Читать книгу Pyrotechnics. The History and Art of Firework Making онлайн

14 страница из 52

It will be seen that lanterns play an important part in the exhibition, and that when the fireworks proper are reached, the result is an “intolerable smoke.”

Indian pyrotechnists are more advanced than their Chinese neighbours. Firework displays carried out by them are nowadays more or less crude attempts to reproduce European work.

The writer has seen a set piece evidently intended to follow a fire picture seen in a European display carried out by small wicks burning in oil instead of the “lances,” as the small fireworks used to outline the pictures are called in this country.

In India as in China fireworks play a frequent part in religious and civil ceremonies. In the former country, at certain festivals, a primitive device for producing a series of reports is used. These are called “adirvedis,” and consist of a series of short iron tubes fitted to a wooden plank, charged with gunpowder and tamped with clay.

At weddings, crackers are largely used under a variety of names, such as Vengagvedi, Gola, Pataka or Koroo. To-day these are simple crackers filled with country-made gunpowder or the imported Chinese crackers. Formerly almost the only composition used was chlorate of potash and one of the sulphides of arsenic. A favourite form consisted of a small quantity of the two ingredients put together unmixed into a piece of rag with some small stones or grit and tied. The resulting fireworks were similar to the “throw-down” crackers sold in this country.