LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
| To face page | |
|---|---|
| Firework Display at Quebec. From a drawing by C. M. Padday | [Frontispiece] |
| Six Coloured Japanese Prints of Fireworks manufactured by Messrs. Hirayama of Yokohama | [2], [4], [6], [8], [10], [12] |
| Facsimile Title Page of John Bate’s “Second Booke,” 1635 | [16] |
| A Display of the Earliest Type (c. 1650) | [18] |
| Set Piece of the Scenic Type | [20] |
| Firework Display at Nuremberg, 1650 | [22] |
| Great Firework Display near Stockholm, 1669 | [24] |
| Fireworks on the Thames, 1688 | [28] |
| Firework Display given by the Duke of Richmond, 1749 | [30] |
| Firework Temple at Vauxhall, 1845 | [36] |
| Fireworks at Versailles, 1855, from a drawing by Gustav Doré | [44] |
| The Grand Whim for Posterity to laugh at, 1749 | [46] |
| A Full-size Picture of the Jumma Musjid in Fireworks at the Crystal Palace, 1892 | [50] |
| Firework Display for the Coronation Durbar at Delhi, January 3rd, 1903 | [50] |
| A Crystal Palace Set Piece at the time of the South African War | [52] |
| Panorama of the Aerial Effects in the National Display at Hyde Park, 1919 | [56] |
| The Explosion at Madame Cotton’s Firework Factory, 1858 | [66] |
| Programme of Experiments with Fireworks at Nunhead, 1872 | [68] |
| Modern Firework Tools | [72] |
| Types of Modern Fireworks | [90] |
| Cracker Making | [92] |
| Rocket Manufacture, from Frézier’s “Feu d’Artifice,” 1747 | [94] |
| Manner of making and representing Flowers, etc., in the Chinese Fireworks, from the “Universal Magazine” of 1764 | [100] |
| An Old Firework Bill:—Programme of Mr. Brock’s Superior Fireworks at Ipswich, 1818 | [114] |
| Rocket Charging | [116] |
| Filling Roman Candles | [116] |
| 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.
One of the few black-and-white artists who can approach the subject with some success is Mr. C. M. Padday, an example of whose work is reproduced in the following pages. His success comes from a careful study of the subject, both technically and from the point of view of composition.