Page:Pyrotechnics the history and art of firework making (1922).djvu/236

 The exact date of this innovation appears to be about 1830.

A Belgian lieutenant of artillery, Hippert by name, published in 1836 a translation of a work by Captain Moritz Meyer, of the Prussian Artillery, on the application of chemistry to artifices of war.

In a chapter devoted to coloured fires he gives several formulæ containing chlorate of potash. Although this appears to be the first published notice of its use, it seems likely that by the time the book was published that it was fairly well established.

Meyer concludes his remarks on coloured composition by saying that the English at that time made use of coloured rockets for signalling at sea, and had succeeded in producing ten different shades, "which are quite sufficient for the purpose of signalling particular pieces of information."

This seems rather to indicate that the elaboration if not the first introduction of chlorate of potash into pyrotechny may be attributed to this country.

His mention of ten distinguishable tints, however, is somewhat optimistic. During the late war it was found that to avoid any chance of a mistake in code signals only three colours could be used for long-distance signalling, namely, red, green, and white.

It is curious that Meyer makes a mistake over the first composition he mentions. He describes a light composition of chlorate of potash and sugar, which he says burns with a red light. In fact, however, the light so produced is a bluish white, similar to the so-called blue shipping light.

The directions he gives for the preparation of other colours are as follows:

"A powder which burns with a green flame is obtained by the addition of nitrate of baryta to chlorate of potash, nitrate of copper, acetate of copper.