The original cartridge was in effect a single star Roman candle, fired by percussion. A small propelling charge drove out a single coloured star, either red, white, green or blue. The star rose to a height of about 300 feet. These were used purely for signalling purposes.
The war suggested another use of the “Very” pistol, that is for illuminating purposes, and various illuminating stars were introduced, both to light up upon reaching their objective with a range of two to three hundred yards, and to hang suspended from a parachute, similar to the old parachute light ball, but with many times the brilliance, although considerably less in size.
The difficulty of identifying coloured stars in daylight suggested the use of coloured smokes. These were successfully evolved by Major Wicks and Captain Gray, an achievement of far greater difficulty than the casual observer might think.
Apart from these synthetically prepared colours, the yellow smoke natural to orpiment was much used in signal stars.
Later stars were suggested by Commander Brock, which ascended burning white and at their height broke into two, and in a subsequent pattern into three, stars of varying colours.
The rifle grenade, which was fired by a rod fixed to the base of the grenade and running down the barrel of a rifle, being blown out by a cartridge without a bullet, was also fitted up for signalling purposes. Upon opening, a series of lights, arranged to code, were suspended from a parachute.
Recognition and illuminating lights were constructed for use from aeroplanes, and were ignited by dropping through a launching tube fixed to the machine, which made contact and fired them electrically as they passed through.
Landing lights and wing-tip lights, electrically ignited, were other stores used in connection with aerial warfare.
Another was the incendiary bomb. Until the outbreak of war the incendiary composition for use as stars in incendiary shells was of a most primitive nature, and even during the war incendiary compositions were used which were ridiculous in comparison with those produced later.
The construction also of some of the earlier efforts was quite as absurd. Projectiles were devised in a thin paper case, intended to be dropped from heights of many thousand feet, and ignite on impact, whereas the impact produced by the velocity of a projectile after such a fall was sufficient to scatter the case and its ingredients in all directions.