Page:Pyrotechnics the history and art of firework making (1922).djvu/213

 (6) Cascade. This device needs no explanation. He says that Chinese fire is the best composition for such a piece; this remained true up to the introduction of the aluminium into pyrotechny, when the "weird white waterfall" became a feature of the Crystal Palace displays, being 200 feet long and 90 feet high.

(7) Decorations in coloured fire. This heading introduces the lancework set piece of to-day.

The development of this branch since 1865 has been very marked. As will be seen from the description of the lancework pieces carried out at the Crystal Palace, the subjects dealt with have been of extraordinary variety. Up to the beginning of the nineteenth century pyrotechnists had failed to realise the possibilities of lancework. This was undoubtedly due in a great measure to the fewness of colours available. Ruggieri appears to have used lancework to outline architectural designs, evidently a survival of the temples or theatres of earlier years. In his time, and even as late as the middle of the nineteenth century, any subject of a pictorial nature was depicted by the use of scenery or transparencies. Lancework was, as Ruggieri describes it, merely "decorations in coloured fire." The lances of his day were considerably thicker than those at present in use, which are about the diameter of a lead pencil. They were also spaced further apart and were in some cases "bounced," as are fixed cases of the present day.

The modern method of constructing a lancework set piece is as follows: An outline drawing of the subject is made in which all unnecessary lines are eliminated. This is ruled in square of such size that in the proportion one square to a foot the completed piece will be of the size required.

Frames are then laid out on the drawing-floor: these are of light battens forming foot squares, and of a convenient size for handling, generally ten feet by five feet.