The Washington times., 1901-06-30
STORYOF THE FIRECRACKER
How They Are Made in China for
American Consumption.
Entire Families Engaged I'm Their
Manufncture-PitifuI Small Wa
res Pais!-One Years Exports 10
This Country. 2G,5O5,.33 Pounds.

the delight afforded by that small but
obtrusive article-the firecracker. This
delight may be said to be confined eX-
clusiveIy to children and youths, and is
hardly shared by the older members OF
society, who like TO sleep in the morn
ings. to drive in the evenings, and oD-
ject to having the digits of their tender
offspring blown off by injudicions use
of these combustibles.
The Chinese are responsible for nre-
crackers. and great quantities OF those
articles find their way into this country
every wear from the Flowery Kingdom
There were exported in one year 2o''o9'-
! 733 pounds of firecrackers from Chlha'
the greater portion of which We're
shipped to this country. 1t is estimated
that on or about this forthcoming
Fourth of July considerably over hVe
millions of crackers will lend their Vo-
.ciferous aid in EXPIRE ssing the patriot
ism of the nation. The value OIL the
average yearly export OF these h'ele
noisemakers is computed by the chinese
imperial customs at sum equahhs
about million and a half OF American
money in gold. The export thls year
will from all indications, prove an ex-
ception. because of the disturbances in
China.
The exports represent but a small
fraction of the amount manufactured
and used in China. There are no large
manufactures. The crackers are made
in small houses and in the shops where
they are sold In the latter places the
~
wives) and children do the work. No
record is kept of the number made and
sold, and no estimate is possible of their
cost.
The use of crackers is universal in
China. and has been as far back as his
tory records. 1t is most probable that
in the beginning they were Used -
frighten away evil spirits. Now they
are most frequently an expression of
good feeling or of ceremonious compli-
ment. They are used at weddings,
births. and funerals. at festivals. re-
ligious, civil and military ceremonies,
at New Year. to salute persons about
TO make jo ?, and, in fact on all
occasions out of tie ordinary routine.
In making firecrackers, only the
cheapest kind of straw paper, which can
be produced in the immediate locality
where the crackers are made. is used
for the body of the cracker. A little
finer paper is used for the wrapper. a
piece of straw paper, 9x39 inches, will
make twenty-one crackers one and one
half inches long, and one-fourth of an
inch in diameter. The powder is also
a. a.. T. l~ -,
the locality where used. 1t costs 1s9 to
175 cash per catty, or 6 to cents gold
per pound.
For the fuse a paper (caIIed leather
in ShanghaD is used which is import
ed from Japan and is made from the in
ner lining of the bamboo. In other
places a fine rice paper is used, gener-
ally stiffened slightly with buckwheat
-four paste, which, the Chinese say, adds
to its inflammability. A strip OF this
paper one-third of an inch wide by
fourteen Inches Ga Chinese FOOT long, is
laid on a table and very little powder
put down the middle of it with hol-
low bamboo stick. A quick twist Of the
paper makes the fuse ready for use. An
eyewitness thus describes the entire
process of manufacture.
''The straw paper is first rolled by
hand around an iron rod, which varies
in size according TO the size of cracker
to be made. To complete the rolling, a
crude machine is used. This consists of
two uprights supporting an axis, from
which is suspended by two arms a
heavy piece of wood, slightly convex on
m.
tween this swinging block and the top
of the table to place the cracker. As
each layer Of paper is put on by hand,
the cracker is placed on the table and
the suspended weight is drawn over the
roll, thus tightening 1t until no more
can be passed under the weight For
the smallest whip cracker the wood
man uses for compression, instead of
this machine, heavy piece of wood,
fitted with a handle like that of a car
penters' plane. In filling crackers, two
| hundred TO three hundred are tied to-
| gether tightly in a bunch. Red clay is
| spread over the end Of the bunch and
| forced into the end of each cracker with
a punch. The powder is poured in at
| the other end of the cracker With the
aid of an awl the edge of the paper is
| turned in at the upper end of the
cracker, and the fuse inserted through
| this.
THE long ends of the fuses are braid
| ed together in such a way that the
| crackers lie in two parallel rows. The
| braid is doubled on itself and a large
| quick-firing fuse inserted and the
whole is bound with a fine thread. The
bundle is wrapped in paper, and in this
| shape sent TO the sea coast.
| "a variety of cracker do not remen-
| ber to have seer in the United States,'
| continues the narrator, but which is
popular in China, is the 'twice-sound-
| ing 1t has two chambers separated by
a plug Of clay. through which runs a
| connecting fuse. There is also a fuse
! extending from the powder in the lower
| chamber through the side of the crack
| er When t.e cracker is to be fred 1t is
set on end and fire set 10 the fuse. The
/ powder exploding in the chamber
/ throws the cracker high in the air.
where tine second charge is exploded by
| fire from the fuse extending through the
| plug between the two chambers. In the
manufacture of these the clay is first
tamped in with a punch to form the
| separate plug. The lower chamber is