FIREWORKS FOR THE FIFTH.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 263, 5 November 1932, Page 3 (Supplement)

FIREWORKS FOR THE FIFTH.

(Sent in by Douglas Curtln, 24, Church Street, Ponsonby. Aged 12 years.) Bang! Flash !■ Pop! Splutter! We have all been looking forward to it for months, and. "we will be simply bursting with pride, to show what -we can do. Of course, we all think we're going to give a better display than the other fellow, and -we mean to make this year's fireworks festivities the best ever. Some people say fireworks are expensive, but then look what a lot of trouble it is .to make them. If you are interested I will tell you how some of these many-colour coated fireworks are made. The people .in the fireworks factory study the craft for eight or nine 'years, and then they are classed as experts, with all the tricks of. the trade at their fingertips. — Fireworks cannot be made by machinery and turned out by the thousand; they are all made by hand. In the factory one finds numerous small sheds. I Some are used for offices, some for storing explosive material, some for the carpentry, to do with big set pieces, and, most important of all, the "danger" sheds, where the fireworks are made. The workers in these sheds wear noninflammable overalls, and boots without nails over, their own footwear, so that if they happen to tread on grains of gunpowder lying about on the floor the friction of the nail heads will not •cause an explosion. First of all cases are made of papier mache, which are filled with gun powder by means of a funnel specially constructed for the purpose., Next, a handpress bends them backwards and forwards over a row of wooden Tods, the thickness of pencils. Then they are fastened up with string, given a firing cap, and placed in readiness for the day of all days in the life of fireworks. In the construction of rockets care-fully-measured quantities of explosive are poured into the case of the rocket, and rammed solid, and on top is placed a small discharge, which will explode high in the air a cluster of coloured stars. Roman candles take some making, great care having to be taken to see that each star will rise to the same height. The candle consists of Roman candle fuse, "dark ,fire," "star,", and a blowing charge.- As each fuse burns itself out it ignites the next star, until all have been discharged. Chinese dragons a-re easier to make, by merely filling the body with layers of gunpowder and some, other mixture, known only to the experts. Set pieces are used in" big displays, enormous rockets, ivhizzbangs and the like. So when tlie fifth arrives no doubt you will think of these little facts about your Roman candles, Chinese dragons, ctc.