I must beg of you, kind reader, the privilege of addressing you no
longer in the third but in the second person. By speaking to you,
instead of about you, I shall avoid much circumlocution, and in words,
at least, identify your interests with my own.
Since “generals” take the precedence of “particulars,” before entering
upon any description of the details of _rocket_ apparatus or
manufacture, I must introduce you to certain friends without which you
will find it difficult to get on in your work, and with which I trust
you will shortly be on excellent terms, for you will require their aid
in almost every branch of pyrotechny. The tools peculiarly employed in
each separate process of the art will be spoken of in dealing with that
process, and in their own place; but a short account of the things that
are _generally_ requisite will be more in place here than in any other
part of this work.