2063. Composition for Roman Candles

2063.    Composition for Roman Candles. Mix 1/2 pound meal-powder, 21/2 pounds saltpetre, and 1/2 pound each sulphur and glass dust.

2064. Colored Stars

2064.    Colored Stars may be made by using any of the receipts for colored fires, with a solution of isinglass, 1/2 ounce; camphor, 1/2 ounce; and alcohol, 3/4 ounce. Make into cylindrical cakes of the requisite size, punch a hole in the centre of each, roll in gunpowder, and dry in the sun.

2065. Colored Fires

2065.    Colored Fires. Great care is necessary in the preparation of these combustibles. The ingredients should be separately reduced to powder and sifted; then put into well-corked, wide-mouthed bottles until the time for mixing them for use. Colored fires deteriorate rapidly by keeping, and are nearly all dangerously inflammable; they should, therefore, be mixed as soon as possible before using them. The ingredients should be pure and perfectly dry; uniformly powdered, but not so fine as to be dusty. Nitrate of strontia, alum, carbonate of soda, and other crystals, should be gently heated in an iron pan until they lose their water of crystallization and crumble into dry powder. (See Drying, No. 3842.) Chlorate of potas-sa must be very cautiously handled, as it explodes by moderate friction. The requisite quantity of each ingredient should be weighed and placed on a clean sheet of white paper, and mixed lightly with a bono knife; they may then be more thoroughly mixed by sifting through a fine wire seive.

2066. Colored Fires for Illuminations

2066.   Colored Fires for Illuminations. Pack the compounds lightly into small cups or pans.

2067. Colored Fires for Stars, etc.

2067.    Colored Fires for Stars, etc.. The compounds may be put into small pillboxes, with a little priming and a quick match (see No. 2060 (To Make Quick Match)) attached to each. If kept, they should be put where no damage can happen in case of their catching fire.

2068. To Make Colored Fires

2068.    To Make Colored Fires. The following receipts for the preparation of these effective aids in pyrotechnic and dramatic display, are among the very best that are known. These fires have in some theatres been assisted, if not superseded, by the calcium light; color being communicated by passing the rays of light through colored glass. The unpleasant smell of colored fires is avoided, and the effects can be prolonged at pleasure, instead of lasting merely a few moments.

2069. Blue Fire

2069.    Blue Fire. Mix 2 parts realgar (red arsenic), 3 parts charcoal, 5 parts chlorate of potassa, 13 parts sulphur, and 77 parts nitrate of baryta.

2070. Bird's Blue Fire

2070.    Bird's Blue Fire. 1 part charcoal, 1 part orpiment (yellow sulphuret of arsenic), 16 parts black sulphuret of antimony, 48 parts nitre, and 64 parts sulphur.