The origin of this type of picture is worth recording. In 1889 the Shah of Persia visited the Crystal Palace, and fired a portrait of himself, electrically, from the Royal Box. A popular song of the day, “Have you seen the Shah?” was suggested to some musically inclined members of the audience, who commenced to sing it, and were soon joined by the whole of the spectators, numbering about 50,000. The effect of this impromptu concert was so striking as to lead to the production of the popular song whenever there happened to be one suitable for pictorial rendering in fireworks. In 1892 a mechanical Lottie Collins, 60 feet high, dancing to the then popular strain of “Ta-ra-ra-bom-de-ay,” was enthusiastically received. A series of patriotic and sentimental songs at the time of the South African War, as “The Absent-minded Beggar” and “Good-bye, Dolly Grey,” etc., were very successful. The “Honeysuckle and the Bee” provided the subject for a transformation picture, a design of honeysuckle changing to a girl’s head with a mechanical bee twelve feet long. In 1908 three songs were included in one piece—“Bill Bailey,” “Farewell, my Bluebell,” and “The Old Bull and Bush.” The smaller mechanical pieces form a history of locomotion during the half-century covered by the displays. Bicycles, motor cars, looping the loop, aeroplanes, costers’ barrows, hansom cabs, fire engines, scooters have all been represented, and in 1895, on the occasion of the visit of the Railway Conference, two of the best mechanical pieces ever carried out—full-sized representations of the “Rocket” and the latest type of express engine with exact details and working parts. An effective working device introduced as early as 1870 was a comet travelling down a wire from one of the famous towers to the ground. Later the comet was replaced by a dragon, Mother Goose, and in 1872 by a “Fiery Bicycle,” a subject which seems somewhat out of place in such a position. The next development of this feature was to introduce a living man who, clad in shining armour and surrounded and illuminated by a frame of fireworks, striking an impressive attitude, slid from the summit of the tower to the terrace. The name of this performer, no doubt in imitation of the Italian artists who on a smaller scale carried out a similar feat at Vauxhall, was given in the programme as Signor Gregorini. In private life or in the works, however, he went by the name of Bill Gregory, and it is recorded that, when on the first night he stuck half-way down and had to remain in his airy position for the remainder of the display, his remarks left no doubt as to the country of his origin.