Part 13

The construction of this piece is very easy, as shewn by figure 8, whose diameter from B to C, is eight feet, and from D to E, two feet, the vertical wheel in the center, must be one foot diameter, and consist of six four ounce cases of different coloured charge, which cases must burn double; on the frames of this piece, six five pointed brilliant or blue stars, rammed four inches with composition, let the space between each star be eight inches; at each point of this piece, fix a gerbe or case of chinese fire; when this piece is to be fired let the gerbes, stars, and wheel be lighted at the same time.

The Star Wheel Illuminated.

This beautiful new invented piece, is shewn in Plate 8, fig. 9, its exterior fell is made of wood, three feet six inches or four feet diameter, within this fell, form with iron wire, three circles, one less than the other, so that the diameter of the least may be about ten inches; place the port-fires on these fells, with their mouths inclining outwards, and the port-fires on the points of the star, with their mouths projecting in front; let the exterior fell be clothed with four ounce cases of grey charge, these cases must burn four at a time, and be lighted at the same time as the illuminations.

Pyramid of Flower-pots.

Fig. 10, represents this curious piece, which must be made thus; let the distance from A to B, be six feet, and from one rail to the other two; on the bottom rail, fix five paper mortars, each three inches and a half diameter, these mortars load with serpents, crackers, stars, &c.

In the center of each mortar fix a case of spur fire; on the second rail fix four mortars, so as to stand exactly in the middle of the intervals of them on the bottom rail; on the third rail place three mortars; on the fourth two; and on the top of the posts one; the bottom rail must be six feet in length; all the mortars must incline a little forwards, that they may easily discharge themselves, and the spur-fires rammed exactly alike that the mortars may all be fired at the same time, having prepared your pyramid according to the preceeding directions, carry pipes of communication, from one spur-fire to the other.

The Illuminated Regulating Piece.

Fig. 11, represents one half of this piece; A, A, A, A, are flat wooden spokes, each five feet in length, and at the end of each, place a vertical wheel, ten inches diameter, clothed with six four ounce cases of brilliant fire, these cases must burn but one at a time; on two of the spokes of each wheel, place two port-fires, which must be lighted with the first case of the wheel; on each spoke A, A, &c. behind the wheels place six cases of the same size as them on the wheels; these cases must be tied across the spokes with their mouths all one way, and be made to take fire successively one after the other, so that they may assist the whole pieces to turn round.

The diameter of the wheel B, must be two feet six inches, and its fell made of wood, which must be fixed to the large spokes, on this wheel place twenty four cases of the same sort as them on the small wheels, these cases must burn four at a time; in this wheel make three circles with iron wire, and on them place illuminating port-fires, as shewn in the figure; the star points on the large spokes may be made of thin ash hoops, the diameter of these points close to the center wheel must be eleven inches; on these points place port-fires, at three inches and a half distance, one from the other.

Fig. 12, represents the blocks of this piece, the diameters of these blocks at A and B, must be eight inches and C and D, four inches and a half, the length of each, of these blocks must be six inches; at the small ends of these blocks fix an iron wheel five inches diameter, which wheels must have teeth, to turn the wheel E, this wheel which is fixed on a small spindle screwed into the large spindle which goes through the two blocks, and on which they run.

* * * * *

Supposing fig. 11, to be on the block A, in fig. 12, and to turn to the right, and another piece of the same construction on the block B, with its fires placed so as to turn it to the left, you will find them move very true and fast, by the help of the three iron wheels, which serves to regulate their motions, as well as to assist them in turning; let the iron circles in the front of the great wheels be of different diameters so that when fired there may appear six circles, when this piece is fired, all the wheels and illuminations must be lighted at one time.

To Fix a Sky-Rocket with its Stick, on the top of another.

Rockets thus managed make a pretty appearance, by reason of a fresh tail being seen when the second rocket takes fire, which will mount to a great height; the method of preparing these rockets is thus, having filled a two pounder, which must be filled only half a diameter above the piercer, and in its head not more than ten or twelve stars; the stick of this rocket must be made a little thicker than common, and when made, cut it in half the flat way, and in each half make a groove, so that when the two halves are joined, the hollow made by the grooves may be large enough to hold the stick of a half pound rocket, which rocket make and head as usual, the stick of this rocket put into the hollow of the large one, so far that the mouth of the rocket may rest on the head of the two pounder; from whose head carry a leader into the mouth of the small rocket, which being done, your rockets will be ready for fireing.

A New Method of placing Leaders.

The placing leaders, on small cases or illuminations, is a much quicker, stronger, and more expeditious way than that of using pins, which method has been practised till very lately. Your port-fires being filled within about three eighths of an inch of the top, bore with an awl a hole through each side of the case close to the composition, then fill the mouths of the cases with meal powder wetted with spirit of wine, when you have thus prepared your cases, fix them on your works, then take an empty leader, and lay it on the mouths of as many cases as it will reach, then with your finger nail, mark the leader exactly in the middle of the mouth of each case, then at each mark with a pair of Scissars, cut a bit out of the pipe, so that when you put in the quick-match, it may be seen; this being done, lay the leader on the cases again with that side on which the match is seen downwards; then take some small twine, and put it through the holes in the mouths of the cases, and tie on the leader; do this to every case and then cover them with single pasted paper; by making use of the above method your works may be made very clean, there being no occasion to put dry meal powder in the mouths of the cases which always soils the works and prevents the paste from sticking.

In this treatise, I have taught the method of rolling, pinching, and filling all sorts of cases, the manner of pulverizing, mixing, and preparing, all compositions used in artificial fire-works; also the method of placing leaders, clothing wheels, fixed pieces, &c. in so plain a manner, that all fire-works may be made without any further instructions. A variety of pyrotechnical representations only depends on the genius of the maker, by fixing different cases and fires on works of various forms, of which there are many more.

But as those I have given are the principal, I shall conclude, till I have an opportunity of extending this work, which will depend on the approbation it meets with.

_FINIS._

Footnotes:

[1] A line is the twelfth part of an inch.

[2] Traité des feux d’artifice, par M. F***.

[3] The nipple and cylinder to bear the same proportion as those for rockets.

[4] A round bit of brass, equal in length to the nick of the case, and flat at the top.

[5] A copper scoop with a wooden handle.

[6] A piece of hard wood in the form of an anvil block.

Transcriber’s Note

This book was written in a period when many words had not become standardized in their spelling. Words may have multiple spelling variations or inconsistent hyphenation in the text. Obsolete words and misspellings were left unchanged; however, corrections noted in the Errata were corrected in the text.

Footnotes were renumbered sequentially and were moved to the end of the book. The “Contents of the Additions” was moved to the end of the Table of Contents and the table of Errata was moved from middle of the Table of Contents to follow it.

Obvious printing errors, such as backwards, upside down, or partially printed letters, were corrected. Final stops missing at the end of sentences, lists, and abbreviations were added. Duplicate words and syllables at line endings or page breaks were removed.

Other Changes:

Commas used as a decimal point were changed to mid-dots in tables. In the Table of characters, pg 30, substituted ∩. for the symbol for Gum (a partial circle with a dot in the center). Capitalized column and section headers. For consistency, added missing stops after item numbers in “Order of Firing” list, and added missing commas at end of each item in the list. Excess punctuation was removed.

Noted, but not changed:

Inconsistent use of stop at end of alpha groups of Subscriber Names. Inconsistent use of stop at end of column heads in tables. Inconsistent use of commas and stops after figure numbers. Inconsistent use of stops in the illustrations after the word “Plate” and the following number. Inconsistent use of Roman numerals for Plate numbers in the text while the plates use Arabic numbers. “It’s” is sometimes used for “its.” Commas are occasionally used unexpectedly.