this year is that the Dollar Stores have small Flame Pots (that's the name!) for $1 each! They're battery powered, but I bought ten and will be stringing them together.

Can any of the electric experts here tell me what sort of AC/DC transformer I should use and how to wire them? The Flame Pots each use three AAA (or is it AA?) batteries.

On 9/4/2003, Thumper [thumpertoo@cox.net] posted on the Halloween-L e-mail list:

Don't know if anyone has seen it but KMart online has 12" flame cauldrons for $6.25 ea. http://www.kmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1178171

The only problem is that with shipping they come to $14.83. Don't know if that is a good price or not as I have not ever priced them in a couple of years but I thought I would share.

Taken together, these price-points seem to indicate that silk flames don't make much profit in 2003.

Thank you for visiting. Your comments are welcome.
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