PART II

I Simple Fireworks, Rocket Class 91

II Simple Fireworks, Shell Class 103

III Simple Fireworks, Mine Class 110

IV Simple Fireworks, Saxon and Lance Classes 116

V Compound Fireworks 121

VI Compound Fireworks (_continued_) 131

VII Firework Compositions 136

VIII Modern Firework Compositions 144

IX Military Pyrotechny 152

X Military Pyrotechny in the Great War 164

XI The Civil Use of Fireworks 175

List of the Principal Ingredients used in Pyrotechny at the present time 181

Pyrotechnic Bibliography 182

Index 187

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

_To face page_

Firework Display at Quebec. From a drawing by C. M. Padday _Frontispiece_

Six Coloured Japanese Prints of Fireworks manufactured by Messrs. Hirayama of Yokohama 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12

Facsimile Title Page of John Bate’s “Second Booke,” 1635 16

A Display of the Earliest Type (_c._ 1650) 18

Set Piece of the Scenic Type 20

Firework Display at Nuremberg, 1650 22

Great Firework Display near Stockholm, 1669 24

Fireworks on the Thames, 1688 28

Firework Display given by the Duke of Richmond, 1749 30

Firework Temple at Vauxhall, 1845 36

Fireworks at Versailles, 1855, from a drawing by Gustav Doré 44

The Grand Whim for Posterity to laugh at, 1749 46

A Full-size Picture of the Jumma Musjid in Fireworks at } the Crystal Palace, 1892 } Firework Display for the Coronation Durbar at Delhi, } 50 January 3rd, 1903 }

A Crystal Palace Set Piece at the time of the South African War 52

Panorama of the Aerial Effects in the National Display at Hyde Park, 1919 56

The Explosion at Madame Cotton’s Firework Factory, 1858 66

Programme of Experiments with Fireworks at Nunhead, 1872 68

Modern Firework Tools 72

Types of Modern Fireworks 90

Cracker Making 92

Rocket Manufacture, from Frézier’s “Feu d’Artifice,” 1747 94

Manner of making and representing Flowers, etc., in the Chinese Fireworks, from the “Universal Magazine” of 1764 100

An Old Firework Bill:—Programme of Mr. Brock’s Superior Fireworks at Ipswich, 1818 114

Rocket Charging } 116 Filling Roman Candles }

Types of Compound Fireworks:—Lattice Poles, Chromatrope, Lattice Diamond 128

A Display ready for Firing, Dresden, 1899 134

Diagram illustrating the evolution of Pyrotechnic Composition, showing their periods of use 140

Roman Candles—illustrating brilliance of aluminium compositions 150

The Late Wing-Commander Brock, R.N.A.S. 166

Smoke Float in action 168

Crystal Palace—By the light of a Magnesium Shell 178

End Papers:—Feu d’artifice a Versailles pour le Mariage du Dauphin. Two displays from the original watercolour drawings by Morel Torré, 1735

INTRODUCTION

The word “fireworks” as a metaphor, used either to describe the higher flights of oratory, of literature, or of human strife, whether it be in Parliament or the Parish Hall, or merely descriptive of domestic discord, is familiar, even threadbare.

Moreover, the metaphor has generally a humorous flavour; why is this? Is there anything inherently comic about fireworks? It is true that for a short season the less critical of the comic papers used the cracker and squib as pegs upon which to hang the type of joke which depends for its success on the atavistic human trait of laughing at the misfortune or discomfort of others, but this is the lowest type of humour which soon palls upon the mind.

The Stage also has its comedy and clown, yet the mention of the stage is not a signal for mirth. Can any who have heard the long-drawn Ah-h! of rapture from many thousand throats, at the bursting of a flight of shell, or the darting up of the wonderfully tinted rays of the “Magical Illumination” at the Crystal Palace, maintain that the most dramatic moment on the stage is more affecting to the spectators?

Pyrotechny is possibly the only art which can compete with nature; anyone who has seen a first-class firework display will admit that for impressive grandeur, colour effects, and contrasts of light and shade, pyrotechny is unapproached.

Pyrotechny paints on the canvas of the sky; and the results are at once the joy and despair of the artist. Many artists have tried to record their impressions, but the results have been generally disappointing. Whistler came near success, but even his wonderful work conveys merely the dying embers of passed glory. One feels that here has been a magnificent display, but the scene in its full grandeur is not depicted.

One of the few black-and-white artists who can approach the subject with some success is Mr. C. M. Padday, an example of whose work is reproduced in the following pages. His success comes from a careful study of the subject, both technically and from the point of view of composition.

That fireworks are popular there is no doubt; no form of amusement is capable of giving enjoyment to so many people at one time; there is no entertainment which so appeals to youth and age of all classes and tastes. And yet it is doubtful if there is an industry concerning which the public at large is so profoundly ignorant.

To the average onlooker any firework which rises in the air is a rocket, any that revolve are catherine wheels; both of these assumptions are incorrect.

What is the average conception of a firework factory? A building, let us say, in which workmen, with sleeves rolled up, are busily engaged in shovelling heaps of gunpowder. How many know that a firework factory consists of dozens of small buildings, the construction of which is exactly defined by law, separated by spaces also specified by law; that workmen may not roll up their sleeves in the danger buildings; or that the amount of gunpowder in each building is strictly limited to a small quantity? All of these restrictions being enforced with the view, of course, of limiting the effects of any explosion that may occur.

So far as I am aware, no history of the art has yet been written. It is true that during the nineteenth century many text-books on pyrotechny were written, but the historical side of the subject has been generally represented by a few disjointed remarks in the prefaces.

My object has not been to write a text-book on firework-making, but rather to trace the art from earliest times, and to give a description of the development and process of manufacture. For those interested in the subject, and desiring fuller information, the list of MSS. and books given in the Bibliography at the end of this volume may be found useful.

My excuse for adding another volume to the literature of the art is that I am of the eighth generation of a family of pyrotechnists, whose work, I venture to claim, has not been without its effect. If I succeed in interesting, and in some degree enlightening, my readers, I shall feel I have not written in vain; if I fail, I shall know it is not in my choice of subject but in my capacity for dealing with it.

A. St. H. BROCK.

Sutton, _August, 1922_.

ERRATA

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