25. One species of rocket decoration, the manufacture of which I
proposed to describe, remains yet to be considered. It is called _Golden
Rain_, and with the details of its preparation we will conclude our
subject of rocket-making.
[Illustration:
Fig. 32.
]
[Illustration:
Fig. 33.
]
Golden rains are made in the following manner:—Procure a piece of brass
rod (I always prefer brass for formers, because it is not liable to
rust, as is iron or steel), the diameter of which is 3–16ths of an inch,
or rather less. The length of the former may be from 6 to 8 inches. You
will now require some thin brown or cartridge paper, of which to make
your cases. Cut this paper into short strips, about 2 inches wide, and
long enough, when wrapped round the former, to make a case whose
external diameter should be a quarter of an inch, or rather more. The
former should have a cup-shaped, hollow cut in one of its ends, into
which the paper may be turned, to form a closed end to your little
cases. Paste your strips of cartridge paper all over, and also rub some
paste on the former. Now, having turned back one end of your
strips—(figs. 32 and 33)—roll it round the former, beginning in the
manner here sketched, so that, instead of rolling a single edge of paper
round the former, you are rolling a double one. The advantages of this
plan for making cases will be more easy for you to see than for me to
describe. I may state, however, that you insure, by adopting it, a very
close and even fit of the case to the former; you secure the inner edge
of the paper from coming unfastened, and you are much more certain that
your strips will roll up straightly. This plan may be adopted, if you
please, for all cases. I think it is, on the whole, the safest and best.
The paste which you rubbed on the former will enable you to draw it out
from the case without tearing or injury. But before removing the former
entirely, draw it out only so far as to leave its cupped end a quarter
of an inch inside one of the ends of your case—so far, in fact, that a
quarter of an inch of your case remains unoccupied by the former. Now
pinch in the paper that projects beyond the former, and drive it down
with a tap upon your pasting slab, so that the twisted end is pressed
into the cup of the former. By this means you will have a neat and
secure end to your cases, which may be dipped afterwards into warm size
or glue. If a little red lead be mixed with this size, it will solidify
much more rapidly. This dipping the ends of the cases into size should
not be done until they are dry from the paste.
Now we come to the filling of these little cases; and for this purpose
you will require a simple apparatus, known among pyrotechnists as “the
funnel and wire.” The funnel is usually made of tin, and has at its
mouth a short tube, about a quarter of an inch long, the exterior
diameter of which is equal to the exterior diameter of your brass
former, so that it will exactly fit into the mouth of your golden rain
cases. The wire should be of steel, about 1–10th of an inch in diameter,
and at least 6 inches long. For convenience in working, it should have a
small wooden handle. The handles sold in the tool-shops for engravers’
tools will answer very well. This is the whole of the apparatus required
for making golden rains.