Page:Pyrotechnics the history and art of firework making (1922).djvu/94

 CHAPTER VI

FIREWORKS IN THE NINETEENTH & TWENTIETH CENTURIES

As we have seen, the commencement of the eighteenth century was marked by great activity in the pyrotechnic art.

Firework displays were looked upon as a necessary item in the programme of a place of public entertainment. So ambitious did these displays become, owing to keen rivalry existing between the various resorts, that any official display in celebration of peace or like event must of necessity be on a scale of unexampled lavishness.

No official display of note appears to have been given in London during the first thirteen years of the nineteenth century, or indeed since the Aix-la-Chapelle peace display. The reason may have been the public outcry on the score of waste on that occasion.

They were totally prohibited at the coronation of George III, and at his jubilee in 1809 there were apparently no firework displays in London, although more than forty towns about the country celebrated the event pyrotechnically, and a fine display was given from the Fleet at the Nore.

The largest public firework exhibition on this occasion was that given at Bombay, where the celebration took place earlier in the year, the date selected being June 4th, the King's birthday, instead of October 25th, the actual anniversary of his accession.

The Peace of 1802, although no official display was given, was the occasion of much private pyrotechnic enterprise, the fireworks and illuminations in London lasting nearly a week.