Art of fireworks

The History and Art of Fireworks Making", Harrap Ltd, London (1922) 3) 3 Pepin... 

A. St. H. Brock, Pyrotechnics The History, and Art of Fireworks Making, London, 1922. This is a scholarly and handsome book, bountifully illustrated, which contains excellent accounts both of the history of fireworks and of present manufacturing practice. The author comes from several generations of fireworks makers. 

From the very ancient art of fireworks come clues about the location and behavior of electrons in atoms. The different colors of fireworks are the result of the actions of elec-... 

This tidrieCt covers probably iho moA comprehensive division of the art of fireworks making. Besides the end less variety of colors, efeCts etc. we have the cut ftar, box Aar, pumped Star, candle Star etc. Nearly all Stars are made by dampening the composition with water (if composition contains dextrine) or alcohol (if it contains shellac) and pressing the caked mass into little cubes, cylinders etc, by the various devices to be described. 

Concerning the art of fireworks, I have been very much indebted to... 

Silver fulminate is so sensitive and so dangerous to handle that it has not been used for practical purposes in blasting or in the military art. It early found use in toys, in tricks, and in such devices for entertainment as those which Christopher Grotz described in 1818 in his book on The Art of Making Fireworks, Detonating Balls, c. ... 

The art of using mixtures of chemicals to produce explosives is an ancient one. Black powder—a mixture of potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulfur—was being used in China well before 1000 a.d. and has been used through the centuries in military explosives, in construction blasting, and in fireworks. The DuPont Company, now a major chemical manufacturer, started out as a manufacturer of black powder. In fact, the founder, Eleuthere du Pont, learned the manufacturing technique from none other than Lavoisier. 

The fire reacts, trembles and flickers- for itself and we talk of Burning like fire we feel indeed that fire has life. In this respect we can find in fire an essence of art in fireworks. This would be the reason why even simple lance-work is admired by many people today in spite of the sophisticated development of illuminations. 

Firework art is concerned with space and time by creating a contrast from one moment to the next moment, or between a place and another. The background of firework display is nature which is quite changeable and often disturbs the artistic effect of fireworks. Firework art is different from the pictorial art, i.e. there is no framework, and it can be appreciated from all quarters. The reason why the spherical and crown shaped fireworks have been highly developed, lies in the fact, that they lend themselves to such surroundings to produce an effectively artistic firework arrangement. 

Firework is an art of audio-visual imagery, which changes from moment to moment, and is difficult to express by photograph or picture. The moving picture is also unsatisfactory at present for the expression of fireworks. 

If an instrument could express the 26 kinds of light on a screen correctly, it would be a tremendous advantage in the progress of firework art. 

Fireworks do not have frameworks like pictures. Accordingly the composition of fireworks must be specially considered. Fireworks are placed centrally in the space and all firework elements are concentrated towards the centre. Allternatively the elements are allowed to flow out of the centre. This is the rule in firework art, and is suitable for both cases one flower and a group of several flowers. 

It has already been pointed out that firework art has no framework with the result that fireworks often lose their stability and are apt to give people unpleasant feelings. We must avoid this possibility by selecting the types of fireworks ... 

Fireworks are an art of time and space and it may be thought that it is possible to introduce music rhythms into firework displays, music being the most representative art of the time. In practice however the creation of correct rhythms is difficult in fireworks at present. 

Bruno was an early atomist, writing on The Principles, elements and causes of things (1590), while Andreas Libavius (1597) developed the study of alchemy in two directions encheiria, the manipulation of materials, and chymia, the preparation and classification of chemicals. Biringuccio (1540, Pirotechnia) wrote of fireworks, Agricola (1556, De re metallica) of metals, Neri (1612, L Arte Vetraria) of glass... 

PYROTECHNIST A person skilled in the art of making or using fireworks. 

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