Rest the box on a flat surface, put in some composition, and drive it in with a brass or boxwood drift and the little mallet, till half full, as in fig. 28. Then fill up the box with more colour, set a little bit of match upright in the side, and mallet it in, till the box is almost full. The drift for this must be cut flat on one side, to allow for the match. On the top put a very little dry meal powder, or shell-fuse, and press it in with the finger. Cut a piece of double-crown, about an inch broad, and long enough to go rather more than once round the pill-box: paste it all over; lay the pill-box on it, and roll it up; tuck in one end, to make a bottom, and press the other end round the match, and on the meal powder, or shell-fuse, till it assumes the form of fig. 29.
Another Way.
Set the pill-box on a flat surface, put in a very little meal powder or shell-fuse, then some composition, and mallet it in till full. Roll this up in a piece of double-crown as before; tuck in the bottom, and set by to dry; when dry, put into the other end—the end containing the film of meal or shell-fuse—a piece or two of thin match, and tie it in, as in fig. 30. Dry pill-boxes are best for making chameleon stars; these are half one colour and half another. Make a dozen stars, half yellow and half green, and a dozen more half blue and half crimson; put these into a rocket; they will burst green and crimson, and change to blue and yellow.
Bottomless Pill-boxes.
The cases are the same as before. To fill them, damp the composition as for Roman candle stars; put a bit of quickmatch into the case, as at fig. 31, and press in the composition. This is usually done with the fingers, but is not very pleasant work, especially with lac solution. A cleaner way, though more tedious, is to fit the case on to a little foot, with a side notch in it, fig. 60; then slightly mallet in the composition. Or a notch may be cut in the side of the box, fig. 61, and the match put in, as fig. 62, and slightly malleted.
Instead of making the cases entirely of writing paper, they may be made half of writing paper and half of coloured double-crown, to indicate the colour of the star.
Another way is to sift a thin layer of French chalk over a sheet of paper, and to roll the stars in it, one by one, as they are punched. When dry, brush off the superfluous chalk, and prime with a bit of match, tied across the mouth.
Enveloped Stars.
Pump and drive the stars exactly as for roman candle stars, They may be 31⁄2/8 diameter, and 5⁄8 long; or they may be formed with figs. 1, 2, and 3, and the side pin of fig. 2 may be removed to c, in which case the stars will be 5⁄8 diameter, and 31⁄2/8 deep; the former will be an oblong cylinder, the latter an oblate. Cut a strip of red, blue, green, or yellow double-crown, of a suitable breadth, and long enough to go twice round the star. Paste the strip all over, or gum it at the edge only, and lay the star upon it, as at a, fig. 41, with a bit of match behind it; then roll it up and put by to dry. When pasted, it shrinks and holds the match tight; when gummed at the edge this is not always the case; it may then have a piece of thin binding-wire twisted round it. It will have the appearance of fig. 32. In fig. 31, the match is embedded, and dries in the damped composition; in the enveloped stars the stars are dried first, and the match lies outside and blows through. Enveloped stars show well in the air.
The word envelope, as used in these pages, must not be confounded with the same word as applied to the coverings for letters. It is rather synonymous with the term wrapper; you lay an ounce of tobacco on a piece of paper, roll it up and tuck in the ends. So with cases: you roll them up in a piece of paper, and leave an inch vacant at each end to receive quickmatch, &c. This is termed the envelope, that is, the wrapper.