Definition
A pot à feu is a self-contained mine: a closed cardboard tube delivered loaded with its lift charge and garniture, which is staked or fixed directly to the ground without a mortar. On ignition it throws, within a second, a spray of stars, comets or bombettes 15 to 40 m high. Common calibres run from 30 to 100 mm. Its great advantage is logistical: no mortar to carry or clean, one tube per effect, quick rigging in a line or a fan on a board. Historically the term covered every ground device firing upward; today it mainly refers to these ready-to-use single shots, classed F3 for the small ones and F4 for the larger calibres.
In practice, for the display company
A pot à feu simplifies truck loading: no mortar involved, just a tube to fix and an igniter to fit. In PyroDesk it ties up no mortar from the fleet, takes one cue per tube and lines up in a fan in the firing plan; PyroSimulator renders it as a short mine, which makes it easy to compose ground waves.