The Carlisle independent., 1910-06-30


 depend for their effects wholly upon such paper cylinders no bigger than good-szed frecrackers. stuck all over the lattice work of the skeleton structure employed by the fre-painter in lieu. as one might say. of canvas.
 Something more in detail about these fire pie lures will be said later on but meanwhile it may be as well to speak descrptively of the processes used in the manufacture of the more simple and familiar kinds of fireworks-such, for example. as roman candles. bombs, rockets pinwheels and the like. All of these. excepting the bombs, are substantially nothing than cylinders of pasteboard. filled with combustibles and fash Honed in different ways.
 One of the greatest fireworks factories in the world is located the outskirts of Brooklyn, but the stranger who passes by it on trolley car on the way to Coney island would scarce sus- pect the character of the outfit which is scat tered over about twenty acres of land in a series of small buildings, some of them being so tiny as to accommodate only a single workman. The object of this arrangement is to minimize the consequences of accidents. If the lone man who occupies any of the tiny houses should hap pen to be blown up he alone would suffer.
 It naturally happens that the only building of considerable size the premises is one in which no explosives or other lively combustibles are used. Here in fact, is where all the paper is stored tons upon tons of it, for the outer wrap pings of the fireworks Pyrotechnic toys, of course. must be pretty to look at else they would
 
 the purpose are of all colors of the rainbow and a great variety of ornamental patterns. For extra fancy goods more or less gilt and silver paper is employed.
 Upstairs in the same building all of the pa- per cylinders are made, the process adopted be Ing so exceedingly expeditions that one person can turn out many as Is gross of them in day. Of course they are of all lengths and diam eters according to kind and size of fireworks for which they are intended and though the rocket cylinders are rolled by machine all of the others are made by hand. With the aid of a long. round stick Of metal and pot of paste the oper- ator converts sheets Of thin, brown pasteboard into neat and compact tubes at the rate of three four a minute.
 dozen work people engaged in this occu- patton turn out an immense number of cyl finders in a day and the manner in which they utilized in the manufacture of different kinds of fireworks will presently be explained. It might be well to say incidentally, however, that in this same department are made the bombshells, which are stamped by machine out of papiermache tn halyes When they have become dry the halves are joined by strips of thin canvas soaked :n paste. each sphere thus produced having round hole at one end for loading
 Bombs are among the most interesting and beautiful of fireworks and some of them are of great size-as much five feet in diameter. They are discharged from moFtars and. reaching height of l, GOO feet or more, explode with a great noise, liberating showers of many y-colored stars golden rain, or sometimes parachutes carrying trains of stars. Some made small as two inches in diameter-baby ones suitable for family use.
 The method of their construction is always the same and is at once simple and ingenious. The papier-mache shell is filled with stars that is to say, with little pieces Of cylindrical paper tubing packed with different chemical com positions Beneath the shell thus loaded is at- tached and firmly glued paper receptacle con taining a sow-b burning composition similar to gunpowder. Then a fuse is so fixed that being ignited at the instant of the bombs discharge it will burn just long enough to explode the shell at the moment when the projectile has reached its greatest height in the air. When this hap pens the paper shell is blown to pieces and the stars incidentally ignited thrown far and wide Being light. they fall slowly and the effect produced is very beautiful.
 Even the stars you see, are paper cylinders. though only half inch perhaps in length But they vary much in size. according to the uses to which they are to be put. cuts them by the millions with a small circular saw. taking handful Of paper tubes of small diameter and using the saw to chop them into short pieces of equal length. Then the little sections are filled with chemical mixtures of various kinds. nitrate and chlorate of baryta being used for green car bonate of strontum for red. oxylate of soda for yellow and (eddly enough) paris green for blue. with various sdmixtures of chlorate of potash. shellac. etc.
 II should have been said that in order to strengthen the papfer mache shells and to able them to scatter their stars more widely when shattered they wound with strong gro cers twine outside of which the final decorative paper cover is put There is however, an- other and quite new kind of bomb. which is made in the shape of a cylinder It is so constructed that during it's flight through the air it makes a series of breaks" sometimes many as ten throwing out each time shower of stars. This as might be imagined, is very beautiful effect and is achieved by dividing the containing cylin- der into series of compartments holding stars each compartment being set off in it's turn
 Some of these cylindrical bombs contain par achutes, which are arranged like the parachutes dropped from rockets. Inside of the pasteboard case is circular piece of tissue paper around the circumference of which attached series Of very long strings. To each of these strings are fastened at intervals number Of the little paper stars already described and the arrange