The former must always be pasted, before rolling a case, to prevent its sticking. It should, likewise, be wiped clean with a damp sponge, before being laid aside. Brass tubes keep clean a much longer time if lacquered. To lacquer them, clean them with very fine glass-paper; make them hot by the fire, till you can just bear them on the back of the hand; then, with a camel's-hair pencil, wash them over with thin lac solution. The cases may be either 141⁄2 or 111⁄4 inches long; but 111⁄4 is the best, for when the cases are too long, the fuse, as it approaches the bottom, is apt, if slow, to smoke; if fierce, to set the top of the case in a flame. If the learner decides upon 111⁄4 inches, the former and rammer may each be 2 or 3 inches shorter.
After the first case has been rolled up to fit the gauge, it may be unrolled, and the paper measured. Future pieces of the same quire of paper can then be cut of the right size at once, so that the case will fit the gauge without further trouble.
A large slab of slate is convenient for rolling upon; but a smoothly planed board will answer every purpose.
When a number of cases are finished, hitch a piece of flax two or three times round each of them, and hang them up to dry, in a place free from draught, that they may not warp.
Flax is sold in balls; the thick yellow, at 2d., is the best. It is named, indifferently, flax, or hemp. It is much used by shoe-makers; and is sold at the grindery, or leather shops. Two or three thicknesses of this, waxed, or drawn through the hand with a little paste, is very convenient for passing round the necks of small choked cases, tying cases on wheels, &c.
To Make a Roman Candle Star.
Take the former, fig. 1, which, as said before, is 11⁄2 inch long; have a cylindrical piece of turned wood, box, beech, or mahogany, fig. 2, about 2 inches long, and of a diameter to just fit easily into fig. 1. At a point a, at the distance of about 7⁄8 of an inch from the end d, with a bradawl, or very small gimlet, or nosebit, make a hole, and drive in a piece of brass wire, to project just so much as to prevent the tube slipping over it. A piece of a brass rivet, such as used by shoe-makers, is convenient for the purpose. The part with the head on is best; a quarter of an inch length will be sufficient, filed or cut off with the nippers. It is evident that upon inserting fig. 2 into the tube fig. 1, a vacant space of 5⁄8 of an inch will be left at the bottom. Fig. 3 is a piece of turned wood, or, better still, of turned brass, exactly like fig. 2 without the side-pin a. Now to pump a star, insert fig. 2 in fig. 1; press the tube into damped composition, turn it round, and withdraw it. Rest the tube on a flat surface, insert fig. 3, and give it two or three taps with a small mallet, like fig. 26. A convenient size for the mallet is 11⁄2 inch square, 3 inches long, with a turned handle. The mallet is best made of beech or mahogany. The slight malleting consolidates the star, and prevents it from getting broken in charging; it will compress it to about 41⁄2/8 or 9⁄16 of an inch in height. Push it out and set it by to dry.
Stars are best made in summer, and dried in the sunshine; when dry they should be put into clean pickle-bottles, furnished with tight-fitting bungs. A piece of wash-leather passed over the bottom of the bung, gathered up round the sides, and tied at the top like a choke, makes a good stopper. Shot, shaken up in bottles, with water, soon cleans them.