The School of Recreation by Robert Howlett (best reads of all time txt) 📖

less, that it may easily pass and re-pass, made hollow to receive the Broach; for the Cartoush Coffin must be filled with the Materials, the Broach being in.

If the Bore be two Inches Diameter, the Rocket must be twelve Inches in Length: If an inch and a half in Bore, then nine Inches Long, and so proportionably to any other Diameter. The Cartoush or Case must be either strong Paper or fine Paste-board, choaked within an Inch and a quarter of the Top, rowled on the Rowler with a thin Paste, to keep the Doublings the higher together, that it may have the greater force and higher flight. Having thus far considered your Mould and Cartoush or Case, I proceed to the Composition and filling part, &c.

A Sky-Rocket, how to make it, &c.

In the Composition of your filling Materials be very cautious that you exceed not the just Proportion, for which I shall give Directions to be a Standard in this case, viz. Having beat a Pound of Powder very fine, and sifted it through a Lawn Sieve that no whole Corns remain in it; do the like by two Ounces of Charcole; then sift them together, so that they may mix well, which done, fill a small Rocket with this Mixture, and if it break in Mounting before it come to the supposed height, or burns out too fierce, then is there too much Powder, and more fine sifted Charcole must be added; but if there be too much Charcole in the Composition, then upon tryal it will not ascend, or very little.

Observe in charging your Rocket, at every quarter of an ounce of Ingredients or thereabouts, you ram it down very hard, forcing your Rammer with a wooden Mallet, or some weighty piece of Wood, but no Iron or Stone, for fear any Sparkles of Fire fly out and take your Combustible Matter; so fill it by degrees: If you design neither to place Stars, Quills, or small Rockets on its Head, you may put in about an Inch and a half of dry Powder for the Bounce, but if you are to place the fore-mention'd things on the Head of a great Rocket, you must close down the Paper or Paste-board very hard, and prick two or three holes with a Bodkin, that it may give fire to them when it Expires, placing a large Cartoush or Paste-board on the head of the Rocket, into which you must put the Stars or small Rockets, Paper-Serpents, or Quill-Serpents; of which I shall speak more hereafter.

Note further, That if you would have your Rocket sparkle much, you must put some grosly bruised Salt peter into the Composition; but then it must not lie long before it be let off, for fear it give and damp the Powder. If you would have it leave a blue Stream, as it ascends, put fine beaten and sifted Sulphur into it, but of neither of these more than a third part of Charcole; and in this manner greater and lesser Rockets are made, but the lesser must have more Powder and less Charcole than the greater, by a fifth part in six.

Golden Rain, and Golden Hair.

For Golden Rain, or streams of fire, that will, when at height, descend in the Air like Rain: Take large Goose-Quills, take only the hollow Quill as long as may be, fill it with beaten Powder and Charcole; as for the Air Rocket only add a little Powder of Sulphur. Being hard filled to a quarter of an Inch, stop that with wet Powder, called Wild-fire; place as many as you think convenient on the Head of a great Rocket, pasted on in a Rowl of Paper, so that it may not fall off till the Rocket bursts, there being a little dry Powder in it to force the end when the stream of fire ceases, at which time they taking, will appear like a shower of Fire of a golden Colour, spreading themselves in the Air, and then tending directly downwards. This is to be considered when you stand directly, or something near under them; but if you are at some distance, then they will appear to you like the Blazing Tail of a Comet or Golden Hair.

Silver Stars, How to make them.

To make Stars that will expand in Flame, and appear like natural Stars in the Firmament for a time: Take half a Pound of Salt-peter, the like quantity of Brimstone, finely beaten together, sifted and mingled with a quarter of a Pound of Gunpowder so ordered: Then wrap up the Composition in Linnen Rags or fine Paper, to the quantity of a Walnut, bind them with small Thread, and prick holes in the Rag or Paper with a Bodkin, and place six or ten of them on the Head of a great Rocket, as you did the Quills, and when the Rocket expires, they take fire and spread into a Flame, hovering in the Air like Stars, and descend leisurely till the matter is spent that gives them light.

Red fiery Colour'd Stars, How to make them.

Take in this Case half a Pound of Powder, and double the quantity of Salt-peter; as much fine flower of Brimstone as Powder, wet them with fair Water and Oyl of Petrolum till they will stick together like Pellets; then make them up somewhat less than the former, and rowl them in sifted dry Powder, then let them harden, by drying in the Sun or Air, and place them on a great Rocket, as you did the other Stars, and you will perceive them when the Rocket is at the height, fall, like Bodies or Globes of Fire, in the manner as if real Stars were shooting or falling from the Sky, for by reason of their wetness or density they cannot expand into Flame, which occasions them by the pressure of their weight to descend with greater Impetuosity till they waste and vanish into Air, &c.

Another sort of Stars that give great Reports in the Air, as if Armies were fighting.

Here you must observe to place six, seven, or eight small Rockets on the Head of a great one, filled only with dry Powder, but indifferently rammed, and on the ends of them holes being prick'd through, place any of the sorts of Stars, or a mixture, as your fancy leads you; and when the small Rockets go off like Thunder in the Air, the Stars will take fire, so that the Noise will seem to the Spectators as if it proceeded from them, because they will be seen on fire before the Sound of the Reports can be heard.

To make Paste-board Mortars for Balloons.

These stately Prospects of Fire are to be carried into the Air by the force of Powder, by the help of Mortars; and therefore the making of the Mortars are in the first place to be considered.

Take a Rowler of Wood, about 12 Inches Diameter, and three Foot and a half in Length, wet strong Paste-board, and rowl upon it as close as may be, glewing the Paste-board between each Rowling; then being about five Inches thick, bind over it strong pitch'd Rope, though indifferent small: Then choak the Breech of it, which must be beyond the length of the Rowler, with a strong Cord; pitch or glue it over that the Powder may not force its vent that way, and so when the Mortar is well dry'd, draw out the Rowler, and make it as even as can be; bore a Touch-hole two Inches from the Breech, that it may enter into the hollow of the Mortar, and set it by for use.

To make Balloons, the rarity of Fire-works.

Take strong Paper, or Paste-board, rowl it on a 12 Inch Rowler, near as thick as 'tis long, then with a strong small Cord choke it at one end only, leaving a Port-fire, which is a place to put in a Quill of Wild-fire, that will last till being shot out of the Mortar it comes to its height; then next to that put on an Ounce and a half of loose Powder, and place in it as many small Rockets and Stars as it will hold; so choak up the other end quite. You may also put into it little quills of Wild-fire, then being closed up, only a Port-fire remaining, which made of a Quill of Wild-fire, as is said, or Stopple, to make which in the close of this Head I shall Instruct you, Charge the Mortar, being set Sloaping upwards with half a Pound of corn Powder, and it will by giving fire at the priming holes, send the Balloon up into the Air a prodigeous height, and when it comes to the dry Powder, that will break the Balloon; and then the Stars and Rockets in it taking fire, will scatter abroad in various curious Figures delightful to the Spectators; and as they are Cunningly placed, they will represent Crowns, Cyphers, Characters, Dates of the Year, &c.

The Airy or flying Saucisson, How to make it.

This curious Fire-work must be made in the Composition matter for filling mostly of corned Powder, putting before it when you fill the Cartoush or Case as much fine sifted Powder and Charcole as composed for the Rocket, will carry it to its height; leave a hole for the Port-fire in the choaking as big as a Goose-Quill will enter filling it with Dust-Powder and Charcole, and so close up the open end, by turning in the Paper or Paste-board corner-wise, either glewing or waxing it down.

Paste-board Guns to cast the Saucissons into the Air, How to make them.

To make these kind of Guns, Take a Rowler, some what less than for the Balloon, Rowel on it your Paste-board, and cord it over with strong Packthread, making their Touch-holes at the bottom, because they must be placed upright on a Plank or Board in a Row fixed into the Plank or Board in holes cut proportionable to them, and lashed fast to Staples above and beneath with strong Cords, and being charged with a quarter of a Pound of Powder, fire by Match or otherways, given to the Touch-hole underneath the Plank, when the Saucisson is lightly put in with the Neck or Port-fire downward, so that it may touch the Powder; and this will serve for Use a considerable time.

Saucissons for the Earth or Water, To make them.

Make your Cartoushes or Cases about 9 Inches long, and an Inch in the Diameter of the Calliber, by Rowling Paper or thin Paste-board on a woodden Rowler; choak the ends only, leaving at one end a passage to thrust in a Goose-Quill filled with Dust-Powder and Charcole well mixed, at a Port-fire, Glue them over, or use small Cord glued or pitched to strengthen the Case that it burst not unseasonably by the force of the Composition, with which you must fill them when you have choaked; only at the Port-fire end, the Composition being about 2 Inches, the same as the former, the rest corned Powder, having primed and fixed them on a Plank in a Row about a foot distance, lay a train of Stouple, and they will fire gradually, flying about on the Earth or the Water, according as you place them, giving reports like a Volley of Muskets.

This Stouple is useful for Trains; and Port-fire is no more than Cotton-wool well dressed in water and Gun-powder dryed in the Sun, or in a clean Swept warm Oven, that it may come somewhat near Tinder, but more swift and fiercer in its fire when it has Taken.