The Pyrotechnist's Treasury Part 8

A caprice, from the capricious manner in which it turns, up, down, and round about, now this way, now that. A furilona, possibly, from the fury with which it plays, when 4 cases are burning together, at the end: though some call it a fruiloni, said to be from the name of its inventor. A furilona and caprice wheel are much the same; the former, generally, has fewer cases on it than the latter. A coloured gerbe, placed on the top, is very effective; or, it may have a mine, or jack-in-the-box. The cases are to be placed so that some of them play horizontally, some obliquely upwards, some obliquely downwards; the spokes, which are concave at the end, are glued in, so as to determine the slope of the cases. If there are 10 cases, they may be fired thus, h, u, d, hud, hudp; that is, 1 horizontal, 1 up, 1 down; 3 at once, horizontal, up, down; 4 at once, horizontal, up, down, perpendicular. If 13 cases, thus: h, u, d, hu, hd, ud, hudp. While tying the cases on the frame, it should be on a short wire, held perpendicularly in a vice, or block of wood; properly, the wire should be tapering, so that the frame should bite, when dropped on; the tapering will allow it to be turned round, easily, by slightly lifting it. Let the leaders be drawn straight, and not left dangling in curves, nor crossing each other.

There must be _enough_ match, but there ought to be no more. Look well to the mouths and tails of the cases; it is best to put a piece of pasted paper over each, for as the piece dashes round with great violence, if a stray spark falls on any composition filtering out, the whole is spoilt.

Fig. 113. A horizontal wheel, with mine and roman candles; the cases on the wheel are to be tied so that some play horizontally; some, obliquely upwards; some, obliquely downwards. To make a case play thus, tie it on the wheel, across the middle of the case; this being done, turn the mouth upwards or downwards, and tie it again, making the strings cross the previous ones, so as to form a letter X.

Fig. 114. A turning sun: two concentric hoops nailed to spokes, or a frame; the cases lying on the hoops, slope; 3 or 4 may light at once; the spokes carry triangular, or vertical wheels; at the centre is a double triangular, or larger vertical.

Fig. 115. A rayonant star piece: a wheel with six spokes; at the end of each spoke, two fixed cases, forming a V, the alternate spokes carrying saxons; at the centre, a double triangular, half-way between the triangles and the saxons, six five-pointed stars. A very beautiful piece.

Fig. 116. A chequer-piece: a true-lover's-knot in the middle, 16 fixed cases, 4 on each side the true-lover's-knot; and 4 saxons at the extremities. The fires cross, and chequer into squares.

Fig. 117. A scroll wheel: six or more cases on the wheel, to play in pairs; lances arranged on cane or hooping to form a scroll as indicated.

Fig. 118. A pyramidical piece: a scroll wheel in the middle; five horizontal wheels, or triangulars, at intervals, as represented by the rings; brilliant fixed cases playing obliquely upwards: at the bottom may be a row of cases playing downwards; these form what is called a cascade. Gerbes make the most effective cascades, but they require to be placed at a great height from the ground, if containing iron: the c.o.ke grains will be found suited for 8 or 10 feet.

Fig. 119. A spiral wheel: six cases on a horizontal wheel; lances arranged in a spiral, on cane, or hooping.

Fig. 120. A true-lover's-knot: six 6/8 wheel cases, playing in pairs; three saxons, one carrying a blue; one, a green; one, a crimson colour.

Light at a; this leader blows across, and lights the opposite starting case. The tail of this case lights the saxons: the ends of the saxons at c, c, c, before enveloping them, are to be smeared with meal; the end, b, is also to be smeared with wetted meal, to insure the ignition of the leader. This is a most beautiful piece: the colours, on the saxons, form loops, and represent, in a slight degree, the compound motions of the moon and planets, with regard to the earth. The centres of the saxons are carried round in a circle, like the earth in her orbit; the colours on the saxons revolve round the flying centres, like the moon round the earth. The wheel must not be less than 3 feet diameter.

Fig. 121. A revolving globe. This is, also, a most beautiful piece. The bottom is a horizontal wheel, carrying a strong half hoop, a b c; a skeleton globe, formed with hoops, is suspended in this. This globe is driven by cases placed upon it, round a hoop, crossing the other hoops, at right angles, like the equator, at right angles to the meridians. The meridional hoops are covered with lances, white or coloured. The globe revolves vertically, while the wheel below turns it horizontally; the compound motion produces a peculiar oblique tumbling convolution, exceedingly perplexing to spectators, ignorant of its construction.

Instead of a globe, the top piece may be a revolving cylinder.

Fig. 122. A mine. This is a cylindrical case, containing serpents. The bottom of the mine should be a circular piece of wood, glued in. On it, place a circular bag, containing F grain powder. The bag is made with two circular pieces of paper, one half-an-inch diameter larger than the other; lay the small one on the top of the large one: paste, or gum, the exposed rim of the bottom piece, and bend it up, and press it down on the small or top piece, all round, leaving a part through which to put the powder; when dry, put in the powder, and stop up the hole. Put it into the mine, smear it with the brush, dipped into meal paste, in the usual way; and, with a pepper-box, shake in a little dry meal. Take a fixed case, charged; envelop it, so that the paper projects about an inch at the bottom: take a piece of squib-case, the same length as the serpents; put through it a piece of match, long enough to protrude at the top, half-an-inch, and to bend over, to form a hook: tie this in the envelope of the fixed case. Fill the mine with serpents, naked primed mouth downwards: with the scissors, or a pair of pliers, draw out the middle serpent; put in the matched squib-case; hold the fixed case upright, in the mine, and ram pieces of torn paper tight round it, to offer resistance, and cause the serpents to be blown higher. To adjust the blowing powder in the bag, use the following formula, I denoting the diameter in inches.

I x 2I = drams.

Required the quant.i.ty of powder for a mine 1-1/2 inch diameter.

1-1/2 x 3 = 4-1/2 drams = 1/4 oz.

For 1-3/4 inches?--1-3/4 x 3-1/2 = 7/4 x 7/2 = 49/8 = 6-1/8 drams = 3/8 oz.

For 2 inches?--2 x 4 = 8 drams = 1/2 oz.

For 2-1/2 inches?--2-1/2 x 5 = 12-1/2 drams = 3/4 oz.

For 3 inches?--3 x 6 = 18 drams = 1-1/8 oz.

It is by no means necessary to be exact; but the formula will serve as a guide.

Fig. 123. A jack-in-the-box. This is a case formed on a square prism of wood. The paper is to be pasted all over, but as it cannot be rolled, it must be folded over, one side at a time, and rubbed smooth with a tooth-brush handle, or pressed with the fingers. The bottom may be formed by bending in, to a right angle, two opposite sides, and pressing them flat; then, upon them, the two remaining sides, like packets of cocoa, &c. Or a square piece of wood may be glued in for a bottom. The same blowing charge as for mines.

Fig. 124. A devil-among-the-tailors: a mixture of crackers and serpents; a roman candle in the middle, having its bottom stopped with sh.e.l.l fuse, instead of plaster of paris: 3, or 4, or any number of roman candles, at regular distances, round the outside: these are to be tied with string, and a strip of pasted paper fastened round.

Fig. 125. A line-rocket: two rockets tied to a piece of roman candle case, head to tail: that is, one rocket tied in one direction, the other, in the reverse. This simply runs up and down a line.

Fig. 126. A pigeon frame (of which fig. 127 is a cross section) may be made by taking a piece of deal, or alder, say 6 inches long, and 1-1/2 inch square: bore a hole through the length to receive the line upon which it is to run; plane off the corners, lengthwise, and channel them with a gouge, to form 4 semi-cylinders for the rockets to lie in: in the middle glue 4 spokes, each about 4 inches long; and round the spokes nail a wheel. A piece of cane makes good spokes, light and strong. Tie on the frame, lying in the channels, four 6/8 rockets, two pointing one way; two, the other: the clay or plaster of paris, in these rockets, is not to have a hole through it, as usual, but to remain perfectly closed.

On the wheel, tie four 5/8 wheel cases, charged with wheel case fuse, No. 1 or No. 10. Leader it thus: touchpaper the mouth of one wheel case.

From the tail of this first wheel case, carry two leaders; one to the next wheel case, and one to the rocket whose mouth is nearest: the tail of the second wheel case lights the third wheel case and second rocket; and so on. A long clothes line must be stretched tight for this to run along; it should start 3 or 4 yards, at least, from the post to which the line is tied: and the rope should be so long that the first rocket could not carry it to the end; otherwise the leaders are apt to snap and spoil the piece. Towards the end, as the piece gets lighter, it will run the whole length of the rope, without injury. It is necessary to indicate the first, or starting rocket, by some means; a piece of red paper may be pasted round the mouth; or, an inch or two of string may be tied to it; or the match may be bent and tied so as to project an inch or two longer than the others. On fixing it on the line, in the dark, you can then feel which is the starting rocket, and place its mouth _towards_ the starting post, without hesitation. Of course the pigeon runs away in the opposite direction.

Fig. 128. A pigeon-house, made with lances; this may be fixed in a central position, and have 4 lines running from it: east, west, north, and south. As soon as the lances are well alight, start the pigeons.

This is not necessary for amateurs. One pigeon is sufficient, without any pigeon-house.

The piece, fired at the Crystal Palace, termed a comet, is a combination of the pigeon, fig. 126, and the turning sun, fig. 114. Construct a pigeon frame, with two hoops, one at each end; to these hoops, attach brilliant cases, or gerbes, placed obliquely: point the mouths of all the rockets and gerbes in the same direction. The whole of the cases may be lit at once; or a short case may fire the rockets after the piece has partly descended the line, by its own weight. The line, at the Crystal Palace, is stretched from the top of the northern tower to the ground.

Fig. 129. A double guilloche, or windmill piece. This represents two windmills, turning in opposite directions; and imitates the engine turning, on the backs of watches.

Fig. 130. A five-pointed star. This has been already described.

It is desirable, sometimes, to convey the fire from a movable or rotating piece, to a fixed, or second rotating piece, which is effected thus. A leader, a, fig. 131, comes from the tail of the last case of the first rotating piece. This leader is tied, in one or more places, to one of the spokes of the wheel, and to the nave; and is left protruding at b. A tin box, or a bit of a mine case, d e f g, is attached to the fixed, or second movable piece in such a manner, as to surround, but stand clear of, the end of the match, b, as it revolves, with the wheel.

A hole is made at c, and the end of a leader, from the second piece, brought through it. The inside surface of the box, d e f g, is smeared with meal-paste. When the leader catches at a, it blows through to b; this lights the smeared surface of the box; the flash communicates the fire to c, and this carries it where desired.

Sometimes a piece is made to drop, which is thus effected. Suppose a cylindrical piece of iron, 6 inches long, 3 inches diameter, standing upright; on this a second cylinder, 12 inches long, 2 inches diameter; and, on this, a third cylinder, 2 inches long, and 1 inch diameter. If now a bra.s.s ring 1-1/4 or 1-1/2 inches diameter be put on the top, it will slip down, and rest on the 2-inch cylinder; if a ring 2-1/2 inches diameter be slipped over the top, it will fall, and rest on the bottom 3-inch cylinder. It is obvious that, if a horizontal wheel, having a hole in the nave, 2-1/2 inches diameter, be slipped on, it will drop, and rest on the bottom cylinder; and that a second wheel, with a 1-1/2 inch hole in the nave, will rest on the second cylinder. The two wheels, then, may be placed on, and held together with a piece of thickly leadered match; the top wheel plays for a while, and carries the second wheel with it; the tail of the first, or other case, lights the bottom wheel, and at the same time blows the match to pieces, and the wheel drops. Of course three or more wheels may drop, one after another. See the design, fig. 166.

Sometimes a horizontal motion is changed to a vertical, thus. Suppose an upright wooden post, 3 inches square. Saw off the top 18 inches, and fix it on again, with a hinge; drive a staple, on the other side, into the top piece; also one into the bottom piece; and connect the staples with a piece of string, to prevent the top piece falling. In the top drive a spindle, as usual, to receive a horizontal wheel. On the side of the fixed post, against the hinge, fasten an iron bracket, to stand forward, so that the top part, when the string is cut, can fall down, and rest on the bracket. Now slip over the spindle a bra.s.s tube, 3 inches long, and almost a fit; then put on it a horizontal wheel, carrying a smeared box, as above described, to convey the fire to a fixed piece; on the top of the spindle screw a nut. To the bottom post, tie a piece of sh.e.l.l fuse, and let the string, that prevents the top piece from falling, be drawn over the mouth of this, and secured. It is obvious that if, after the wheel has played awhile horizontally, the sh.e.l.l fuse is lit by a leader, the string will be burnt in two; the top part will fall on to the bracket; and the horizontal motion will be changed to a vertical one.

Roman candles are best fired in bouquets of three or more; connect them with leaders about 3 inches long; and set them in a block of wood, containing three or more holes, diverging right and left; or tie them to struts of wood, nailed together, like the supports for garden flowers.

Two vertical wheels may be made to run round the outside of a table, to imitate the motion of the machine for grinding drugs, crus.h.i.+ng clay, &c., like two parallel grindstones going round in a circular trough.

Conceive a circular table, 20 inches diameter. With a gimlet bore a hole in the centre, large enough to admit a screw-eye, with liberty to turn easily round; slip through it a stair-rod, 2 feet long; it will overhang 2 inches at each end, and may be swung round. At the distance of about 4 inches from each end of the rod, imagine a cotton reel, or a pulley; when the rod is moved round, the reels or pulleys will roll round in a circle, like the cylinder-crushers, above mentioned. Now, if a vertical wheel were fixed at each end of the rod, so as to hang outside the table, it is obvious that, upon firing it, the wheels would run round.

Of course it must not be a screw-eye and a stair-rod; but anyone will understand, from this description, how to effect it.

These contrivances have fallen somewhat into disuse, since the introduction and variety of colours, but it is well to understand them.

TO FIRE A GIRANDOLE OF 100 ROCKETS AT ONCE.

Suppose a cubical tea-chest. In the top, bore ten rows of holes, ten in a row, with a centre-bit; the same in the bottom, in such a way that the bottom holes fall perpendicularly under the top holes. Fasten the box upon four legs, one at each corner. Sift from a pepper-box a layer of meal powder over the top; put in the rockets, with their primed mouths, naked, to rest on the sifted meal. It is evident that, upon conveying fire to the meal, by a leader, the flash will ignite the whole of the rockets, at once. Of course it ought not to be a tea-chest, but a box constructed on purpose, with a penthouse lid, to fall over, and protect the rockets, till desired to be fired. It may be furnished with four legs, as in fig. 173. The shelf, fig. 172, fits in at a b c, fig. 173.

_TOOLS._

Fig. 132. A port-fire holder. This is made of steel, somewhat after the manner of a pair of pliers. The ends a and b are fluted, or channelled (semi-cylindrical) to receive the port-fire: a spring, riveted at c, holds it tight; by pressing on d, the burnt case drops: the end e is pointed, to enter a long stick, bored to receive it, and strengthened with a bra.s.s ferrule.

As an instrument of this kind can be obtained only when made to order, the following contrivance will serve the purpose of most amateurs. First charge some little port-fires, 3 inches long and 1/4 inch diameter, till within about 1-1/4 inch full: having filled a couple of dozen, or so, invert them, and knock out the dust, as with squibs; then encircle the whole, as if going to bang them; but pour in dry sand instead; empty a little sand from each, and stop the end with plaster of paris. Sc.r.a.pe out a little composition from the other end, and prime it with damped meal. Take two inches of a roman candle case, or a piece of turned wood, with a hole through it, fig. 133, two inches long. Have a long stick, fig. 134; cut the end, a, so that it will fit the hole in fig. 133, and enter half way up. At the other end fix a wire, z, two and a half inches long. By slipping fig. 133 on fig. 134 it is evident one inch vacancy is left to receive the sand end of the port-fire; when this is burnt out, it can be pushed out with the wire, z.

_TO CONSTRUCT A STEELYARD SCALE._

The numerous formulae for coloured fires, renders the use of very small scales excessively troublesome; and there is perpetual danger of losing the little weights for grains and pennyweights. By constructing a steelyard scale, the greatest facility is attained, one weight answering for all.

Take a piece of deal, fig. 135, about as thick as a venetian-blind lath; it may be 20 or 24 inches long; an inch broad, at the left end; and about 1/2 an inch broad in the main length. Make a hole at a, twice the diameter of a pin: the same at b. It is necessary to observe that the hole, a, must be on a level with the top of the long arm; if it should be a little higher, it would not be of any consequence; but it must, on no account, be lower. Have a piece of deal, fig. 136, about an inch square, and mortise a hole in it, as drawn. Fix 135 in 136 so as to appear like 137. A bit of a common pin, or needle, is to go through the mortise and through the hole, a, of 135. See that it plays easily. At s, fig. 137, insert a piece of wire, bent like the figure 8; and to it, tie the strings fastened to w, which may be a copper bowl, or a tin patty-pan. The mode of fastening the threads to the figure of 8 wire, is simply to slip them through, bend them down, and tie round with thread, as at z.