To make a Fire-Fountain for the Water.
Provide a circular float three feet diameter; in the middle fix a round post four feet high, about two inches diameter; round this post fix three circular wheels made of thin wood. Place the largest within two or three inches of the bottom, which should be not much less than the float. The second wheel must be about two feet two, and fixed two feet from the first. The third wheel must be sixteen inches diameter, and fixed within six inches of the top of the post. Then take eighteen four or eight-ounce cases of brilliant fire, and place them round the first wheel with their mouths upwards, and inclining downwards; on the second wheel place thirteen cases in the same manner as those on the first; on the third place eight more in the same manner as before, and on the top of the post fix a gerbe; then clothe the cases with leaders, so that both they and the gerbes may take fire at the same time. Before firing this work it is best to try it in the water to see whether the float is properly made, so as to keep the fountain upright.
Aquatic exhibitions are almost as numerous as those of the other kind, but we consider it entirely useless to describe more than we have already done; as so many of them depend on the taste and ingenuity of the practitioner.
Conclusion.
Before closing our Manual we will just notice some of our public displays of Fire-works in London, for a week scarcely passes but we are arrested in our progress through the busy town by placards of some three or four feet long, with huge letters of alternate black and red, advising us of a grand display of Fire-works at Vauxhall or some other place of amusement.
These frequent repetitions certainly stagger the pretty generally received opinion, that the Pyrotechnic art is upon the decline in England. Our Theatres Royal do not disdain to call Pyrotechny to their aid, for we have lately seen a very good display at Drury Lane, by way of climax to the Extravaganza of Giovanni in London. The Fire-works at Sadler’s Wells during the last season upon the whole were very good, although a confined Theatre is certainly not the most advantageous place for Pyrotechnic exhibitions. This Theatre having the advantage of real water, they have good opportunities of forming a junction of the two opposite elements; and which on the last evening of their performance they certainly did, with the aid of Fountains and Water Rockets;—this display concluded with the appropriate motto of “Farewell,” in brilliant fire.
The merits of the Fire-works at Vauxhall last season were very great, and as such were duly appreciated by the Public. They were on a larger scale than formerly, and have only been excelled by royal magnificence at the display in the Park in 1814.
W. TYLER, PRINTER, 5, BRIDGEWATER SQUARE.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Nitric acid is a compound of azot, or impure air, and oxygen, or vital air, and is sometimes made by repeatedly passing electric shocks through a mixture of oxygenous and azotic gas.