Flambeaux are usually wax torches. Odoriferous flambeaux may be formed by melting with the wax, camphor and frankincense, and mixing with the whole, when fluid, some of the essence of bergamot. Although there are no directions given on that subject; yet, judging from analogy, a mixture of that kind would be an improvement on the flambeau, when it is to be used in rooms or for particular occasions. They may be made either large or small, with a wick of a proportionate size.

Torches are principally used for military purposes, to give light, when an army is marching at night, during sieges, &c. They ought not to be extinguished by wind or rain. The Torches inextinguibles, of the French, are of this character.

Torches are made in the following manner: Take four large cotton matches, three or four feet long; boil them in a solution of saltpetre, and arrange them round a pine stick. Afterwards, cover them with priming powder and sulphur, made into a thin paste with brandy. When dry, they are to be covered with the following composition:

Composition for torches.

Yellow wax,2lbs.
White turpentine,2—
Sulphur12oz.
Camphor,6—
Pitch,4—
Ibid.
White pitch,32 parts.
Hard turpentine,4do.
Yellow wax,32do.
Sulphur,12do.
Camphor,6do.
Ibid.
Black pitch,24 parts.
White pitch,24do.
Turpentine,4do.

The second composition is that which is used in France, and, therefore, in all likelihood, is the best formula. The flame may be more or less scented, by using, at the same time, some of the aromatic substances before noticed. This, however, is unnecessary for common purposes. See [Fire-works used in war.] The flambeau, invented by Petitpierre, (Bulletin de la Société d'Encouragement, No. 102), is intended to give light to apartments.

Sec. V. Remarks concerning Odoriferous and Fetid Fire.

Fire-works may be made extremely unpleasant to the olfactory nerves, by mixing with their compositions, sundry substances of an opposite quality to odoriferous oils and aromatic gums. It will be sufficient, however, to remark, that this effect is communicated more particularly, as in the stink-balls of service, by using sulphur, rasped horses' and asses' hoofs, burnt in the fire, assafœtida, seraphim gum, and sundry fetid herbs or plants. The addition of the acid of amber, called succinnic acid, and, in the shops, the salt of amber, will give to the atmosphere in the vicinity of the fire, the peculiar property of causing a continual sneezing and coughing. Such are some of the opposite effects, which different substances produce in conjunction with fire-works. Some of these substances, it is obvious, would, if used in too large a proportion, retard, if not entirely prevent the combustion; and for that reason, they bear only a given proportion to the powder, nitre and charcoal, which forms the basis of some, as, for instance, the stink-ball composition. But in such cases, the combustion being in itself rapid, and the degree of heat consequently proportionate, these fixed, and otherwise incombustible bodies, in a general sense, are acted upon by the fire, already created; and, therefore, the smoke that results must necessarily possess, and partake of the fetid qualities of the substances employed. On the same principle, we may account for the effect of the scented paste, and the scented vases; but with this difference, that many of those substances are themselves inflammable, and, during their decomposition, emit the odour peculiar to each of them. We know, that the elementary principles of these bodies are carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, variously combined, some of which are, and some are not inflammable; and that, in combustion, when it takes place, they are decomposed and new products necessarily ensue from a new arrangement of the elementary principles.

It is difficult, however, to give the precise order in which decompositions by fire result; since the substances made use of are numerous and employed in given proportions; and since their action upon each other, depends frequently on external agents, anomalous circumstances, and causes which do not follow at all times the same order of succession. Generally speaking, however, we may obtain such a datum, all things being considered, a datum derived from the known laws of chemical decomposition, as will furnish a rationale to explain both the cause and effect. See [General Theory of Fire-works.]

There is no doubt, that, by the action of fire on fetid, and particularly animal, substances, as hoofs, &c. products may be formed in the very act of combustion, which would increase the fetid properties of the smoke. Zimome, obtained from the gluten of wheat by alcohol, which takes up the gliadine, when thrown upon red-hot coals, exhales an odour, similar to that of burning hair or hoofs, and burns with flame. The pyro-products are the immediate consequences of the decomposition of the substance; the elements of which either separate entirely, or recombine under some other form, as we find in the process of destructive distillation.