Fireworks

a name applied to explosives and combustible materials used for entertainment. The basis of fireworks is much the same as that of gunpowder. The addition of copper sulphate produces a blue flame; strontium produces red; potassium, violet; sodium, yellow; barium, green; and iron filings, brilliant scintillations. These preparations are packed usually in paper cylinders,--a work requiring patience, skill, and extreme caution. They are set off by a fuse. The Chinese, inventors also of gunpowder, are credited with the invention of fireworks, but they were introduced into Europe at an early date. Henry VIII ordered a brilliant display on the occasion of his marriage with Anne Boleyn.

Pinwheels, rockets, giant crackers, and torpedoes to the value of $600,000 a year are made near New York City; but the old-fashioned firecrackers, without which the Fourth of July would be a failure, are made in China. They are done by hand. No other people can compete with the Chinese in point of cheapness. Each cracker is twisted with the fingers. The fuses of sixty-four crackers are braided together like a Chinaman's queue. Each bunch is wrapped in paper with gilt and red labels. The small bunches are made up into larger ones. These are packed in a chest, wrapped in matting, and shipped to New York. A duty of 100 per cent is collected by the United States custom officials. When the cost of material, freight, cost of handling, duty, and the profits of the Chinese and American merchants and retailers are taken out of the price which the American boy pays for his firecrackers, it is evident that John Chinaman does not get much for making them-less than a cent a bunch. Even though he lives on rice in a country where little clothing and less fire are needed, he has to be quick-fingered to make a living. China exports crackers to the value of $2,000,000 a year. Many of the finer and more ingenious fireworks come from Japan. The Japanese excel in making rockets, and fire ballons having the form of dragons, serpents, clusters of grapes, and other odd shapes. The Japanese have a trick of causing different colors to follow each other in brilliant play. They are also able to create a floating clout of glowing light, which burns up into dozens of shining umbrellas that settle slowly to earth, like shooting stars, or into a swarm of tiny lanterns that float about till the little gods snatch them, as the Japanese children think, to go to bed by.

In observing a Fourth of July the American public expends about $1,000,000 for various forms of fireworks.