Milford chronicle., 1896-10-09
a sYMPAoNY IN FLAMEs...


BIery Columns, fierco. BeHutiful and
Grand. nIulticoiorod and ORIGINATING.
Perhaps no pyrotechnic display can com
pete ia attTaetireness with the old zinc,
battery and tho empty oil barrel. Possibly.
this may need an explanation but words
cannot give an adequate one II You would
appreciate the force Of the remark, you
will have to get an empty lot and expert
ment
First build great fire Of logs; then,
when there is an almost white hot heat in
the fire, put in the old piece Of zinc from
some disused electric battery In few
moments the ordinary red and yellow
flames win DO shot through and through
with pale but Intensely brilliant blue ones,
indescribably beautiful. This part of the
entertainment lasts a quarter Of an hour.
It is to the oil barrel what the curtain
raiser is TO the real play. The oil barrel,
it Is scarcely necessary to say, must be
empty-that is, unless you have engaged
q quarter section Of sandy desert for the
display. Knock out the two ends, make
your log fire perfectly level and secure and
81 the oil barrel on end thereupon.
Nothing happens for a few minutes.
Then there is crisp cracking, with an
intermittent, faint rOar. Pretty soon
tongue Of flame from the fire below shoots
up through the barrel, seems to take a
swift survey Of the situation, and then
sinks back. In a moment another long.
investigating flame darts out of the TOP.
as If to confirm the report Of the first one.
Evidently the coast is considered clear. /
In another instant, with a fierce roar,
there shoots up Il column Of flame 10, 12, I
10 feet high. 1t is as If legion of devils :
was escaping with a mighty whir Of their
evil wings, Fifty OF 60 feet into tho air
rises a shower of sparks, streaming upward
to the suddenly black sky, as if they we-
the stars, which seem at che instant to
have disappeared, and as If they wanted
to get back to their places. All the time
that roaring column Of almost supernatu-
rally bright flame leaps and losses and
swirls into writhing, twisting spiral of
flerco fire The loyeliest colors play through
the lame-roso and pale green and a lam
bent sort of white. Round and round they
60 in long wind blown leaping curves un-
til one holds ones breath with terror and
admiration Of them, Around the brink Of
this pit Of fire, at the very edge of the
barrel, there is n ring of flame about an
inch high which is not separated from the
iery column, but can be distinctly seen
because it surpasses the rest in brilliancy /
,yen as the sun does the moon,
All this rhapsody about nothing but an
I'D oil barrel? Yes, even so. But words
annot paint such fiery wonder. As be-
ore remarked, one ought to secure. the ]
'arrel and the use Of a vacant lot and try I
for oneself [
Finally, however, there came a bright Y
pot in the dark side of the barrel. 1t c
rev even while it was announced in ex- n
tied tones. The flames were eating their :
ray through the wood. In another second
hero was u louder crackle, and a hundred
my blue tongues darted out between the I
-ayes and licked the outer surface of the d
arrel experimentally. They seemed to il
iste it with JUNCTION, and evidently they Il
'und it good for they spread themselves s,
yer it and Tapped it tiercely, hungrily. A II
dhot hoop dropped upon the logs The Ia
ariel was no longer erectly symmetrical. =.
suddenly swayed and fell in fiery col OF
psc beside the heap Of logs. There was a ST
eat "Ahi'' from the spectators. III
ork Sim "