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Firework Temple at Vauxhall, 1845. From a woodcut in “The Illustrated London News.”

The “Philosophical fireworks” above mentioned were evidently an imitation of those exhibited at the Lyceum by Diller, which he describes as “Philosophical Fireworks from Inflammable Air without smell, smoke or Detonation.” These appear to have been nothing more than gas jets arranged in patterns and designs, some revolving and some stationary. Air was forced from a bladder through a sponge saturated with ether. Movement and variation were produced by turning on and off the gas from separate sets of holes. Two colours only appear to have been produced—rose and green; these were by the addition of strontia and baryta or copper.

A handbill is in existence advertising a similar display at Hull in 1804, by W. Clarke.

During the early part of the nineteenth century several gardens round London made a feature of pyrotechnic displays. The Mermaid Gardens, Hackney, in “The Morning Chronicle” of June 1st, 1812, announces “the greatest feast for the eye ever exhibited is a superb firework by that unparalleled artist, Mr. Brock, Engineer.”