Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-04
FIRST OF FIREWORKS.
The Origin Of the Delight of Both
Young and Old America.
METHODS OF MANUFACTURE NOW.
Some Displays That Secured World
Wide Reputation.
COMPOSITION OF DIFFERENT FIRES

It matters very little in the long run to
the nineteenth century small boy when,
how or where fireworks wero first made and
of what they are made now. But the
fact remains that the despised heather
Chinese first made them and used
them, and that civilized COM
munities did not know of them until the
fourteenth century. The skyrocket was
first invented toward the closh of the ninth
century, and at that time was used, so it is
said, in India and China in war. That was
long before the invention of gunpowder.
Fireworks first became known in Europe
in 1860, when the Italians in Florence man
sged to make some. The first spectacle Of
fireworks was in 1888.
Lord Macaulay saws that great display
of fireworks was made in Eng gland in 1897 to
celebrate the peace of Ryswick. The fire.
works, he said, cost no less than e12, 900, or
$50. GOO, which was an immense sum of
money in those days, and a sum an ordinary
Government or country would hesitate
upon before spending in these great days of
millionaires.
A very fine display of fireworks was let
off from a magnificent building in the
Green Park, London, in November, 174S,
A Magnificent Display of Fireworks.
The next fine display history records is
the elegant one they had in Paris, on Nav
81, ITO, in honor of the marriage of the
Dauphin, who was Louis XVI. in embryo.
The French, in their intense enjoyment, got
up such fine crowd and such an elegant
panic that nearly 1000 persons were killed.
Some Of them were pushed into the river,
and some died of shock and sufocation in
the crowd.
Then came Sir William Congreve. He
turned his attention to the improvement of
sky-rockets in 1904. They had previously
been made with paper cases, and the guide
sticks were made long and attached to the
side of the base of the excitable part of the
machine. He did away with paper cases
and substituted sheet iron. He
made the guide stick shorter
in the business for the fun of it, and he i'm
proved them SO much that he used them
with wonderful success at the Siege of Bou-
logne and the Battle of Leipsic and it is
said that he increased the range of the six !
FOUNDER rocket from 600 to 1000 yards.
Sir William Congreve exhibited his |
rockets to great advantage on August 1,
1914, when England celebrated the general |
peace and the centenary of the accession
to the throne of the Brunswick family.
The next great display occurred on Sep
tember 8, 1881, when William ~. ascended
the throne of Great Britain. Nearly 910, 900 !
was spent to celebrate the peace with Rus
sia on May 20, 1856. There were other
large displays in England, and lot of men
and women managed to have their heads
blown of.
The Composition Of Sky Rockets.
Rockets are now built of paper cylindrical
cases filled with a composition of nitre,
charcoal and sulphur, which is like gun
powder, except that the ingredients are
tor slower rate of combus-
ton. If the rockets are to be used in war
The cases are made of wrought iron. Rockets
10 be used in war have their
heads surmounted by a solid shot. If
they are meant just for explosion or incen-
liary effect the head is surmounted by a
she'll or case shot, with q fuse attached. |
The fuse is ignited by the flame of the
The base of the case is per-
'orated BY one or more vents for the escape
If the gasgenerated, and sometimes with
screw hole into which the guide stick is
astened.
The rocket is set in motion by the Ere
action of a rapid stream of gas escaping
through the vents and impinging against
PARTICLES of the air, although the reaction
If the escaping gas would cause it to move
.!so in a vacuum"
The chief ingredients of all fireworks are
and its Ingredients. Iron and
,teel filings and cast iron borings free from
.ust, are used to increase the brightness of
;he display and produce the Chinese fire.
When the rocket explodes up in the air the
bright and vari-colored sparks are produced
~ these filings as they ignite in the oxy-
zen.
Secrets Of Producing CoIored Lights.
Copper filings and copper salts are used
20 produce greenish tints. A fine blue is
made with zinc filings. A light greenish
int with much smoke is made out Of sui
ohuret of antimony. Amber, resin and
salt protected from dampness pro-
luce yellow fire. Salts of strontia make a
.ed light. A green light is also made by
he salts of barium.
The ordinary rocket used on the day we
celebrate is made of various compositions
packed in tubes rolled tightly round cylin-
lrical core. The match by which the rocket
s exploded is placed in a cavity at the bot
;om. The movement of the rocket would |
be irregular if it were not for the guide stick,
which is made very light, SO that it does
not retard the flight of the rocket when the
gases come out and hit the ground with all
heir might and send the rocket up into the
lir for all that it is worth.