Artificial fire-works : $b improved to the modern practice, from the minutest to the highest branchesJones, Robert
History
Artificial fire-works : $b improved to the modern practice, from the minutest to the highest branches
Jones, Robert
Fireworks -- Early works to 1800
The stand being thus made, prepare your rockets after the following
method; take some common sky rockets, of any size, and head them as
you please, then get some balls of lead, and tie to each a small wire,
two, or two feet and a half long, and the other end of each wire, tie
to the neck of a rocket; these balls answer the purpose of sticks,
when made of a proper weight, which is about two thirds the weight of
the rocket; but when they are of a proper size, they will ballance the
rocket in the same manner as a stick, at the usual point of poize. To
fire these sort of rockets, hang them, one at a time, between the tops
of the wires, letting their heads rest on the points of the wires, and
the balls hang down between them; if the wires should be too wide, for
the rockets, press them together, till they sit, and if too close,
force them open: the wires for this purpose, must be softened, so as
not to have any spring, or they will not keep their position, when
pressed close or opened.
Of Rain-falls for Sky Rockets, Double and Single.
Gold and silver rain composition, are drove in cases, that are pinched
quite close at one end; if you roll them dry, four or five rounds of
paper will be strong enough, but if the are pasted, three rounds will
do, and the thin sort of cartridge paper is best for those small
cases; which in rolling you must not turn down the inside edge, as in
other cases, for a double edge would be too thick for so small a bore;
the moulds for rain falls, should be made of brass, and turned very
smooth in the inside; or the cases, which are so very thin, would tear
in coming out, for the charge must be drove in tight; and the better
the case sits the mould, the more driving it will bare. These moulds
have no nipple, but instead of which they are made flat; as it would
be very tedious and troublesome, to shake the composition out of such
small ladles, as are used for these cases; it will be necessary to
have a funnel made of thin tin, to fit on the top of the case, by the
help of which you may fill them very fast; for single rain falls for
four ounce rockets, let the diameter of the former be two sixteenths
of an inch, and the length of the case two inches; for eight ounce
rockets, four sixteenths, and two diameters of the rocket long; for
one pound rocket five sixteenths, and two diameters of the rocket
long; for two pound rockets, five sixteenths, and three inches a half
long; for four pound rockets, six sixteenths, and four inches and a
half long; and for six pounders, seven sixteenths diameter, and five
inches long.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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