Page:Pyrotechnics the history and art of firework making (1922).djvu/40

 themselves by means of lightning and thunder, which darted upon their besiegers." This has been considered as evidence of the use of firearms, but is more probably the first reference to Greek-fire. Greek-fire or "naphtha" was used at the defence of Constantinople between 660 and 667.

At the siege of Pian-King Lo-Yang (1232), as mentioned in the Chinese Annals, iron pots were thrown containing a burning substance which could spread fire over half an acre, and described by the historians as the "thunder which shakes heaven."

The Mongolians attacking Bagdad in the year 1258 made use of similar vessels, also fire arrows. Marco Polo, describing sieges of towns in China 1268 to 1273, mentions the throwing of fire.

In most of the early records although noise is remarked upon, it is apparently while the projectile is in the air or upon impact; this disposes of the impression which many writers have formed that firearms are referred to, there being no reference to an initial explosion.

Sir George Stanton, writing in 1798 of his embassy to the Emperor of China, says that "nitre (saltpetre) is the daily produce of China and India, and there accordingly the knowledge of gunpowder seems coeval with that of the most distant historic events. Among the Chinese it has been applied at all times to useful purposes and to amusement in making a vast variety of fireworks—but its force had not been directed through strong metallic tubes, as it was by Europeans soon after they had discovered that composition."

Although the place of origin of the art, pyrotechny has not developed in the East as rapidly as in Europe, except in Japan.

Japanese pyrotechnists, with that wonderful capacity for careful and exact manual work which is so characteristic of the race, have developed aerial fireworks, that is to say, the