Читать книгу The Pyrotechnist's Treasury; Or, Complete Art of Making Fireworks - Thomas Kentish - Страница 7

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Take the former, fig. 1, which, as said before, is 1¹⁄₂ inch long; have a cylindrical piece of turned wood, box, beech, or mahogany, fig. 2, about 2 inches long, and of a diameter to just fit easily into fig. 1. At a point a, at the distance of about ⁷⁄₈ of an inch from the end d, with a bradawl, or very small gimlet, or nosebit, make a hole, and drive in a piece of brass wire, to project just so much as to prevent the tube slipping over it. A piece of a brass rivet, such as used by shoe-makers, is convenient for the purpose. The part with the head on is best; a quarter of an inch length will be sufficient, filed or cut off with the nippers. It is evident that upon inserting fig. 2 into the tube fig. 1, a vacant space of ⁵⁄₈ of an inch will be left at the bottom. Fig. 3 is a piece of turned wood, or, better still, of turned brass, exactly like fig. 2 without the side-pin a. Now to pump a star, insert fig. 2 in fig. 1; press the tube into damped composition, turn it round, and withdraw it. Rest the tube on a flat surface, insert fig. 3, and give it two or three taps with a small mallet, like fig. 26. A convenient size for the mallet is 1¹⁄₂ inch square, 3 inches long, with a turned handle. The mallet is best made of beech or mahogany. The slight malleting consolidates the star, and prevents it from getting broken in charging; it will compress it to about 4¹⁄₂/8 or ⁹⁄₁₆ of an inch in height. Push it out and set it by to dry.

Stars are best made in summer, and dried in the sunshine; when dry they should be put into clean pickle-bottles, furnished with tight-fitting bungs. A piece of wash-leather passed over the bottom of the bung, gathered up round the sides, and tied at the top like a choke, makes a good stopper. Shot, shaken up in bottles, with water, soon cleans them.