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

Take a great Cartoush or Case made, as for the Balloon, croud it full of small Rockets or Serpents, with the choaked part downward, prime them with Stouple or Wild-fire; fix it firm on a Pole, make a priming Hole in the side towards the lower end, and run in a Quill of fine beaten Powder, and they will fly out (the upper end being left open) one by one as swift as may, or if you scatter loose Powder they will fly out several together with a prodigeous Noise, and breaking, imitating a deal of Thunder.

Firey Lances, How to make them.

These are usually for running on the Water making there a very pleasant Pass-time: Their cartoush or Cases are made like the small Rocket, with thin Paste-board glued and rowled up on a wooden Rowler about 9 Inches long: If you would have it carry a long fiery Tail on the Water, the Composition must be 2 Ounces of Charcole, half a Pound of Brimstone, half a Pound of Powder, and half a Pound of Salt-peter, or proportionable for so many as you make, bruised finely and Sifted; but if you would have it burn bright like a Torch, put only four Ounces of Powder to the fore-named quantity of Brimstone and Salt-peter, without any Charcole-dust, tying to each Line a Rod in the same nature as to the Sky-Rocket; but not of that largeness; and they will float about a long time, making a strange shew in a dark Night, their ends being so placed on a frame when you give fire, that they may leap out of them selves one, two, or three, at a time, or as you design them, by putting more or less Stouple for Port-fires; scatter a very small quantity of loose Powder underneath.

To make the appearance of Trees and Fountains of Fire.

This is done by placing many little Rockets on the Head of a great one, by passing their slender Rods through its large Cartoush; and if they take fire whilst the Rocket is vigorously Ascending, they will spring up like Branches or fiery Trees; but if they go off just as the Rocket is spent, and Descending, they will appear like a Fountain of Fire.

Girondels or Fire-wheels, How to make them.

Take a Wheel of light Wood, like the circle of a Spinning-wheel, on which the Band is placed; tie small Rockets round it in the nature of a Band, so fast that they cannot fly off, and so Head to Tail, that the first fired when it bursts may give fire to the next, whose force will carry the Wheel (which must be placed on a strong Pin in the Axeltree) round so fast that although but one Rocket go off at a time, it will seem all on fire, and so continue whilst all are gradually Spent; and this especially at the Angles of great Fire-works are very Ornamental.

Ground-Rockets, and the best way of Making Serpents.

The Mould of the Ground-Rocket may be made in all particulars like that for the Sky-Rocket, but less in Length and Circumference, six, seven, or eight Inches being a warrantable Length; rowl on the Cartoush or Case to a moderate thickness; choak it at one end, fill it, the Broach being in as the Sky-rocket; with this composition.

Put but an ounce of Charcole to a Pound of Powder, and about half an Ounce of Salt-peter; beat, mingle and sift them finely; put in about a quarter of an ounce between every Raming till it is full with in an Inch with corned Powder, Lightly Raming it, leaving only so much room as may choak it at that end, cutting then off what hangs over, and leaving it with a picked end; being thus finished, prime it with a little wet Powder, and lay it a drying till you dispose of it for your pass-time.

The Serpent is a kind of a small Rocket; To make them therefore well, make a Case of strong white Paper, about six Inches and a half, the Rowler being about the thickness of a small Arrow, it must have a Head and a Broach proportionable, being Rowled up hard, past the Edg that turns over; choak it with a strong Pack-thread, and fill it with a Composition of six ounces of Powder to one of Charcole, both beaten finely, sifted and well mingled; put in a little and little at time in, and every time you put any in, Ram it down hard till within an Inch full; then put in corned Powder, press it down gently, and with the end of your Rammer force down the end that stands a little above; so that it may cover the Powder, and then Seal it down with Wax; prime with Dust-Powder, and a little Flower of Brimstone, and with your Match having a good Coal on it, give fire as you see occasion.

Fiery Globes or Comets, to make them.

Take half a Pound of Powder, two onces of Brimstone, an ounce of Salt-peter, bruise these Grosly, and wet them; Aqua-Vitæ and Oyl of Petrolum, that they may be moulded like a Paste, that so they may be made up into Balls, as big as ordinary Wash-Balls; then dry them very hard, and wrap them up in Cerecloaths made of Brimstone, Rosin, and Turpentine, in which make a little whole, and prime with Wild-fire: Put the Ball then into a Sling, and the Wild-fire being Touched, throw it up as high as you can into the Air, and when the body of the Ball fires, it will appear to the Beholders like a fiery Globe, with a Stream or Blaze, like as if a Comet or Blazing Star were Ascending or Descending, according to its height or Declination,

To try the goodness of Powder, that you may know its strength.

Observe whether it be well dryed and corned, which you have taken notice of, and approved; lay a few Corns scattered on a sheet of white Paper, and fire them; when if they leave a black and sooty mark behind them, with a noisom smell, and sindg the Paper, then is that Powder gross and earthy, and will fail your Expectation, if you use it in your Fire-works: But if in the sprinkling and firing there appear few or no marks, or those of a clear bluish Colour, then it is airy and light, well made, full of fire, and fit for Service; half a Pound of it having more strength than a Pound of the other.

And thus Reader, have I given you an Insight into the making Fire-works, &c. Such as are very pleasing, and now used on occasions in all Christian Countries, in making which, by a little you may soon be perfect.

St. George and the Dragon fighting &c. Also Mermaids, Whales, &c.

Form your Figures of Paste-board, Strengthen'd with Wicker, small Sticks within pasted to the Board to keep it hollow, tight, and bearing out; and place a hollow Trunk in the Body for a large Line to pass through, and likewise for a smaller to draw them too, and from each other, that they may the better seem in Combats, which must be fattened at the Dragons Breast, and let one end of the Cord be tied, which must pass through the Body of St. George, turning about a Pully at the other end, and fastning it to his Back, and tye another at his Breast, which must pass through the Body of the Dragon, or a Trunk at his Back; and so returning about a Pully at that end, it must be drawn streight, and fastened to the Dragons Tail; so that as you turn that Wheel, they will run furiously at each other, and as you please you may make them retreat and meet again, Soaping the Line to make them slip the easier; at the Dragons Tail, in his Mouth and Eyes you must fix Serpents, or small Rockets, which being fired at their setting out, will cause a dreadful sight in a dark Night.

Thus a Mermaid, or a Whale, may be made to float on the Water, but then the Figure must be fixed on a convenient piece of Board, with two fire Wheels fixed on an Axle, run through the poised part of the Body, by the force of which it moves in a swift Line in the Water; the Wheels must have little Rockets or Serpents tyed round them, as the Girondel before mentioned.

A Fire-Drake on a Line.

Having made the Figure of Paste-board to the proper Form of a Dragon with Paste-board and Wicker, as has been taught before, make a hollow Trunk through the Body of it for a great Line to pass through, and fasten small Lines to draw it too and from you at the breast and Tail of the Drake; put into the Eyes, Mouth and Tail of it Rockets so fixed, that they cannot fly out, as you may put Wild-fire Rowled up hard and long in Paper: Then fire that in the Eyes and Mouth first, and draw it with Pullies from one end of the Line to the other; then that in the Tail, and draw it back, and it will seem as retreating from danger, with fire coming out of the Belly of it.

A Burning Castle and Dragon on the Water.

Make the Dragon of Paste-board and Wicker, as before; The bottom of the Castle of Light Wood, and the work of Paste-board with Paper, Turrets and Battlements of a foot height, in the Portal of the Castle fasten a Line that it may come level with the Water and therefore some part of the Castle must be under Water; this Line must be fastened to the other side of the Water, or in the Water, if it be broad, and admit not the former on a Pole or Stake knocked down, and pass in a hollow Trunk through the Belly of a Dragon, that being in the Castle, may upon firing the Rockets, placed advantageously in the Tail, Eyes and Mouth, come out of the Castle and move on the Line; to meet which, you may at the other end of the Line, in the same manner, prepare a Neptune in a Chariot, or riding on a Sea-horse, with a burning Trident, or a Whale with a Rocket or Wild-fire in his Mouth; which if it ly low, by spouting out, will make the Water fly about, as if it spouted Fire and Water out of its Mouth; then by a Train fire, some little Paste-board Guns in the Castle, which if the Composition of the Train be made of Wild-fire, or Stouple, will go off by degrees, and coming to a Train of Brimstone, Rosin and Powder, make the whole frame expire in a terrible blaze.

A Wheel of Fire-works to run backwards and forwards on the Ground.

Procure a pair of Wheels, being of Light Wood, like that of a Spinning Wheel, fasten them on an Axel-tree, and place Rockets round them, as bands are fastened round a Wheel, and so primed at Tail and Head, that when one Expires the other may take fire, half of them placed with their Heads and Tails the contrary way to the first: So that when the first are spent, and the Wheels have run on plain Ground a great way, the other firing will turn them again, and bring them to the place where they first set out.

A Fire that will burn in the Water, or Water-ball.

Sow up a Case of Canvas, like that of a Foot-ball, but lesser, pitch or glue it over: Then take