Illusion of burning river

[Labradore]

Hello!

Hope I chose the right department. I am writing a book and in it's final I wanted to create an illusion of the burning Vistula river (Warsaw, Poland). One of the characters is an illusionist and wants to do an act in the popular spot where all the people sit on the banks and have fun, it's right after some bridge.

The idea is to create a miracle (a reference to the biblical burning bush that Moses saw). At night in the summer, when people sit on both sides of the Vistula River, I would like to have an effect of a mysterious fire - preferably a wall of fire that suddenly appears above the water and then disappears. Maybe someone already comes up with some clues?

I've already done some research, of course. In the first version, the characters were supposed to pour extraction gasoline into the river and set it on fire, but it's probably not the best idea, right? Someone figured it out for me that it would take 200 liters for a river to catch fire, but this must be nonsense. And there wouldn't be that wall of fire effect, it would just be a fire a little above the water, right?

An university professor helped me with the second concept. I corresponded with him for a while, but then the contact broke off. Nevertheless, he offered me nitrocellulose (NC) sheets idea - throw them into the water and set them on fire. This is a nice lead. I know NC burns super fast and even under water. However, I do not know how much of it I'd need my characters to have and how high the fire would burn.

Currently, I think that I could use tiny, around 8 m wide and 50 m long, promontory in the middle of the Vistula, a shallow, and lay thick layers of NC there. How high do you think the NC could catch fire and how much of it I'd need?

I am open to any suggestions. The effect must be "wow", so that on the second day in the world of my novel people would see headlines such as "mysterious fire on the Vistula on the night of meteorites. Witnesses talk about the sacred revelation" :) The plot is sewn with thick threads (I dont now if there is such an expression in English, but there is in Polish :)), so even the most crazy ideas will be appreciated. We can also turn a blind eye to some specialized issues :)

Can you help?

[Ghideon]

21 minutes ago, Labradore said:

I am writing a book and in it's final I wanted to create an illusion of the burning Vistula river

Hello. Does the illusion have to be explained in detail in the book? Is it ok with something that sounds convincing in a work of fiction but would be hard to create in reality? 

[Strange]

Do you need to explain how the illusionist does it? You could leave it as a mystery even for the reader (you could keep teasing them: "The trick works by ..." At that moment the telephone rings.)

51 minutes ago, Labradore said:

The plot is sewn with thick threads

Maybe this is a clue. How about threads (or a net) of fibres hung from a wire high above the river. They are soaked in something flammable and when lit, there will be a wall of fire.

Or hang a thin sheet of transparent plastic which can't be seen in the dark, then project really bright (laser?) coloured lights onto it (a variation on "Pepper's Ghost" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper's_ghost)

Maybe a local magic club might be a better bet than a university professor: scientists are notoriously gullible when it comes to magic tricks 🙂

[Labradore]

25 minutes ago, Ghideon said:

Hello. Does the illusion have to be explained in detail in the book? Is it ok with something that sounds convincing in a work of fiction but would be hard to create in reality? 

No, it wont be explained in detail. Just like you said, it just has sound convincing

18 minutes ago, Strange said:

Do you need to explain how the illusionist does it? You could leave it as a mystery even for the reader (you could keep teasing them: "The trick works by ..." At that moment the telephone rings.)

I need to explain a little, something like: "and then we came up with nitrocelullose solution. we figured we would soak hundreds of kilograms of cotton in sulfuric and nitrate acid and burn in it the river. Old shed where my grandma used keep her cows was our laboratory."

 

Quote

Maybe this is a clue. How about threads (or a net) of fibres hung from a wire high above the river. They are soaked in something flammable and when lit, there will be a wall of fire.

I think it would a bit to thin, but it's a nice idea. I would attach it somewhere in the air, right? Would you know how? My first guess is that something quite strong would have to stick out from the top of the bridge, and those threads would have to strech out like a curtain?

Anyways in my vision to fire was kind of big fat blaze that arouse at least ten meters above the water, kind of like an explosion but without the blasting sound and the one that leaves no evident traces. You dont think nitrocelullose is a good idea, dont you?