“It occurred to me that of all the places of public resort suitable for the inauguration of a new era for pyrotechny, none offered such glorious advantages as the Crystal Palace, then at the height of its popularity. Its terraces, fountains and foliage offered unrivalled advantages for the display of grand effects. The Directors of the Crystal Palace Company, who had more than once been applied to for permission to hold displays in the grounds, feared that, inasmuch as fireworks had been recently associated solely with gardens of the Cremorne class, the Palace itself would be degraded to the same rank if consent were granted. I urged that the Exhibition of 1862 had afforded no opportunity for competition among firework makers—necessarily excluded by the nature of their trade—although almost every other branch of manufactures were embraced, that such a contest might with reason and advantage be held at Sydenham, and that fireworks were really not of an immoral tendency. I further agreed that in the event of the result being unfavourable, either financially or from a social point of view, no second display need take place, but if, as I felt confident, there should be a large attendance of the better classes, then other exhibitions might follow. The Directors, after many months of delay, consented to make the experiment, and the favourable result of the trial on July 12th, 1865, far exceeded my most sanguine expectations.
“The result was an unlooked-for success, 20,000 people being present on the occasion. Three more displays took place that year upon a small scale, but always with successful results.
“The first display was produced jointly by my father and Mr. Southby, the winner of the first prize, and continued to the end of that season by my father alone under my management.
“The success of fireworks at the Crystal Palace having become an accomplished fact, I built extensive works at Nunhead, and commenced manufacturing on a scale never previously dreamt of in the trade—the vast expanse of the locale of my displays obviously necessitating extraordinary expenditure of material.
“By degrees the set pieces grew from twelve feet in diameter to 300 feet. Shells for which the Crystal Palace has been renowned grew to one hundred times more than the ordinary shells of my early days, and thousands of pounds weight of material was gradually introduced to increase the effectiveness of these displays.”
“The GRAND WHIM for Posterity to Laugh at:
Being the Night View of the Royal Fireworks, as Exhibited in the Green Park, St. James’s, with the Right Wing on Fire.”
Firework Display in the Green Park to celebrate the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1749.
The Crystal Palace displays carried out by C. T. Brock and his brother, Arthur Brock, who succeeded him in the business on March 25th, 1881, have since become proverbial. They continued up to 1910, when the Crystal Palace was taken over by the promoters of the Pageant of Empire. They have been revived in 1920, when the War Museum was opened, and the attendance has proved that the public taste for fireworks is very far from diminishing.
During the run of forty-five consecutive years an installation was built up, method and technique were evolved unknown in any other place of pyrotechnic exhibition.
While the firework terrace, with its magnificent background of park and shrubberies, is unrivalled as a firing ground, it is at the same time the most exacting. The huge building, its imposing position and setting, the wonderful fountains, all demand pyrotechnic effects on a corresponding scale.
The pictorial set pieces, originally introduced by C. T. Brock in 1875, increased in size until a plant was arrived at capable of exhibiting a picture ninety feet high and two hundred feet long on the main girder, which length could be extended to even six hundred feet of frontage, as on the occasion of the exhibition of a battle piece or similar subject.
During this period the subjects dealt with in the main set pieces have covered a wide range. A favourite subject, and one lending itself particularly well to pyrotechnic production, is the sea battle. Almost every historic naval engagement of sufficient size to warrant its adoption has been proved the subject for a fire picture.
Among the battle pictures produced are the following:—Bombardment of Alexandria in 1882, Siege of Gibraltar in 1883, Battle of Trafalgar in 1884; during 1885, two pictures representing the use of the ironclads of the period and based on the Naval manœuvres, entitled the “Attack on Dover,” and the Battle of Bantry Bay; the following year another imaginary picture depicting an attack by torpedo boats on the latest battleship, the “Colossus.” The Bombardment of Sebastopol was reproduced in 1887, followed by the Jubilee Naval Review at Spithead. In 1888 the defeat of the Spanish Armada was depicted; in 1890 Trafalgar, followed in 1891 by the engagement between the “Chesapeake” and the “Shannon,” together with a portrait of Admiral Sir Provo Wallis, then aged one hundred, and another from an early painting showing him at the time of the engagement when the command of the English vessel devolved upon him owing to the casualties among the senior officers. Later in that year the Battle of the Nile was reproduced; 1893 saw the Bombardment of Canton; 1894 the Battle of the First of June, and the Battle of the Yalu. The Battle of Manilla Bay was produced in 1898, and on the centenary date the Battle of the Nile. In 1889, H.M.S. “Implacable” was shown in action on the day on which she was commissioned, followed in 1900 by the Bombardment of the Taku Forts, and in 1901 by the immortal sea fight between the “Revenge” and the “Fifty-three.” In 1904 the Russo-Japanese War gave subjects in the various attacks on Port Arthur and the Battle of Tsu-Shima, and the Battle of the Sea of Japan in the year following. The Battle of Trafalgar was renewed that season, and in 1908 another imaginary picture portraying modern naval warfare was produced, followed in 1909 by an imaginary encounter between the first Dreadnought and other craft.
The revival of the Crystal Palace displays in 1920 saw the reproduction of the Battle of Jutland, of which the following appreciation appeared in the Press: