An Old Firework Bill:—Programme of Mr. Brock’s Superior Fireworks at Ipswich, 1818 114 Rocket Charging } 116 Filling Roman Candles } Types of Compound Fireworks:—Lattice Poles, Chromatrope, Lattice Diamond 128 A Display ready for Firing, Dresden, 1899 134 Diagram illustrating the evolution of Pyrotechnic Composition, showing their periods of use 140 Roman Candles—illustrating brilliance of aluminium compositions 150 The Late Wing-Commander Brock, R.N.A.S. 166 Smoke Float in action 168 Crystal Palace—By the light of a Magnesium Shell 178 End Papers:—Feu d’artifice a Versailles pour le Mariage du Dauphin. Two displays from the original watercolour drawings by Morel Torré, 1735 INTRODUCTION The word “fireworks” as a metaphor, used either to describe the higher flights of oratory, of literature, or of human strife, whether it be in Parliament or the Parish Hall, or merely descriptive of domestic discord, is familiar, even threadbare. Moreover, the metaphor has generally a humorous flavour; why is this? Is there anything inherently comic about fireworks? It is true that for a short season the less critical of the comic papers used the cracker and squib as pegs upon which to hang the type of joke which depends for its success on the atavistic human trait of laughing at the misfortune or discomfort of others, but this is the lowest type of humour which soon palls upon the mind. The Stage also has its comedy and clown, yet the mention of the stage is not a signal for mirth. Can any who have heard the long-drawn Ah-h! of rapture from many thousand throats, at the bursting of a flight of shell, or the darting up of the wonderfully tinted rays of the “Magical Illumination” at the Crystal Palace, maintain that the most dramatic moment on the stage is more affecting to the spectators? Pyrotechny is possibly the only art which can compete with nature; anyone who has seen a first-class firework display will admit that for impressive grandeur, colour effects, and contrasts of light and shade, pyrotechny is unapproached. Pyrotechny paints on the canvas of the sky; and the results are at once the joy and despair of the artist. Many artists have tried to record their impressions, but the results have been generally disappointing. Whistler came near success, but even his wonderful work conveys merely the dying embers of passed glory. One feels that here has been a magnificent display, but the scene in its full grandeur is not depicted.