The Montgomery tribune. (Montgomery City, Mo.) 1892-1910, 1910-07-01

which are erected upon Scanoldlngs
sometimes as much as a hundred feet in length.
depend for their effects wholly upon such paper
cylinders, no bigger than good-slzed 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 pic
TIRES will be said later on; but meanwhile 1t may
ne as well to speak descriptively of the processes
used In the manufacture of the more simple and
familiar kinds of ireworks-such. for example,
as roman candles, bombs, rockets. ~pinwheels and
the like. All Of these, excepting the bombs, are
substantially nothing more than cylinders OF
pasteboard, filled with combustibles and fash
Soned in different ways.
One Of the greatest fireworks factories In the
world is located on the outskirts of Brooklyn,
but the stranger who passes by 1t on a 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 one of the tiny houses should hap
pen to be blown up he alone would suffer.
1t naturally happens that the only building
of considerable size on 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 1t, for the outer wrap
pings of the fireworks Pyrotechnic toys, OF
course, must be pretty to look at, else they would
mot sell to advantage and the papers utilized for
the purpose are of all colors OF the rainbow and
q 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-
dng so exceedingly expeditions that one person
can turn out as many as IL gross OF them in a
day. OF course they are of all lengths and diam
aeters according to kind and size of fireworks
- -lA.t- 49,, --z LN-I .~I &1@.~1 xL@
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 a pot of paste the oper-
sator converts sheets Of thin, brown pasteboard
dnto neat and compact tubes at the rate of three
aor four a minute.
A dozen work people engaged in this occu-
patton can turn out an immense number of cyl
finders in a day and the manner In which they
ARE utilized in the manufacture Of different kinds
of fireworks will presently be explained. 1t might
DE we'll to say incidentally, however, that In this
same department are made the bombshells, which
are stamped by a machine out of papier-mache
in halves. When they have become dry the
halves are Joined by strips of thin canvas soaked
in paste, each sphere thus produced having a
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 as five feet in diameter.
They are discharged from mortars and, reaching
IA height Of 1000 feet or more, explode with a
igreat noise, liberating showers OF many-colored
s5tars or golden rain, or sometimes parachutes
carrying trains Of stars. Some are made as
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
rpaper tubing packed with different chemical COM
positions. Beneath the shell thus loaded is at.
Hooho1 ond Arrp1u OI,od a no roroptop lo
tanning a slow-burning composition similar to
agunpowder. Then a fuse is SO fixed that being
ignited at the instant Of the bombs discharge 1t
will burn Just long enough to explode the shell
at the moment when the p~rojectile has reached
Its greatest height in the air. When this hap
pens the paper shell is blown to pieces and the
stars, incidentally ignited, are 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 an inch perhaps in length. But
they vary much In size, according to the uses to
which they are to be put A man cuts them by
the millions with a small circular saw, taking q
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
Tnd chlorate of baryta being used for green, car.
Donate of s~trontium for red, oxylate of soda for
yellow and oddly enough) paris green for blue
with various admixtures OF chlorate of potash
lshellac, etc.
it should have been said that. in order to
strengthen the papier-mache shells and so to en-
<able them to scatter their stars more widely
when shattered. they are wound with strong gro
GERS twine, outside of which the final decorative
paper cover Is put on. There Is. however, an
other and quite new kind of bomb. which is made
I'm the shape of a cylinder. It Is SO constructed
that during lts flight through the air It makes
a series Of breaks sometimes as many az ten
throwing out each time a shower Of stars. This
es might be imagined. is a very beautiful effect
and is achieved by dividing the containing cylin
der into q series Of compartments holding stars
each compartment being set OF In its turn.
Some OF these cylindrical bombs contain par
achutes, which are arranged like the parachutes
dropped from rockets. Inside OF the pasteboard
case is a circular piece of tissue paper, around
the circumference of which are attached a series
OF very long strings. To each of these strings