Pyrotechnics: The History and Art of Firework MakingBrock, Alan St. H. (Alan St. Hill)
History
Pyrotechnics: The History and Art of Firework Making
Brock, Alan St. H. (Alan St. Hill)
Fireworks
The Royal Naval Experimental Station at Stratford, of which he was
in command and which he organised and brought into being, had many
activities besides smoke. But even the exacting work of controlling
its many activities was not sufficient for the Commander’s untiring
energy; the few moments he could snatch from his duties and the many he
stole from sleep were devoted to the invention and elaboration of war
devices. His greatest achievement was the Brock anti-Zeppelin bullet,
for which he and he alone is responsible, and which beyond any shadow
of doubt delivered this country from the terror of the Zeppelin raids.
His other inventions include many purely pyrotechnic smoke devices and
inventions connected with the production of smoke, such as igniters
which were used to start the action of smoke production, the Dover
flares of one million candle power each, used by the anti-submarine
patrol in the Straits of Dover, and burned to the extent of several
hundreds every night.
He was also responsible for several forms of stars for use in Very
pistol cartridges.
Captain Carpenter, V.C., in his splendid book, “The Blocking of
Zeebrugge,” writes as follows of his work in connection with that
operation:
“It would be difficult for anybody to speak too highly of
Wing-Commander Frank A. Brock. He was a rare personality. An
inventive genius, than whom the country had no better, it was
his brain that differentiated this blocking enterprise from all
previous attempts in history in one most important particular. The
difficulty of reaching the destination in the face of a strenuous
opposition had hitherto brought failure, but he provided an
antidote in the form of a satisfactory artificial fog designed to
protect the blockships from the enemy’s guns during the critical
period of approach. That in itself was a wonderful achievement, but
his inventive mind was not satisfied therewith. To him we owed the
special flares intended for turning darkness into light.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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