A Manual of Pyrotechny; or, A Familiar System of Recreative Fire-works

by G. W. Mortimer

Another method.

The following is another method for the above purpose, which some consider equally effective. This is a mortar made of hard wood, shaped like that of the druggists, with the bottom rounded within, and having a wooden lid fitting close on the top, and in the centre a hole just large enough to admit easily the stalk of the pestle, to the lower end of which is connected a piece of marble terminating in a spherical surface. With this apparatus gunpowder may be safely ground to meal, or its ingredients mixed by the continued motion of the pestle in the hole of the lid.