The blaze and noise, indispensable to patriotic celebrations among all
peoples, was produced a century ago in America by simple agencies.
Washington’s Birthday was ushered in by cannon salutes in every
garrisoned place in the United States, and boys the country over built
bonfires as they still do in old New England towns to celebrate the day.
But the Fourth of July was the great hurrah time of the year, when every
youth who owned a gun or could borrow one, brought it into use as a
contribution to the general noise. He might lack shoes and be short of
shot and bullets for hunting, but for this occasion no young man was so
poor as to have failed to lay in a hornful of powder, and at the stroke
of twelve midnight, which began the day, he and his companions blazed
away with guns loaded to the danger point, and kept up their fusillade
as long as ammunition lasted. For demonstrations on a larger scale, a
small cannon was secured if possible, but lacking this, two blacksmith’s
anvils were made to do the same service, the hole in the top of one
being filled with powder, a fuse laid into it and the second anvil
placed as a stopper upon the first before the charge was exploded.
A favorite firearm for celebration purposes was one of the old “Queens
Arm” muskets which were common in country communities, being trophies
captured from the British during the Revolutionary War. One of these
cumbersome flint-lock pieces might be loaded halfway to the muzzle and
fired without bursting, and would roar in the discharge in a way highly
pleasing to patriotic ears.
It was near the close of the eighteenth century that Chinese
firecrackers first came into use in celebrating the American
Independence Day. For many years they were used sparingly and only in
large cities. They had been known in the New England coast cities ever
since the year 1787, when Elias Haskett Derby’s ship of Salem, the first
American vessel to engage in deep-water commerce, returned from her
voyage to Calcutta, China and Isle of France. Among the things she
brought back--more as a curiosity than as an article of cargo--was a
consignment of Chinese firecrackers. Their capabilities in aiding the
uproar on the Fourth of July were quickly recognized, and thereafter
every ship that made the voyage from Massachusetts Bay to India or China
brought back firecrackers with the tea, silks and rice. In time,
rockets, squibs and torpedoes were included in the consignment, but it
was not until the middle of the nineteenth century that their use became
general in America.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF ROCKET FINISHING SHOP]
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF SHELL FINISHING SHOP]
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF TORPEDO SHOP]
The time when the more complicated fireworks, which we owe both to
Europe and the Orient, came into vogue in this country, no one perhaps
could now definitely tell. Their use was known to our seafaring men in
the “forties,” for it was in that decade that Capt. Decimus Forthridge,
of the American brig “Independence,” showed his Yankee pluck and
resource in defeating an attack of Malay pirates with no other armament
than fancy fireworks. During his voyage in the East Indies he had laid
in a supply of fireworks with which to celebrate the Fourth of July in a
manner worthy an American captain. For some reason no ammunition was
available for swivels or muskets, when, in the mid-watch of the night,
two war proas, deeply laden with armed Malays, were seen coming quickly
up on the vessel’s quarter as she lay becalmed off Firabader Point in
the Island of Sumatra. The cry of “All hands on deck to repel pirates”
brought the crew on deck in haste, but without ammunition the chance
that they would beat the enemy off was a long shot compared with the
probability that the throat of every man on board would be cut as a
preliminary to plundering and scuttling the vessel. Even in their
extremity the crew laughed and jeered when the captain ranged them along
the quarter rail with boarding pikes and empty muskets in hand to give
the enemy the idea that they were ready for business, and then, opening
the box of fireworks, he began to shoot rockets and roman candles at the
pirates. If the crew laughed, the Malays did not, and when the captain
of one of the proas was struck by a rocket, both crafts rested oars and
came no nearer. But while Captain Forthridge was attending to these, a
third proa came up unobserved under the port quarter, and the first that
was known of its presence was the attempt of its occupants to board the
vessel by the chains. To make matters worse it was discovered that the
paper wrappings of the fireworks in the box were on fire. While the crew
with clubbed muskets and boarding pikes kept the Malays outside the
rails, Captain Forthridge picked up the blazing box, carried it to the
chains, and while the mate and sailors warded the spears and krises from
him, dropped it into the proa. The box was blown to pieces the minute it
struck, scattering the fireworks through the proa, and with firecrackers
snapping and jumping and fiery serpents running round among their bare
legs, the Malays chose to take their chances with the sharks, and all
hands went overboard into the water at double-quick. A little breeze
came up and the brig drew away from the pirates, leaving the two proas
to pick up those Malays from the water that the sharks had missed.
In the days of the China clippers, those famous ships sailed many a race
from Hong Kong and Canton, with New York as the goal, to get there with
“first tea” and to forestall the Fourth of July market with a cargo of
firecrackers.
In China and the East Indies, fireworks, like “the fume of the incense,
the clash of the cymbal, the clang and the blaze of the gong,” are a
part of the worship of the gods, as well as a feature of coronations and
weddings. China is the birthplace of fireworks. From China the knowledge
of them spread to India, and in both these lands rockets were used as
missiles of war as early as the ninth century. The Chinese war rocket
was a long, heavy affair, fitted at the end with a barb-like arrow, and
to a foe unacquainted with firearms, it must have seemed a formidable
missile. After gunpowder was introduced in Europe, fireworks came into
use on the continent, and the use of both explosives undoubtedly was
learned from the Chinese.
Fireworks were manufactured in Italy as early as 1540, and in France we
have accounts of their employment in great celebrations between the
years 1606 and 1739. Long before this time, some form of rocket, now
unknown, that would burn in water, constituted the famous Greek fire
which struck terror to the hearts of invaders from Northern Europe in
medieval times when the Saracens launched it against their ships. Early
in the present century during the Napoleonic Wars, the rocket perfected
by Sir William Congreve was used in the siege of Boulogne and in the
battle of Leipsic. The conditions of modern warfare have so changed that
the rocket is no longer of practical use in fighting except as a signal.
In case of shipwreck it is often employed to carry a line from the shore
to a stranded vessel. It is noteworthy that while almost every kind of
fireworks is manufactured in Europe and the United States, the small
firecrackers are still imported from China. But larger quantities are
now manufactured in the United States, and it is only a matter of time
when the “Young American” salute will take the place of the Chinese
firecrackers.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF ROLLING SHOP]
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF ROMAN CANDLE SHOP]
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF BALLOON SHOP]
It was about ten years before the Civil War that “set pieces” began to
form a part of fireworks celebrations. In those days the most famous
pyrotechnic display in the whole country was given on Boston Common on
the Fourth of July, and the country boy who was so lucky as to see that
display, with the miracle of George Washington’s benign face illuminated
amid spouting flames and a shower of fireballs and rockets, had
something to talk about for the rest of the year.
The American Civil War which did so much toward the modern development
of firearms and munitions of war, brought also a great advance in
pyrotechny, and soon after the close of the struggle, extensive
manufacture of fireworks began in this country, with New York as the
headquarters of the principal firms engaged in the business.
In 1865 the first displays of fireworks in the United States,
illustrating historical events, were made by a company in New York City.
They were the pioneers in this line of displays. Their success was
immediate, and from these displays has grown the successes of today in
pyrotechnics.
Fireworks now enter into the celebration of every important event in our
national, political and business life. The celebrations at Washington,
D. C., at the inaugurations of our Presidents, the coronations of
emperors and kings in lands beyond our borders, are all brought to a
close by brilliant displays of fireworks.
The writer, in visiting the plant of a large fireworks manufacturer,
found that they were turning out large quantities of time fuses and
primers for shrapnel shells for the foreign powers, and are working
night and day on orders for the United States government on aeroplane
bombs and signals. They have also worked out a searchlight projectile
which is arranged to burst in the air, throwing out a number of luminous
bodies that light up the surrounding country and reveal the movements of
the enemy.
All large displays of fireworks are now fired by electricity and every
known color and effect is produced by the pyrotechnist of the present
day.
The water displays are scarcely less varied, consisting of flying fish,
diving devils, prismatic fountains, floating batteries, fiery geysers
and submarine torpedoes, all of which, being ignited and thrown into the
water, go through their stunts as readily as other kinds do on land and
in the air.
From every part of the civilized world, from Mexico, Central and South
America and Europe, orders for fireworks come in increasing numbers to
American firms, who now lead the world in this art. The Philippines will
soon be a customer for them, and with the general opening up of China to
modern civilization, from causes now in operation, it will not be
strange if some day we should supply fireworks to the land of their
origin.
* * * * *
What Makes a Chimney Smoke?
Smoky chimneys are usually caused either by the presence of other
buildings obstructing the wind and giving rise to irregular currents of
air, or by improper construction of the fireplace and adjacent parts of
the chimney.
The first may generally be cured by fixing a chimney-pot of a particular
construction, or a revolving cowl, on the chimney top, in order to
prevent the wind blowing down; in the second case the narrowing of the
chimney throat will generally create a better draft.
The longer a chimney is, the more perfect is its draft, provided the
fire is great enough to heat the column of air in it, because the
tendency of the smoke to draw upwards is in proportion to the difference
of weight between the heated air in a chimney and an equal column of
external air.
The first we hear of chimneys, for the escape of the smoke from a fire
or furnace, is in the middle ages.
[Illustration: FLOATING DRY DOCK “DEWEY”
This dry dock, which is capable of floating the largest battleship, was
towed from Sparrow’s Point, Maryland, to Olangapo, Philippine Islands, a
voyage of 13,000 miles. In operation, the dock is sunk by admitting
water into its tanks until the ship can be floated in. The water is then
pumped out and the dock with the ship inside rises to the proper level
as shown.]
[Illustration: U. S. BATTLESHIP “MISSISSIPPI” IN DRY DOCK AT LEAGUE
ISLAND]
What are Dry Docks Like?
Although divers are able to go down under the water to examine the
bottom of a ship while it is afloat, it is usually necessary to have it
up on dry land when thorough inspections or repairs have to be made. So
a berth something like a huge box stall in a stable is built, with the
part where a horse would stand in the stall full of water, and a door,
either made like swinging gates opening in the middle, or a caisson
which is operated up and down like a window, at the end. The ship is
floated into the dock and then after the door is shut to prevent any
more coming in, all of the water is pumped out until the vessel rests on
a lot of great big wooden blocks and supporting props with which the
bottom and sides of the dock are lined. Supports are also placed between
the vessel and each side of the dock. Then, when the work has been
finished, and the ship is ready to go to sea, water is let back either
by pumping it in or else by gradually opening the door at the end, and
the vessel is able to float out into the river or harbor again.
Although all of the navy yards and some private corporations in this
country have docks of this kind, they are not of as much importance here
as in England, where they are used, without pumping out the water, for
the loading and unloading of vessels, because of the very great rise and
fall of the tides there straining and otherwise damaging ships tied up
to ordinary docks.
There are nine important navy yards in the United States, located at
Brooklyn, N. Y.; Boston, Mass.; Portsmouth, N. H.; Philadelphia, Pa.;
Portsmouth, Va.; Mare Island, Cal.; New London, Conn.; Pensacola, Fla.;
Washington, D. C., and Port Orchard, Wash.
There is another kind of dry dock, called “floating docks,” which float
on the surface of the water and may be sunk sufficiently to allow of a
vessel being floated into them, and then raised again by pumping the
water out of the tanks around the sides. They are usually built of iron,
with water-tight compartments, and not closed in at either end. They are
sunk to the required depth by the admission of water into so many of the
compartments, till the vessel to be docked can float easily above the
bottom of the dock, and then they are raised by pumping out the water
until the ship can be propped up as in the land dry dock.
Why does a Lightning Bug Light Her Light?
The lightning bugs or fireflies which are seen so often on summer
evenings in the country and among the trees in the parks of the city,
are similar to the species of beetle called the glowworm in Great
Britain, although the glowworm there does not give as much light as the
firefly in America.
In reality it is only the female which is the lightning bug, for the
male is not equipped with any lighting power. He has the bad habit of
going out nights, and so the female has had to make use of her ability
to make part of her body shine with a sort of a phosphorus green light
in order to show him the way home, very much as a dweller in a
poorly-lighted street keeps a light in the window or on the porch to
guide visitors or the late home-comer to the proper house. She seems to
possess the power of moderating or increasing the light at will.
The most brilliant fireflies are found only in the warmer regions of the
world. The ordinary firefly to which we are accustomed gives off a very
much brighter light if placed in warm water. Fine print may be read by
the light of one kind which is found in the West Indies; in Cuba the
ladies have a fashion of imprisoning them in bits of netting or lace of
a fine texture and wearing them as dress ornaments, and in Hayti they
are used to give light for domestic purposes, eight or ten confined in a
vial emitting sufficient light to enable a person to write.