Bate describes a somewhat similar lance with the difference that “petards” or single crackers are substituted for stars.
This was in 1635. Over one hundred years later, Frézier describes an almost exactly similar firework under the heading “Artifices Portatifs,” which name he adopts instead of the old name “Lance à feu,” in order to avoid confusion with the lance as known to-day, which was then coming into use.
This is the only mention he makes of anything that can be considered to even remotely resemble a Roman candle, and as he refers to several other writers, a justifiable inference seems to be that neither he or they had any knowledge of such a firework. Had he known of it, such is its popularity he would certainly have mentioned it.
Eighteen years later Jones describes exactly the Roman candle as made to-day, to which he gives the name “Fire Pump.”
“Pumps” and “Pumps with Starrs” occur in the description subjoined to engravings depicting English peace displays in 1697 and 1713; there can be no doubt that the reference is to Roman candles or the earlier development of them.
When, however, the elder Ruggieri came over to this country in 1749 to conduct the Aix-la-Chapelle peace display in Green Park, in conjunction with Sarti, no firework of this nature appears in the programme of the display.
Here we have two pyrotechnists who can be considered to represent the best skill of France and Italy; in fact, it was Ruggieri whose arrival in France from Italy in or about 1735 marked the great advance in pyrotechny in the former country. Yet the “Pump” does not appear in this great display planned and executed by them, although for years it had been a popular item in displays in this country. The obvious reason for this omission is that they did not know of it.
In the early part of the nineteenth century the name “Roman candle” comes into use both here and in France. The “English Encyclopædia” of 1802 still uses the expression “Fire Pump,” but this is probably because their article is copied almost verbatim from Jones’ book. The name Roman candle, however, appears in an advertisement of a display at Ipswich by William Brock in 1818, and Ruggieri the younger uses the words “chandelle romaine” in his book of 1805.
How this firework received the name Roman is obscure; it may have been affixed by one of the many Italian pyrotechnists working here, or it may have had political or religious significance.
A firework functioning in the same way as a Roman candle is the Italian streamer, which has stars of a composition containing lampblack, which burn with a gold fire and leave a tail in their flight.