Page:Pyrotechnics the history and art of firework making (1922).djvu/99

 art. Flights of rockets a hundred at a time; revolving wheels, sun star and golden streamers, and fiery serpents chasing each other through the air. Gerbs, Roman candles, tourbillions, shells, and fixed pieces of the most fantastic designs and brilliant hues. The eyes were dazzled by the intensity of the light It was strange to believe that so fierce and un-*governable an element as fire could be rendered so delicately obedient to the will of man The triumph, however, of the entertainment was reserved for the close of it. This was a tremendous bombardment, during which the air was constantly filled with flights of rockets, and was intended as a representation of the last grand attack upon Sebastopol—the blowing up of the magazines and works, and general conflagration.

"As an introduction to this there were five fixed pieces, all of complicated construction, the centre being an enormous one which, amid all its fantastic blazing and revolving, exhibited the words 'God Save the Queen.' Language fails to convey a vivid idea of the deafening, roaring, crashing and grand appearance of the termination, during which the proud fortifications of Sebastopol were supposed to succumb. Then rose up into the blackness, rapidly one after another, six flights of rockets, comprising altogether no less than ten thousand of these beautiful and brilliant instruments It was such a spectacle as man could not reasonably expect to witness more than once in a lifetime."

This account appears to be somewhat highly coloured, as the official programme makes no reference to the fall of Sebastopol, but it is evident from it that the writer was greatly impressed with the display, and contemporary prints indicate that he was voicing popular opinion.

It is worthy of note that these celebrations were the first occasion of the kind in which the exhibitions consisted of