Whats wrong with setInterval

These two functions are taken out of my as class file, even though the setInterval is never cleared it only calls generateParticles 1 time. Someone please help me figure this out. I have been messing around with it over an hour but still can find why its only called once. emit is a private var Number declared outside the function in the class.

Thanks.

public function startEmit():Void
{
createMaster();

startTimer();
emit = setInterval(generateParticles(), 100);
}

private function generateParticles():Void
{
trace(“1”);
}