[Illustration: FEU D’ARTIFICE À VERSAILLES POUR LE MARIAGE DU DAUPHIN, 1735. FROM A WATER-COLOUR DRAWING BY MOREL TORRÉ. _Front Endpaper._] PYROTECHNICS [Illustration: Copyright. Brock. Sutton] [Frontispiece Display at the Tercentenary Fetes, Quebec, July 23rd, 1908. The largest display ever fired in the Western Hemisphere. From a drawing by C. M. Padday.] PYROTECHNICS: THE HISTORY AND ART OF FIREWORK MAKING BY A. St. H. BROCK, A.R.I.B.A. WITH NUMEROUS COLOURED AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON: DANIEL O’CONNOR 90 GREAT RUSSELL STREET, W.C.1 MCMXXII Dedicated to the memory of my brother Wing-Commander Frank Arthur Brock, R.N.A.S. Killed at Zeebrugge April 23rd, 1918 . . . . . . . . . . . be bright and busy While hoaxed astronomers look up and stare From tall observatories, dumb and dizzy, To see a Squib in Cassiopeia’s Chair! A Serpent wriggling into Charles’s Wain! A Roman Candle lighting the Great Bear! A Rocket tangled in Diana’s train, And Crackers stuck in Berenice’s Hair! Ode to Madame Hengler, Firework-maker to Vauxhall By THOMAS HOOD. CONTENTS PART I CHAPTER PAGE Introduction xiii I The Origin of Pyrotechny 3 II Pyrotechny in the East 6 III Pyrotechny in Europe 13 IV Pyrotechny in Europe (_continued_) 23 V London Pleasure Gardens 32 VI Fireworks in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 39 VII Firework Manufacture 57 VIII Modern Firework Manufacture 69 IX Firework Accidents 77 PART II I Simple Fireworks, Rocket Class 91 II Simple Fireworks, Shell Class 103 III Simple Fireworks, Mine Class 110 IV Simple Fireworks, Saxon and Lance Classes 116 V Compound Fireworks 121