Page:Pyrotechnics the history and art of firework making (1922).djvu/204

 The case of the catherine wheel, unlike any firework we have considered up to the present, burns down as the composition is consumed, and for this reason it may be included equally well in another small class of fireworks. This class includes the lance, the port-fire, the starlights, feathers, and the colour cases used on wheels and saxons, etc.

The lance is used in display work in greater numbers than any other unit. Some idea of the quantity used may be gathered from the fact that on one of the battle set pieces shown at the Crystal Palace as many as thirty thousand lances are consumed in a single display.

Lances consist of thin paper cases about the diameter of a lead pencil, filled with colour composition, and primed, to facilitate the lighting, with mealed powder damped with water. This sets and further serves to retain the contents of the lance, which are not compressed solid as are fountains, rockets, etc.

The port-fire is used as a means of lighting the pieces, etc., of a display, and in the last century for military purposes; its composition consists of a mixture of saltpetre, sulphur, and mealed gunpowder. It was formerly known as a blue candle.

The starlight and feathers, as are the squib, golden rain, etc., are of the garden type, and are not used in display work, as although burning with pretty effect, it is not distinguishable at any distance.

The feather and starlight compositions are similar to that of the flower pot, but the cases are smaller, that of the feather being Catherine wheel pipe, but naturally not bent—the ends are closed by "dubbing." This is a method usually adopted for closing the ends of "small goods." The end of the case is introduced into an opening formed by opposing V-shaped notches in an upper and lower series of steel plates, the upper set being then forced down. The result is to constrict the end