Cooley's Cyclopaedia of Practical Receipts Volume Ii Part 181

Nitrate of soda 630 parts.

Sulphur 125 "

Charcoal 125 "

---- 880 parts.

As the nitrate of soda is hygrometric, this powder must be preserved in closed vessels from the moisture of the air.

LEAD POWDER. This mixture is also prepared like gunpowder, and the const.i.tuents are used in the following proportions:

Nitrate of lead 12 parts.

Nitrate of potash 2 "

Charcoal 3 "

-- 17 parts.

In the manufacture of this mixture on a large scale considerable care is necessary, since the mixture of nitrate of lead and charcoal is very liable to ignite by friction.

PREPARED BLOOD. 450 to 500 grammes of zinc is dissolved in 1340 grammes of hydrochloric acid 22 B., largely diluted with water, and filtered. This solution is again diluted with its own volume of water, and mixed with fresh blood. The whole is well stirred from time to time for 48 hours, and the clear liquor is siphoned off from the precipitate. The precipitate is well washed with water, dried, and reduced to powder, in which state it may be kept for any length of time.

TOUCH PAPER. This paper is prepared by immersing purple or blue paper in a solution of nitrate of potash in spirits of wine or vinegar, and carefully drying it.

When the touch paper is used with small articles, a piece is tied round the orifice with thread, leaving sufficient paper to form a small tube at the end. This tube is filled with gunpowder, and the paper twisted over it, when all is ready for firing.

Touch paper for capping every description of fireworks, such as squibs, crackers, Roman candles, &c., is prepared in the following manner:--Dissolve 2 oz. of the best saltpetre in 1 quart of warm water, and take care that the water is very clean.

After the mixture has stood for half an hour, pour off 1-1/2 pint into a white basin, then cut your sheets of dark blue double-crown paper in half.

The weight of the paper should be 12 or 14 lbs. per ream.

Place the paper on a slab sufficiently large to give you room to use a small piece of sponge, with which you use the liquor to wet your paper.

Cover each half sheet with the liquor as quickly as possible, on one side only, and immediately this is done place it on a line, the wet side on outwards, and when nearly dry, if you have a great number of sheets, place them together as evenly as possible under a press for one hour, then lay them out to dry, after which they will be quite smooth and ready for use.

In pasting this paper on the work, take care that the paste does not touch that part which is to burn. To use this paper correctly, cut it in strips sufficiently long to go twice round the mouth of the case, or even more if requisite. When you paste on the strips, leave a little above the mouth of the case not pasted; in small cases a little meal powder is put into the mouth, and then the paper is twisted to a point. In larger cases damp priming is used, and when dry, the capping process is proceeded with.

CRACKERS. The following mixtures are used for ordinary crackers:--

Meal powder parts 5 15 6 8 16 Fine charcoal " 1 4 -- 2 17 Coa.r.s.e charcoal " -- -- 6 -- -- Sulphur " -- -- 2 -- 1 Saltpetre " -- -- 16 1 7

Composition for crackers with Chinese fire--

Meal powder parts 9 6 16 Saltpetre " 6 8 -- Sulphur " 1 2 3 Charcoal " 1-1/2 1-1/2 2 Fine iron " 5 -- 7 Sand " -- 5 --

Composition for crackers with brilliant fire--

Meal powder parts 8 8 36 18 32 Sulphur " 1 1-1/2 1 1 3 Iron filings " 2 2-1/2 -- -- -- Litharge " -- -- -- 2 -- Steel filings " -- -- 8 3 12

The paper generally used for cartridge is that known as 'elephant' or cartridge, the latter being the more frequently employed.

Cartridge paper is employed in the preparation of crackers, which vary from 12 to 15 inches, and 3-1/2 inches diameter. One edge of the paper is folded down about 3/4-inch in breadth, then the double edge is turned down about 1/4-inch, and the single edge is bent back over the double fold so as to form a channel 1/4-inch wide. This is filled with meal powder, which is then to be covered by the folds on each side, when the whole is to be pressed very smooth and close, by pa.s.sing it over the edge of a flat ruler. The part containing the powder is to be gradually folded into the remainder of the paper, each fold being carefully pressed down. The cracker is then doubled backwards and forwards into as many folds of about 2-1/4 inches as the paper will allow.

The whole is pressed together by means of a wooden vice, a piece of twine is pa.s.sed twice round the middle across the folds, and the joinings are secured by causing the twine to take a turn round the middle at every turn. One of the ends of the folds may be doubled short under, which will produce an extra report, but the other must project a little beyond the rest, for the priming and capping with the touch paper. When these crackers are fired they give a report at every turn of the paper.

The crackers may also be made of two single cards, rolled over each other and covered with paper coated with paste. The crackers are partially filled with the composition by means of a tin funnel. Ordinary powder is then introduced, and the remaining s.p.a.ce is filled with a little sawdust.

REVOLVING CRACKERS. These crackers are charged at each end with clay to a depth of two lines, and filled with a composition without gunpowder. The clay prevents the fire streaming out at the ends, and it escapes through two holes placed opposite each other. The two holes are united at the same time by connecting them by means of a quick-match, and a rotatory motion is thus communicated to the cylinder.

ENGLISH PIN WHEELS. Pin, or Catherine wheels are of very simple construction. A long wire about 3/16th of an inch in diameter is the former; on this wire are formed the pipes, which being filled with composition, are afterwards wound round a small circle of wood so as to form a helix or spiral line. The cases are generally made of double-crown paper (yellow wove), and cut into strips to give the greatest length, and of width sufficient to roll about four times round the wire, and pasted at the edge so as to bite firmly at the end of the last turn. When a number of pipes are made and perfectly dry, they are filled with composition.

These cases are not driven for filling, but are filled by means of a tin funnel with a tube 3/4 of an inch long, made to pa.s.s easily into the mouth of the case, which is gradually filled by lifting a wire up and down in this tube, the diameter of the charging wire being half that of the tube.

The dry composition being placed in the funnel, the moment an action of the wire takes place the composition begins to fall into the case, which the charging wire compresses by continuous motion until you have filled the pipe to within 3/4 of an inch of the top. The pipe is then removed, and the mouth neatly twisted, which will be the point for lighting.

When a number of pipes are ready, place them on a damp floor, or in any damp situation, until they become very pliant, but by no means wet; then commence winding them round a circle of wood whose substance must be equal to the thickness of the diameter of the pipe; and when wound, secure the end with sealing-wax, to prevent its springing open; after winding the required quant.i.ty let them dry. Now cut some strips of crimson or purple paper 3/16th of an inch wide, and in length twice the diameter of the wheel; then paste all over thoroughly. Take a strip and paste it across the wheel diametrically, rub it down, then turn the wheel over, and place the ends down to correspond with the opposite side; when dry, the wheel will be ready for firing.

They may be fired on a large pin or held in the hand, but it is preferable to drive the pin into the end of a stick, which will prevent any accident, should a section of the wheel burst.

SQUIBS. These are either filled with grained powder, or with a mixture consisting of:--Gunpowder, 8 parts; charcoal, 1 part; sulphur, 1 part. The cases, which are about 6 inches long, are made by rolling strips of stout cartridge paper three times round a roller, and pasting the last fold.

They are then firmly tied down near the bottom, and the end is either dipped into hot pitch or covered with sealing-wax. The cases are filled by putting a thimble full of the powder in, and ramming it tightly down with a roller, this operation being continued until the case is filled. It is then capped with touch paper.

SERPENTS (MARROON SQUIBS). A suitable case being ready, it is filled two thirds up with a powder consisting of:--Saltpetre, 16 parts; sulphur, 8 parts; fine gunpowder, 4 parts; antimony, 1 part. This, after being rammed down into the case tolerably tightly, the remainder of the s.p.a.ce is filled with grained or corned powder.

SPARKS. These fireworks differs from stars in size, being very small and made without cases. The English method of preparing them is as follows:--A mixture of

Fine gunpowder 1 part Powdered saltpetre 3 parts Powdered camphor 4 "

is placed in a mortar, and some weak gum-water in which a little gum tragacanth has been dissolved, is poured over it, and the whole worked up into a thin paste. Some lint, prepared by boiling it in vinegar or saltpetre, and afterwards dried and unravelled, is placed in the composition so as to absorb the whole. This is then poured into b.a.l.l.s about the size of a pea, dried and sprinkled with fine gunpowder.

In Germany the following compositions are used:

---------------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ Chlorate of potash parts 24 40 12 20 -- -- -- 40 21 21 14 20 96 40 Chlorate of potash and copper " -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 23 23 -- -- -- -- Chlorate of baryta " -- -- -- -- 18 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Nitrate of potash " -- -- -- -- -- 12 26 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Nitrate of lead " 24 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Nitrate of baryta " -- -- -- 40 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Calomel " -- -- -- 13 7 -- -- 28 12 12 4 8 18 -- Sulphide of copper " -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 28 -- 12 6 4 -- -- Sulphate of strontia " -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 20 72 37 Oxalate of soda " -- 16 10 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Chalk " -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 5 -- -- -- Powdered zinc " -- -- -- -- -- 14 28 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Powdered charcoal " -- -- -- -- -- 5 11 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Sulphur " 12 -- 1 13 -- -- -- -- -- -- 6 3 -- -- Gum lac " 1 8 -- 1 3 -- -- -- -- -- -- 2 18 8 Soap " -- 3 1 -- -- -- -- 3 3 3 -- -- -- -- Starch " -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 10 -- -- -- -- -- -- Sugar " -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 4 4 -- -- -- -- Pine soot " -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 1 -- ---------------+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+

The above mixtures are intended to give coloured sparks, according to the numbers.

No. 1 gives a bluish-white colour.

" 2 and 3 give yellow.

" 4 gives green.

" 5 gives green.

" 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 give blue.

" 11 and 12 give violet.

" 13 gives red.

" 14 gives purple.

The materials are mixed with a small quant.i.ty of a solution of starch, so as to form a thick paste, which is forced through a perforated plate, the holes in which are twice as large as it is intended the sparks should be on drying. The small pieces fall on a pasteboard, to which the workman gives a rapid horizontal motion to round the grains. They are then dried, and those which are perfectly round are selected and separated by sieves of different meshes to collect those of the same size together.

CHINESE FIRE.

_Red Chinese or Gerbe Fire._

Calibre of the case. Saltpetre. Sulphur. Charcoal. Iron Sand.

1st order.

12 to 16 lbs. 1 lb. 3 oz. 4 oz. 7 oz.

16 to 22 " 1 " 3 " 5 " 7 " 8 drms.

22 to 36 " 1 " 4 " 6 " 8 "