Pyrotechnics

“ But the spread of the sane Fourth reform had virtually killed this manufacture, so that when we entered the war there were only three or four plants in the United States making fireworks. These concerns kept the trade secrets closely guarded. However, as we approached the brink of hostilities it was evident we would have to build up a large production capacity for the pyrotechnics demanded by the various new types of fighting which had sprung into existence since 1914. Fireworks were extensively used principally for signaling at night and as an aid to aviators in the dark. ”

“ The first group of compositions for consideration is that nearest related to gunpowder, in fact, for the purposes of a work on pyrotechny, gunpowder may be considered a particular case of this class.
The governing principle of this group, and one may say of all firework compositions, is the same. For combustion to take place oxygen must be present. When an inflammable article such as a piece of paper is set on fire it takes up oxygen from the air. A pyrotechnic composition, however, is so arranged that one of the ingredients has a supply of oxygen which it is ready to give up ”

“ And as fire has for all time been associated with the sword, it is small wonder that pyrotechny played no inconspicuous part in the struggle.
As has always been the case, and no doubt always will be, the outbreak of hostilities was the signal for an epidemic of inventions. Men who had never before interested themselves either in war, or in that particular department of science to which their ideas belong, and in spite of or perhaps because of an entire ignorance of the subject, inundated the authorities with so-called inventions which were so much waste of time to all concerned. ”

“ Although the place of origin of the art, pyrotechny has not developed in the East as rapidly as in Europe, except in Japan.
Japanese pyrotechnists, with that wonderful capacity for careful and exact manual work which is so characteristic of the race, have developed aerial fireworks, that is to say, the 8shell, to a remarkable degree of perfection. The compositions used are not to be compared with European manufactures in point of colour or brilliance, but the effects obtained are extraordinary. ”

“ 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. ”

“ During the run of forty-five consecutive years an installation was built up, method and technique were evolved unknown in any other place of pyrotechnic exhibition.
While the firework terrace, with its magnificent background of park and shrubberies, is unrivalled as a firing ground, it is at the same time the most exacting. The huge building, its imposing position and setting, the wonderful fountains, all demand pyrotechnic effects on a corresponding scale. ”

“ These chemicals, as we have seen in the previous chapters, are the components of rockets, turning cases, tourbillions, saxons, Roman candle fuse, and many others. When variation was required in fireworks used to give a simple fountain effect the earliest addition was of metal in finely divided particles, as filings, borings, or the now almost obsolete iron sand. ”

“ Another well-known pyrotechnic sound signal is the fog signal used on the railways, which consists of a tinned iron envelope containing a mixture of chlorate of potash and red phosphorus. It is secured in position on the rail by two lead 179clips provided for the purpose, and is fired by percussion on the impact of the engine wheel. Bird scarers, consisting of a series of single crackers connected by a time fuse, and so arranged as to fire at regular intervals, have been much used for the protection of seed and crops. ”

“ If one disabuses one’s mind of the curiously widespread belief that all fireworks are composed chiefly of gunpowder, and that without the invention of gunpowder fireworks could not have been constructed, it seems far more likely that pyrotechny is based on the discovery of the assistance given to combustion by saltpetre, than on the discovery of gunpowder.
6 CHAPTER II
PYROTECHNY IN THE EAST Pyrotechny undoubtedly had its genesis in the East, and for that reason we will deal with its development there first. ”

“ One of the chief causes of progress in France was the 21encouragement given by Louis XV (1710–1774) to the pyrotechnists Morel Torré and the Ruggieri brothers, the latter being Italians from Bologna who became naturalised Frenchmen, and contributed very greatly to the development of French pyrotechny. They were the first to rely chiefly on fireworks for the effect, instead of using them merely to embellish a scenic or architectural structure. ”

“ The apparatus was to be used by men whom by nature of their employment it was impossible to train individually, therefore its ignition must be simple and at the same time certain and quick in action, and carried on the float itself; a chamber had to be provided in which to as it were accumulate the smoke generated, which chamber had of necessity to have holes through which the smoke could issue. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Another pyrotechnic invention responsible for the saving of many lives is the Hale’s Light apparatus. This apparatus is fitted to a lifebuoy, which is arranged for launching from a vessel’s bridge; the act of launching ignites a flare, enabling the person in the water to see the buoy and the rescuing boat to pick them up.
The practical use to which fireworks have been put on land are many. Probably that which comes most readily to the mind is the sound signal or alarm. Many fire brigades whose members are volunteers and therefore scattered use aerial maroons to warn and call them for duty. ”

“ In some cases a list of the works is given under the engraving, adding greatly to its value in the eyes of the pyrotechnist, and some, although they are considerably in the minority, are intended to represent the display in progress, although on the rather futuristic method of showing everything going off at one time. ”

“ The modern, or rather more recent, method of heading 98the rocket with a clay diaphragm evidently suggested that the choking of the case might be dispensed with where the composition was less fierce, the necessary reduction of the orifice being produced by a clay diaphragm with a central hole of sufficient size. This method is followed with the gerb, fountains, and flower pot, and in the firework known to pyrotechnists as “fixt”; this unit is largely used in display work to form the fringe frame or lattice effect of a set piece. “Fixt” are made in 1 oz. ”

“ The miner’s squib and chieza stick or fuse lighter are to all intents port-fires for lighting the fuse in blasting operations in mines, their form and composition being adapted to the particular circumstances of their use.
Crystal Palace. From a photograph taken by the light of a magnesium shell.
The crowd at “Brock’s Benefit” (64,000 persons present) .
The use of pyrotechnic compositions for photographic purposes is well known; those in use at the present generally contain magnesium, which has greater actinic value than any other firework composition. ”

“ A man was fixing the curved stick which forms the pivot upon which a tourbillion rotates to one of those fireworks. The wire nail used for the purpose penetrated the composition and fired it. The remaining goods in the shed were ignited, and communicated to the neighbouring buildings, one of which was a magazine containing 3,000 lbs. of partially manufactured fireworks, including a number of rockets. These being without sticks and becoming ignited flew in all directions, setting fire to other buildings. ”

“ To take a concrete instance: in an article in a famous encyclopædia, obviously written by a chemist of standing, a portion deals with the use of metal salts in the production of colour; the writer gives copper as producing green, which no doubt it does in the laboratory; in practice, however, copper is used solely for the production of blue.
The question of purity in chemicals used in pyrotechny is a secondary consideration, that is, of course, as long as the adulterants have no adverse effect either as regards the pyrotechnic result or the safety of the worker in manipulation. ”

“ The absence of iron or steel in any workshop, carriage, or boat; cleanliness and absence of grit; care as to material liable to spontaneous ignition; provision of lightning conductors on magazines; tools and implements to be of soft metal; working clothes without pockets; shoes without nails; searching or means to prevent the introduction of matches or dangerous substances into the works; materials and finished work to be removed from working buildings and not allowed to accumulate when any particular process is completed ”

“ This accident, which was the most extensive in any firework factory since the Explosives Act came into operation, afforded striking proof of the efficiency of the precautions instituted under that Act.
It is indeed extraordinary that in an explosive factory of considerable size, employing many workpeople, during working 83hours it should be possible to destroy more or less completely seventeen buildings and only slightly injure two persons. ”

“ An amateur at a first attempt might possibly be successful in lighting all the cases on a piece, but he would be very unlikely to produce that instant and symmetrical ignition which denotes the skilled pyrotechnist. ”

“ He would notice that the presence of saltpetre made the fire burn brighter, and its use as a tinder maker would suggest itself by mixing it with some substance which he knew to be combustible. The most common fuel he knew of was wood, but it must be a powder to mix evenly with saltpetre. Wood is not easily reduced to powder; saws had not been invented, so that he could not add sawdust, and the nearest thing he could get would be charcoal from the fire, which could easily be reduced to powder. With this mixture he would be well on the way to success in elementary pyrotechny. ”

“ The first European people to make headway in the art of pyrotechny proper appear to have been the Italians. Vanochio, an Italian, in a work on artillery, dated 1572, attributes to the Florentines and Viennese the honour of being the first who made fireworks on erections of wood, decorated with statues 19and pictures raised to a great height, some in Florence being forty ells, or seventy-two feet high. ”

“ The use, however, of chlorate of potash in propellant compositions presents no very great advance in pyrotechny, however revolutionary may have been the introduction of the percussion system into the manufacture of firearms.
It is its use in the production of colour that marks the modern epoch. ”

“ There can be no doubt that the cause is frequently carelessness or mistakes on the part of workers. In a large number of cases, however, this explanation gives no help and the cause remains obscure. One such may be mentioned:
In 1902 an explosion occurred in a store for non-explosive ingredients, in which were kept the chemicals used in a firework factory. In the building at the time was a workman who appears to have been engaged in sifting chlorate of potash, and the technical manager of the factory who seems to have been weighing out ingredients. ”

“ Early makers appear to have used mealed gunpowder and added charcoal and other ingredients to, as it were, dilute the powder and render the deflagration less fierce. Babington (1635) adds charcoal in the following proportion:
John Bate’s compositions are rather erratically arranged; in some cases he adds the saltpetre, charcoal, and sulphur, and a further addition is “yron scales,” presumably to increase the effect of the tail, for which purpose later pyrotechnists used iron filings.
The rocket having been charged to the top of the heading, clay is charged in, forming a diaphragm above it. ”

“ As a rocket is the most important unit in the art of pyrotechny, a description of its manufacture will assist in the consideration of a large number of other fireworks which are either modifications of or based upon the underlying principles of the rocket, as well as the several principles governing all fireworks. ”

“ During the same years the total of firework factory accidents in this country was thirteen, in which three persons lost their lives, and in no case was more than one person killed in any one accident. Indeed, in one instance only since 1875 has the number of deaths resulting from any accident exceeded two—on that occasion four deaths resulted. ”

“ Of the fireworks of the fountain class, probably the first to develop from the crude rocket form were the gerb and flower pot. The gerb, or Chinese tree, contains a composition of saltpetre, sulphur, charcoal and iron borings, with the addition—if more force is required, as for instance to turn a device—of mealed gunpowder. Early makers used mealed powder alone and “iron sand,” or cast-iron reduced to powder by hammering. This composition is known as Chinese fire, and, as its name implies, was introduced into Europe from the 99East. ”