www.rumblebook.co.uk fire fascination, firework and festival

mark fleming fire fascination, firework and festival copyright © 2013 Mark Fleming designed and published by Rumble United Kingdom www.rumblebook.co.uk [email protected]

ISBN: 978-0-9550621-3-1

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Contents

introduction 1 fire 5 Guy Fawkes 13 gunpowder 27 the makers 53 culture 87 acknowledgments 102 photo credits 103 links 105 fire fascination, firework and festival

introduction

So, like a forgotten fire, a childhood can always flare up again within us. Gaston Bachelard

he excitement reached its peak before Any lingering romance came with the the countdown. There came a ripple blisters of tying endless tubes to wooden Tof noise from the crowd when the stakes, with fingers made purple by cold. firework lighters lit their portfires, before But, bit by bit, the waiting display grew, the taking their positions beside the fireworks. fireworks readied and covered against the The display stood poised and loaded, ready seasonal damp. Aerial shells nestled at the to make the night its own. Most in the crowd bottom of their launch tubes, fuses dangling looked to the sky in anticipation, their eyes over-the-top, fixed with paper tape to stop picking through clouds of breath and the the breeze flapping them about. Rockets smoke of sparklers; I looked instead to the stood in racks, aimed downwind, their sticks darkened figures weaving among the racks vibrating as if itching for release. After a day of mortars, fountains and candles. I watched of frantic, noisy hammering and digging, in complete fascination. there came a descendent calm as the late afternoon shadows, if present, lengthened. Oh to be one of them, I thought. A lighter of With the setting sun, there arrived the fireworks. Surely one of the most romantic adrenaline rush of waiting while the jobs in the world for an eight-year-old who audience began to assemble; thousands loves fireworks. What could be more gathering, all drawn from their homes, exciting than handling and lighting proper battling traffic and crowded pavements to fireworks? Big fireworks. Then, nearly two stand in a playing field. From within the decades later I was one of them and heart of the display, the operators could hear discovered just how hard, cold and often the crowd's reaction to the lighting of the damp the job can prove. Digging large holes portfires. Our moment came to orchestrate into stony ground to bury mortar tubes, and the release of pure chemical energy against hammering wooden stakes into the stony soil the sky; be it a canopy of stars, or the dull as the November chill made itself known. muddy orange of streetlights on low cloud.

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Little prepares you for being in the centre of the appeal of the stage performer is yours to a large hand-lit firework display. There, savour, and all the hard work of the day finds within its core, you feel and respect the itself repaid with interest. energy released. You experience the raw force of gunpowder - one of humankind's At Alexander Palace, in the early 1990s, greatest inventions and the shaper of while walking back through the crowd for a well-earned drink with my colleagues from Pain's Fireworks, a small boy pointed at me. "Wow, a firework man," he said to his parents. Of all my experiences with fireworks, that moment tops the lot, for I well remember saying much the same of a similar overall- clad figure at an early 1970s firework display near my childhood home. I was now a firework man, and took my place in a long lineage of soot- smeared others, each of whom tastes that sublime moment when the display is over and yet you just want more.

civilisations across a thousand years. The I fell in love with fireworks, and with our concussion of a launched shell tickles the tradition of Firework Night, at the age of inside of your lungs and makes your heart five, when looking out across the back skip a beat. At ground zero, the golden gardens from an upstairs window of my sparks bounce off your safety visor and family home. What were these strange lights trickle down your arms as you position and sounds that made the garden come alive yourself ready for the next firing cue. You to a glow so different from everything else in feel the power of a flight of large rockets the world? To go out into the back garden in when they tear into the sky a few feet away the dark was in itself unique, and marked the from where you stand, the cases and sticks night as being different. Then came the utter whistling away at arm's length. A bubble of magic of watching my father light the ends gunpowder scented smoke surrounds you, of small card tubes. They made glittering obscuring all but you and the next firework, snowstorms and dancing coloured balls, or there waiting in the glow of a torch and the things that made spirals of gold on the fence, rising light of its fellows. And then, fifteen to or rushed into the sky from the neck of a twenty minutes after the start, as the noise bottle. and smoke of the finalé heads out across the trees, you hear the delicious sound of This is when the evening seared itself into applause and shouts of joy from the my mind, and I have never been able to rid audience. For a few anonymous moments, the vision since, nor, do I wish to.

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We use fireworks across the world to herald them in celebration for over one thousand events, celebrate occasions and for their pure years, and show no sign of losing our exhilarating entertainment. Name anything fascination. Here, we will celebrate them; else with the ability to make millions leave these small handmade tubes of dusts, and we their homes at night to gather in dark places. will celebrate the industry that made them They are, quite simply, the greatest form of possible, and the tradition that makes them mass entertainment - one that transcends all compelling in our modern technological national boundaries and tastes. We have used world.

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fire

A house is not an home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body. Benjamin Franklin

o appreciate the cultural and social Our fascination with fire is ancient and value of fireworks, one must first instinctive. It is a fascination for an entity Tunderstand the impact and that has helped shape our society and importance of fire, both in the past and in the influence our beliefs for countless present. Just try to imagine your life without generations. Across the world, and fire. Start at home and imagine no central throughout human history, fire has played a heating and no cooking on gas. Imagine a vital and vivid roll in all manner of folklores, reduced supply of electricity for our myths and yearly rituals. It has influenced computers, televisions and lights; for we still our lives, bringing safety, entertainment and burn coal, gas and oil to produce most of our fear in equal measure. It remains the most electricity. We would have no glass, no important tool in the arsenal we use to ceramics and no cast or forged metal. We exploit, alter and travel our world. It appears would have no gas-turbine engines and magical and ethereal; a spiritual entity from internal combustion engines - no aeroplanes another world, and one considered worthy of and fewer cars, in other words. On a more worship. It possesses a startling and personal level, we would have no candlelit mesmerising beauty, a beauty with the romantic meals, no fireside chats and no ability to inspire art, literature and romance. barbecues turning the evening a hazy and It appears almost alive, in that it requires fragrant blue in the summer. Candles burn in food and air, moves of its own accord and churches, and eternal flames remember the can reproduce at will. It may appear passing of people and events. Within the past benevolent one moment, offering life and year, a single flame followed a 7000-mile protection, before turning against us, trip around the British Isles. Lit from the becoming cruel and dangerous, waiting to midday sun in Athens, this symbolic flame snap at our folly, and unforgiving in its lived until the closing ceremony of the ability to destroy our surroundings. Fire is London 2012 Summer Olympics. We may remarkable in so many ways, both good and live through each day without witnessing a bad, and through its unusual dual nature our living flame, but we are rarely more than a ancestors developed a deep fascination and few metres from the product of one. respect for this strange and elemental force.

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Until the discovery of mechanical methods altered in their flavour and texture. Once this for creating fire - using flints or friction transformation became realised, these generated heat - the early fires our ancestors sporadic fires were no longer fearsome witnessed were natural events. Lightning events from which to run. Instead, they strikes, volcanic action, or the spontaneous heralded cleared land and the potential of fires produced by the decay of vegetable found and cooked food. It became only a matter. To our ancestors, these sporadic matter of time before our ancestors began to events must have appeared terrifying and yet store this natural fire. They captured pieces fascinating, their developing brains seeing of it and kept it alive in their settlements, more than mere danger in the passing fury of feeding it with wood and dry grass, while a forest or savannah fire. They saw becoming mesmerised by its appearance, opportunity. After the fire had passed, they particularly at night, when darkness reveals would have returned to find a blackened and its true beauty. The glowing embers, living devastated land, one superficially devoid of flames and leaping sparks began to fuel life and nourishment. Soon, however, they imagination. What was first seen as a would have seen this blackened world erupt mysterious and frightening threat, would with new and vigorous life, the soils made subsequently evolve to become the crackling fertile with new growth replacing the tired heart of the family. and choked old. And there, amid the devastated lands, our ancestors discovered Fire gave our distant ancestors the ability to the remarkable effect fire has on otherwise move away from our evolutionary homeland inedible or unpleasant sources of food: in Africa. Humans spread into colder and tubers, roots, seeds, nuts and meats all more challenging lands; lands that demanded greater solutions and strategies from our developing intelligence. Some of the earliest accepted proof of humans using fire, comes from caves in Northern China, and dates from around four hundred thousand years. This location is important when considering its environmental impact, for away from the tropical and subtropical zones, the effect of the earth's 23-degree axial tilt becomes more obvious. The seasons become extreme, the winters long and severe, and the variation in day length becomes a dominant factor in the survivability of the environment. Only through the harnessing and use of fire could these early settlers survive in their new locations, sitting out the long winter nights and the icy cold in caves across Europe and Asia. Fire enabled humans to survive in places that offered an abundance of resources, but posed environmental challenges that forced the onward evolution

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of our intelligence. We became great unique ability to make people introspective. problem-solvers and thinkers, creating It reaches in through our senses to trigger a tools, hunting weapons, and more efficient deep contemplation. The eyes, ears and clothing to help face the challenge of these nose, the warmth on the skin and even the new lands. Without fire, the challenge may taste of the air, all combine to draw us deep have proven insurmountable. into its heart. Storytelling became more than merely an entertainment on a long The role of fire in the preparation of food evening. It became a method of relaying has proven crucial in developing our discovery and understanding. From formidable intelligence. By breaking down generation to generation, children listened complex compounds, fire effectively to the tales and then told them to their own predigests our food. Starch, for instance, children, the stories adapting through breaks down into simple sugars that are retelling to evolve into the myths, legends tasty and therefore desirable, while also and folklores of today. being more efficient for our bodies to absorb and store. This increased efficiency of food absorption has provided us with a greater surplus of energy for the brain, the most energy demanding organ in our body.

The brain uses around 20% of the body's total daily energy consumption. It runs at between 12 to 20 watts per hour, and gob- bles around 11 to 17 calories per hour at rest. This amounts to about two and a half slices of thick white bread per day. So there you go, just thinking about exercise is better than nothing.

To our ancestors, the fireplace became the most important feature of the home, and therefore the centrepiece of social activity. The fireplace became the heat and light source for the long nights, and it is from around those fires that the next, and perhaps greatest step in our development, took place. The clever and adventurous creature now became the great storyteller. These tales in turn helped drive language and oral tradition, music and verse, and our ability to relay memories and knowledge far beyond the immediate group and time. Fire has an almost

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fire. It is a time of ghostly mists and fogs, often lasting for days to soften and chill the air. Today, through the double-glazed windows of our heated and well-lit homes, it is easy to forget the impact of the autumn on the earlier occupants of these isles. With the loss of the warm summer evenings, the hearth began to reclaim its importance at the core of social and family life, reborn in the minds of those now facing the uncertainties of the winter months. Through the ebbing away of the surrounding fields and forests, autumn became a time of spirits. Ghosts wandered the land, and saw the home fires These stories also helped develop more as radiating beacons of warmth in the cold unified beliefs - the first religions, world of autumn. This is the core of the eventually seeing them spread beyond small Celtic pagan belief that has left us today with social groups to encompass regions and Hallowe'en and Bonfire Night. It is the three countries and eventually vast swathes of the and a half thousand year tradition that has planet. No matter the doctrine, if it is an old gifted us our modern trick-or-treat and religion, then it is likely to have begun in the carved pumpkins, and the crackle of glow and scent of a fire. Is it any wonder that fireworks on Bonfire Night. flame remains an important element in the rituals and beliefs of many religions?

In the northern latitudes of Europe, the impact of the seasons saw specific moments in the year take on cultural and mystical significance. The transition of winter to summer, and that of summer to winter became significant, making spring and autumn important in the cycle of the year. Rebirth, new life and the future riches of the land found celebration in the spring, with the days growing long and the harshness of the winter now passed. Harvest time and the passing of life became the themes of autumn. November is the Blood Month, seeing the animals slaughtered before the nights draw in, the natural world beginning to settle into the wait of winter.

Autumn is a time of natural fire and smoke, with its long sunsets and with the dying leaves taking on the red and gold hues of the

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venture out into the dark, often dressed in macabre costumes. They would parade towards a central bonfire from where the spirits, drawn by the flames, found release into their own ghostly world. This remarkable tradition remains, and today we call the night Hallowe'en; a night of ghosts, candles, bonfires and procession, of wild costumes and the harvest foods of apples, turnips and pumpkins. An evening of wandering ghouls and outdoor celebration, feasting and social mixing.

The stubbornness of the autumn fire festival tradition is extraordinary. It has survived invading armies and religions, political events and plots, and has latterly survived the cynicism and social upheaval of the Many people assume the Fifth of November 20th Century. Hallowe'en has survived to celebration is a popular memorial to the become one of the favourite times of year for toppling of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. It many people, especially for children. And it is, but only to a degree. In reality, the Guy is this sense of fun, rather than the wish to Fawkes celebration stole the fire from a rid the land of pesky spirits, that has given much older Celtic festival called Samhain, Samhain, in all its current guises, its pronounced sow-en, meaning Summer's longevity and success. End, which occupied the evening of October 31st each year.

On this one special night, the realm of the living and the realm of the dead drew close, the veil between the worlds parting with magical and supernatural consequences. Samhain was the night when the dead of the past year returned to find new bodies to possess. To protect against this unfortunate happening, and to make the houses unwelcome to the spirits, the people doused their fires. Then, after sunset, people would

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and rituals survived among the people at the northwest fringe of the Christian world, where the Irish and the Scots were unwilling to forgo a traditional night of good raucous fun without good reason.

The next major shift in the fortune of Hallowe'en began after the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, which saw the fiery processions and bonfires began to shift away from October 31st, to satisfy the legally ordained Fifth of November celebrations.

With the gradual decline of Hallowe'en in Europe, after the rise of Protestantism, which viewed All Hallow's Eve as a largely papal tradition, it fell to the staunch traditionalists of Ireland and Scotland to keep the night alive. They achieved this largely by emigrating to the Americas. There, the traditions and imagery of Hallowe'en remained alive during the Hallowe'en is a moment in the year to act eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and with abandon. To venture out into the even managed to survive the puritanical darkness, and to stand near bonfires where, pressures of the fledgling United States. for centuries, young men and young women have eyed one another in the firelight, while children play on a night unlike all others.

The original Celtic festival survived for at least one and a half millennia, before the first serious shift in its observance arrived from the south. It found itself adopted by the invading Romans, possibly as they sought to appease and attract the troublesome Celts into the embrace of the Roman world. By the fifth and sixth centuries, with the emerging monotheistic Christian faith, the festival had become fused into the Christian calendar. The night became All Hallow's Eve, observed on the evening before All Saints' Day on the 1st of November. Despite the dominant influence of the Roman Catholic Church, the old pagan rituals of the night somehow managed to survive. The traditions

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During the twentieth century, Hallowe'en has seen a most remarkable resurgence in In 2011, the British spent £380M on Bonfire Night, with Halloween coming up close behind at £260M. The recent popularity, raising the night to become one growth of Halloween is attested by the fact that in 2001 the of the cultural highlights of the year. With expenditure on the evening came to just £12M the arrival of mass-produced Hallowe'en costumes and goods, and the global Even so, according to YouGov details relating to the year dominance of North American media and 2012, 12% of adults will buy fireworks, and 29% of adults will attend organised firework displays. The desire is still strong. leisure interests, this intrinsically pagan event has now spread from the USA to reach a willing global audience. In Britain, our With time, it is possible that the spirits of modern Hallowe'en has far surpassed Hallowe'en and the fires of the Fifth will November the Fifth in terms of marketing recombine, leaving us with a single night of and themed goods. We still spend more smoky celebration on the 31st of October. money on the Fifth, and venture out in our Although in many ways regrettable, should millions to see firework displays, but an such a merger occur, it would prove a most increasing number are doing so one week fitting outcome for our autumn fire festival. earlier. They attend Hallowe'en parties, For more than three-thousand years it had lantern processions and spooky events at lived on the final evening of October, and it pubs and clubs. And, of course, for a new has only been during the past four hundred generation of enthusiastic children, there is years that the fires have moved to the Fifth. now the chance to walk the streets at night Perhaps we are now beginning to see the dressed as witches or skeletons. Trick-or- spirit of Samhain draw back its ancient treating is a practice that nicely mimics the flames and sparks, thus undoing a Celtic tradition of parading through the perturbation thrown at the celebration by the streets; then with a flaming torch, today with most audacious plot to ever originate against a pumpkin and a carrier bag for the sweets. the English state.

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Guy Fawkes

Please to remember the Fifth of November, The Gunpowder Treason and Plot; I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason Should ever be forgot

hortly before midnight on the night of charge was more than enough to level the November 4th, 1605, in a cellar space building above and kill all those present at Sbeneath the House of Lords, Thomas the ceremony of the state opening of Knyvet and a small search party happened parliament, due to take place within a few on a lone figure carrying a lantern. When hours. Guy, an expert in the use of challenged, the man gave his name as John explosives, carried slow match, a pocket Johnson, servant to Thomas Percy, the watch and pieces of touchwood used for leaseholder to the space, used previously as kindling fire. These items, along with the a coal store. In that fortuitous moment, barrels of gunpowder, thus sealed his short- hundreds of lives were saved, history term fate and helped preserve his lasting became written, and one man found his name. name seared into the popular conscience of a nation and so made to shine, literally, for the Guy is the only nonreligious person to have next four centuries. Through the discovery, a moment in the year named in their honour. one religious doctrine would turn the screw We have no Drake Day, Nelson Day or on another, intolerance and hatred became Churchill Day. We observe no Shakespeare, state sanctioned, and the fifth evening of Newton or Darwin Day. Instead, we have a November made never the same again. The night named in the honour of a person to discovered man was of course Guy 'Guido' whom the word terrorist would find itself Fawkes, and the great secret he guarded, attached today. A man who helped plan an hidden behind piles of timber in the cold act of violent mass murder and regicide. For gloom, was a collection of 36 barrels of this reason alone, the night of Guy Fawkes gunpowder. Weighing 1,633kg (3,600lb) this celebration is remarkable. It is a tale worthy

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of a novel or film script; with a ticking clock the night. Today, we might call November countdown to the state opening of the Fifth, Thomas Percy Night, or Robert parliament. There is a secret gathering of Wintour Night, or a host of others were it people, a sinister pile of hidden explosives, they found in the darkness with a lantern in whispering betrayal, secret messages and a their hand. Guido was one of twelve named timely salvation; all followed by a violent in the conspiracy, and yet today most people conclusion with shoot-outs, torture and know only his name, and do so through the gruesome executions. And all this is set circumstance of his discovery and the fact it against the scenery of one of Britain's most fell to him to light the fuse. Being the expert fascinating and formative periods in history. in the use of powder and setting fuses, Guy was to light the slow match, giving himself What do we know of the man who called enough length to allow for his escape to the himself Guido Fawkes? First, despite what opposite side of the Thames. From there, he many believe, we know he was not the would watch the vast explosion tear the heart leader of the plot, but merely the unfortunate out of Westminster and the hierarchy of the person discovered with the gunpowder on English establishment.

Born in York, in Stonegate, in April 1570 (the exact date is unknown), Guy was the only son of Edward Fawkes, an advocate at the consistory court of York. Following the death of his Protestant father, when Guy was eight years old, his mother, Edith, waited nine years before she remarried, this time choosing a Catholic husband. Whether this steered Guy into the faith, or whether the recusant influence came from his schooling at St. Peter's School, York, is unknown. Interestingly, Christopher and John Wright, two of his future fellow plotters, also attended the same school, which might suggest a possible influence dating from his schooldays. What is certain is that Guy chose Catholicism over the faith of his natural father, and thus became a vehement supporter of the religion, which he saw as unfairly persecuted in the England of his time. His strong beliefs led him to take up arms. In 1593, Guy travelled to Flanders and there enlisted in the Catholic Spanish army to fight against the Protestant Dutch in the Netherlands; part of the Eighty Years War - the fight for the independence of a Dutch republic. In the army of the Spanish, Guy prospered and gained respect as a fighter and

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for his virtues and likeable character. overrule the existent ministers, several of Sometime towards the end of his time in whom remained in place from the reign of Europe, and for reasons unknown, Guy Queen Elisabeth I. His promise to make adopted the Italianate version of his name, England a more tolerant place for its Guido, a name he chose to see him through Catholic minority came to nothing, and the rest of his short but memorable life. therefore James and his ministers became targets. Catholics at the time could not hold Following his return to England in the spring public or church office, and still lived with of 1604, and through connections made in limits on their right to practice and promote Europe with Thomas Wintour and Robert the Romanist faith within the Protestant Catesby, Guido swore an oath of secrecy and nation. Although some of the persecution became an important part of the inner plot. from Elisabeth's time had since eased, He became the explosives expert. England remained a place where Catholics felt decidedly marginalised. The plot to kill the king began in the spring of 1604 and appears to have originated in the Into this underlying social unease arrived mind and indignant fury of Robert Catesby, those with more extreme views and ideas. a gentleman of Warwickshire and a known The premise of the Gunpowder Plot was in hater of James I. Since taking the throne the itself simple. To kill the king, his key previous year, the king had proven less ministers and supporters, and then effect a tolerant of the Catholic faith than at first revolution, which would see James' hoped. This failure to effect his earlier daughter, the nine-year-old Princess promise, made under his reign as King Elizabeth, installed as the Catholic head of James VI of Scotland, largely resulted from state. In their minds it all sounded rather James finding it almost impossible to simple. What could possibly fail?

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Set against this backdrop of aggressive conspiracy and state suspicion, the danger to the gunpowder plotters increased as the intrigue developed, a risk only heightened as the numbers of those involved grew from a handful, to over a dozen. Thomas and Robert Wintour, Thomas Percy, Robert Keyes, John and Christopher Wright, John Grant, Thomas Bates, Sir Ambrose Rookward, Francis Tresham and Sir Everard Digby; these are the named conspirators, a list that does not include trusted servants and final late-night search of the cellar space on spouses. With the addition of each new the 4th, the all-important search that member, the risk of betrayal and uncovered Guido Fawkes, the gunpowder carelessness grew, particularly as the date of and did for the plotters. the explosion grew near. Some of those involved even began to warn their relations After John Johnson's capture, he remained at and patrons about the planned attack. Once Westminster Palace and while there came to the whispers began to move out from the explain himself to the man he wished to core, the plot lost its stealth. This culminated murder with a smouldering fuse. After his in an anonymous letter, delivered to uncomfortable audience with James, the William, 4th Baron Monteagle, warning him prisoner travelled to the Tower of London, to to find an excuse to not attend the opening of endure a royally sanctioned regime of parliament on the fifth. Received on October torture, starting with moderate torment but 26th, this letter, suspected to have been the advancing to more extreme, including, work of Francis Tresham, Monteagle's possibly, the rack. By the 7th of November, bother-in-law, blew open the secrecy and his inquisitors knew his real name, and had resulted in a heightened awareness to the extracted his signed confession, along with dangers posed at the Palace of Westminster. the names of the five key conspirators, all of These fears would eventually result in the whom had, by then, fled from the city.

Catesby, John and Christopher Wright, Thomas Wintour, Percy, Grant, Rookwood and Bates fled north, and were even so bold that they raided the stores and stables at Warwick Castle before finally halting at Holbeche House, near Dudley, in Staffordshire. There, the fugitives decided to make a final stand against the approaching king's men. Their decision to hold out came through

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holes are still evident in the walls of the house, which today is a residential home) took the lives of Percy, both Wrights and Catesby. Thomas Wintour, Bates, Rookwood and Grant were captured in varying states of injury, and taken south for imprisonment while awaiting their trial for treason.

Before long, the network of conspirators collapsed, and the remaining plotters joined those already held in the Tower. After a doubtless enthusiastic interrogation, they faced trial on January 27th, 1606, inside the Star Chamber in the Palace of Westminster. All were found guilty and sentenced to the greatest sanctioned punishment for their treasonous acts. All that is except Francis Tresham, who, after his capture in London on November 12th, had died of 'natural causes' on December 22nd. The remaining guilty men faced a horrifying death, the sentence calling for each to face the penalty fatigue, and followed an unfortunate and of being hung-drawn-and-quartered. ironic incident in which gunpowder, poured out to dry beside a fire (would you believe) exploded, blinding Grant and injuring Catesby and Rookwood.

On the morning of November 8th, with Guido languishing hopeless and broken in the Tower of London, the Sheriff of Worcester, Richard Walsh, with a company of 200 men reached Holbeche House. The ensuing gunfight (bullet

On January 30th, 1606, at the churchyard of St. Paul's, Robert Wintour, Thomas Bates, John Grant and Sir Everard Digby met their grisly end, their heads displayed as a warning to all who might follow in their treasonous shadow. The following day saw the remaining men executed, their public deaths enacted in the shadow of the building they wished to see

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destroyed; the gallows built on Old Palace This somewhat knee-jerk law would result in Yard in the Palace of Westminster. Thomas the promoting of religious intolerance and Wintour, Ambrose Rookwood and then see to the future revilement of one man, Robert Keyes met their end before, and while helping ensure the preservation of his according to the Weekly News, of Monday, name. The act would place November the 31st January, 1606:- Fifth in the social cycle, and change forever the sounds and smells of early November. It "Last of all came the great devil of all, Guy would also, three centuries later, help turn Fawkes, alias Johnson, who should have put the British firework industry into the most fire to the powder. His body being weak with imaginative and colourful the world has ever the torture and sickness he was scarce able to known. The act was simple and to the point. go up the ladder, yet with much ado, by the It called for an annual nationwide help of the hangman, went high enough to thanksgiving for the foiling of the break his neck by the fall. He made no speech, but with his crosses and idle Gunpowder Plot. The act ordained the ceremonies made his end upon the gallows prayer and mass celebration for the timely and the block, to the great joy of all the salvation of the monarch, and gave the beholders that the land was ended of so official stamp of approval for the lighting of wicked a villainy" bonfires and the public parading of anti- Catholic imagery. It doubtless also helped By taking his chance, Guy achieved an lessen the fading observance of the pagan instantaneous death and thus saved himself traditions of All Hallow's Eve, the fires from the horror and unspeakable agony of migrating with the waning interest to the the later steps in the procedure. following week, leaving Hallowe'en alone with its spirits, carved lanterns and colourful For each of the conspirators their lives were harvest foods. over, their estates and wealth forfeited to the state and their names forever ruined. Except November the Fifth, given the original title for one. For Guy Fawkes, his fame was of Gunpowder Treason Day, became the about to begin. His lasting infamy came dominant night for bonfires and firelight about through one of the most unusual laws to ever find itself passed among the great plethora of British statutes.

The law in question came into effect on January 23rd, 1606, four days before the Gunpowder Plot trials. Its official title was The observance of 5th November Act 1605, otherwise known as the Thanksgiving Act.

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procession. Indeed, its popularity and over enthusiastic indulgence would soon see the night become notorious for its rampaging drunken brawls and harmful mischief, all loosely adhering to an act of thanksgiving and anti-papist iconography.

Despite its many detractors and its negative overtones, Gunpowder Treason Day survived as an official celebration until 1859, when an act of parliament saw it dropped from the yearly calendar of anniversaries and observance days. From 1860 onward, it fell to the public to continue Each year, and without knowing why or the tradition and keep the fires burning. The understanding the full symbolism of their common people, and in particular during the actions, many children would once model twentieth century, their children, took to the the body of a man dead to their world for night with a renewed interest and focused several centuries. They gave the fabrication vigour. Gunpowder Treason Day became his popular name, used him to beg for small known as Bonfire Night or Firework Night, change, and then burned him on a bonfire and for many people, Guy Fawkes' Night. when done. How odd. Guys are a rare sight nowadays, and it has been a few years since Guy's tale is not about the memory of a man, last I saw one, its head made from a football, but of a name and an image. The name of an with no attempt made to give the face otherwise unremarkable young man whose recognisable features. As Guys go, it was a infamy has survived in the face of all that poor effort, but nonetheless, I saw one history and society has thrown at it across outside a newsagent in the second decade of the centuries. Few people have been so the 21st century, more than four hundred maligned, caricatured and ritualistically years after the original Guy's death. burned, over and over, on hundreds of thousands of fires. The once familiar Guy, slumped against the wall of a shop, or drooped inside an old pram or go- kart, must surely be one of Britain's strangest and most evocative traditions. Much like the annual sighting of the year's first Christmas decoration, or the first Easter egg, the sight of a stuffed rag Guy can only mean only one thing: it is the autumn and we are in the run-up to Guy Fawkes Night.

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During the heyday of British fireworks in the hatted and cloaked figure back to twentieth century, Guy's face adorned prominence, his grin and cheeky knowing firework boxes, advertising posters and shop eyes throwing aside the truth of history, to displays. He invited people inside to peruse, allow him a rebirth as the popular urban imagine and buy. He fired the imagination of legend. children for generations. He stood proud on posters and pointed to the time of the local And today, if anything, his image is reaching public firework display. He looked out from new heights. Guy is now the antiheroic beneath his feathered hat and promised his freedom fighter, and the face of the popular firework brand was the best. He rode rockets modern rebel. Courtesy of him lending his across the sky, tossed bombs into the air, likeness to the protagonist of the graphic found himself made from component novel and cult film, V for Vendetta, the fireworks and grinned stylised face of Guido from above thousands of Penny for the Guy, Fawkes has now shop counters. Then he Hit him in the eye, returned to taunt the turned to ash on a Hang him on a lampost authorities. He is now bonfire, or found himself And leave him there to die the modern, symbol of discarded in the dustbin antiestablishment after the night. Why? thinking and anonymous Why did Guy Fawkes, after three centuries protest and action. The irony of his return in of being a hate figure, become the popular, the guise is remarkable. Four centuries after friendly smiling face of Firework Night? It his death, and after his utter failure to seems the firework manufacturers are to achieve one iota of his goals, his image is blame or to thank for this, depending on now influencing the path of global finance, your viewpoint. It is they who brought this politics and the establishment. His plastic

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tyranny. Guido Fawkes, or at least his grinning facial image, is now more powerful and wider known than he could ever have imagined in his life.

Where once a young person might have worn the image of Che Guevara as a symbol of rebellious counterculture, today they wear the face of a four hundred year-old dead man. It is difficult to imagine how modern terrorists would ever find themselves remembered with such respect.

For the son of an advocate from York, Guy has done remarkably well for himself. He has become the face of modern rebellion, and given his name to Britain's sole night of mass, nondenominational celebration. He is also forever bound, through the failed conspiracy and its later celebrations, to the one material that has given November the Fifth, and all the world's other firework celebrations, their unbridled resonance and smile, distinctive features and facial hair colour. Gunpowder. Alongside the compass, now peer through the doors of corporations paper and printing, gunpowder is classed as and governmental offices, probing their one of the four great inventions of the security and disrupting the computers of ancient Chinese world, with each changing those in power to expose lies, corruption and the course of human history.

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gunpowder

Genius is initiative on fire Holbrook Jackson

lthough it is a widely accepted belief world became more colourful and noisy, that the invention of gunpowder with the material first used in simple Aoccurred in China sometime during fireworks, before the world became a more the 9th century AD, we will never know the dangerous place when the compound's exact circumstances of its discovery. Its violent and destructive character came to the three simple ingredients were in common fore. use by this date, and certainly present in the supplies of many alchemists and drug Obviously, since the powder arrived before makers of the time. Charcoal was plentiful in the gun, the Chinese did not call the mixture the everyday fires, and sulphur found gunpowder. Instead, they gave it the common use as a medicine. Last, but most intriguing and colourful name of Fire Drug, crucial of all, the natural salt of potassium perhaps a clue to the original line of nitrate, known in the West as saltpetre, investigation that led to its discovery. First found use in medicine, and as a salt or used for simple fireworks, noise makers and flavour enhancer in cooking. The exact fountain types, the material soon found use nature of gunpowder’s discovery remains a as an explosive weapon before finally mystery. Some authorities suggest the finding the use for which it would gain its Chinese alchemists were searching for the lasting name. elixir of life, when they stumbled on an explosive material with the unerring ability In its modern form, gunpowder (also known to end it. Perhaps gunpowder arrived as black powder because of its colour), is through a sudden startling accident, when made from 75 parts potassium nitrate, to 10 the ingredients found themselves in a loose parts charcoal and 15 parts sulphur. When assembly near a source of ignition. With one mixed and touched with a flame, the chance spark, the course of human history charcoal and the sulphur begin to burn, changed forever. Through its discovery, our producing heat. This heat causes the

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potassium nitrate to decompose, releasing oxygen to further energise and quicken the reaction. In other words, once lit, gunpowder requires no further atmospheric oxygen to burn, enabling it to burn without limit within in a sealed container. When gunpowder burns, it efficiently and rapidly provides its own oxygen to oxidise its remaining fuel. With the increase in heat, oxygen and pressure, the mixture will undergo complete combustion within a fraction of a second - far quicker than the charcoal and sulphur This is where the usefulness of the reaction would burn on their own in the open. begins. As the charcoal and sulphur burn, they release copious quantities of carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide. Because they burn with such rapidity, they liberate gas at an almost instantaneous rate. This conversion, of the small physical mass of cold powder into an expanding bubble of hot, energetic gas, causes a rapid increase in volume. If the reaction takes place in a sealed container, the pressure will build to the point of bursting the vessel, releasing the pressure in one sudden violent concussion. This is the explosion of the banger, the shell, the grenade or the bomb. If the mixture burns inside an open-ended tube, then the resulting plume, if unrestricted, produces a fountain of sparks and flame. If a narrow choke restricts the mouth of the tube, then the burning compound produces thrust and the rushing exhaust of a rocket. By placing a little of the mixture inside a tube fully sealed at one end, and with a loose object facing the other open end, then the expanding gases will propel the object from the tube at great speed. This is the simple principle of a gun, and through its invention the black powder of the Chinese gained its common name.

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The discovery of the propellant properties of naval warfare and battlefield tactics. During gunpowder, and hence the moment when the naval battles of the Spanish Armada in humans began to terrorise themselves with 1588, the technological superiority of one handguns and artillery, may also have taken side's cannon gave a compelling advantage place in China, sometime during the 12th over the numerical advantage of their century. Perhaps, as with the original adversary. The English cannon were easier discovery of the gunpowder mixture, the gun and faster to reload, compared with those of effect may have arrived through accident the Spanish, despite the Spanish outgunning rather than by design. We can imagine a the English in the sheer number of weapons sudden explosion firing a mixing spoon or available in the theatre. With the advantage stopper across a room, and a person standing of their better cannon, the English navy back in an enlightened eureka moment, once wreaked havoc on the Spanish ships and their heart rate dropped. Either way, once their rigid battle lines. On land, the chemical realised, those with the newfound release of gunpowder's energy, gave the knowledge wasted little time in perfecting Spanish Conquistadors their lethal the principle. From the first simple muzzle advantage over the numerically superior loading mortars, cannon and unwieldy indigenous peoples of Central and South firearms, to the later matchlock, flintlock America, thus forever changing the language and percussion cap weapons, the technology and culture of those lands. of guns grew with the demands of the generals and with the imagination of the designers.

The metal of a sword, the range of the bow, and the power of gunpowder. These are the three great technological leaps in the history of ancient warfare; an evolution that took the soldier from being a stone and spear thrower, to being a grenadier and bombardier. Gunpowder has forged nations, enabled tyrants, and helped the populace depose them. It has made the meek powerful and helped make the powerful near unstoppable. In its time it has changed the nature of

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Later, and further to the north, the firearm and its deadly powder gave the early American settlers an advantage over the axes and arrows of the indigenous American Indians. We view the history of many nations through the smoke of this unusual compound. A simple mixture of charcoal and sulphur, and a strange salty powder, often found growing in fluffy drifts on the damp walls of stables and cellars, and around the edges of manure heaps.

Beyond its military use, the powder also found peaceful employment, and in doing so, revolutionised it. Used as a Milled in government-controlled factories, blasting explosive, gunpowder could shift and produced in varying grain sizes from vast quantities of rock and earth at a pace fine dust to large cubes over an inch wide, greater than spades, pickaxes and chisels. gunpowder became the world's first mass- Gunpowder helped blast the tunnels and produced explosive and propellant. Its grain cuttings that brought first the canals and size and outer coating helped perfect the latterly the railways to the cities, coalfields powder to best suit the purpose; some and ports of the industrial revolution. It also powders made to burn rapidly for an helped open vast areas of new territory explosive effect, other powders made to across the planet, by blasting railroads and burn slowly to produce a steady push within passes through otherwise impenetrable a barrel. In its various forms and grades, mountain chains. gunpowder remained the only available propellant until the introduction of smokeless white powder in the 1880s. Made from granulated nitrocellulose (guncotton), this new propellant cleared the battlefield of obscuring smoke, helped snipers stay hidden and stopped the barrels and firing chambers of guns becoming eroded and fouled with the by-products of conventional black powder.

Black powder's time as a demolition, blasting and military explosive also began to fade during the second half of the 19th century. This followed the introduction of detonating high explosives. Unlike gunpowder, these new explosives required no

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Gunpowder, being a low explosive, does not containment to produce their blast effect. detonate but instead deflagrates (burns). The velocity They were easier to handle, store and use, of its explosion reaches 400 metres per second. plus they were less sensitive to moisture, unlike black powder, which ceases to burn if By comparison, Nitroglycerine detonates at wet. As an explosive material, the difference 5,000m/sec, TNT at 7,000m/sec, and Octanitrocubane between gunpowder and true high explosive at 10,100m/sec is astonishing. Gunpowder, when contained in a strong casing, can produce a localised That is 33,000 feet, or 6.25 miles in one second! pressure of up to 6,000 times that of the atmosphere. This sounds impressive, and With its use as a military and industrial would have been more than enough to level explosive in sharp decline, the powder mills the Palace of Westminster in 1605, but it of Europe and elsewhere turned towards pales against the 250,000 atmospheres of a another of gunpowder's peaceful uses. By modern detonating explosive. Whereas the beginning of the twentieth century, the gunpowder pushes on its surroundings, high firework industry became the single largest explosives shatter theirs, the materials consumer of conventional gunpowder. Freed simply being unable to move out of the way from the demands of the military, in time. The greater power of high gunpowder became more available and explosives, means they can achieve the same affordable to the firework makers, and did so result as gunpowder using less compound, just as the public began to demand more of or, if using the same volume of explosive, a their own garden fireworks. greatly increased blast effect.

Alongside nitrocellulose, developed in 1846 and marking the eventual demise of gunpowder as a propellant, arrived another explosive called nitro-glycerine, which offered a blast as formidable as its bad reputation for exploding at the wrong time. The thorny problem of nitro-glycerine's sensitivity, would eventually find a solution in the laboratory of the Swedish chemist, Alfred Nobel. He found that by absorbing the unforgiving liquid in a matrix of fine diatomaceous earth particles, he could produce a stable, insensitive and powerful explosive. This new explosive was perfect for packing into boreholes, and for cutting and shaping to suit many needs, plus it remained fully waterproof throughout. He patented his explosive in 1867, gave it the catchy brand name of Dynamite, and so sealed the fate of gunpowder as an explosive.

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The gunpowder used in modern fireworks is different cases make similar mixes perform essentially identical with that used by the in many different ways. It is the container Victorian firework makers, or indeed the that enables the banger to go bang as medieval and early Chinese pyrotechnists. It opposed to pop. And it is the strong tube and would be quite wrong, however, to think that narrow choked nozzle of a rocket that this basic gunpowder mixture is the only converts the energetic gases, produced by material that goes into fireworks. the burning fuel, into directed thrust and resultant flight. Through careful manipulation and shaping of the composition within the casing, and Until recently, with inroads made by plastic through the addition of metallic salts, metal containers for small projectiles, rockets and particles and other powdered chemicals, it is the cases of some shells, paper was the only possible to produce all the firework effects material used to encase and thus shape the and colours we know today. burning characteristics of the powders. In its simplest and most visible sheet form it Another interesting fact to consider is the becomes the outer label, the decorative inherently handmade nature of fireworks. allure to appeal to the buyer. As a potassium Throughout their history they have used the nitrate infused sheet, it once formed the blue same core materials in their construction. touch-paper of old fireworks; the fizzing and The makers use paper, glue, wood, string delicious smelling prelude to the flare of the and clay. With those five basic components, mixture. Paper, coiled around a spindle and they make all the common firework types, made into a thick card tube, becomes the from the smallest fountain on the patio to the most spectacular chrysanthemum shell burst.

After the composition itself, paper is the most important component of most fireworks. If the chemical filling is the heart and energy of the device, then the case is the all- important body that carries and shapes the performance. Through their dimensions, end openings, wall strength and volume,

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casing for all fountains, bangers, candles, mines and rockets. In a thinner wrap, dampened with water and shaped between rollers, it becomes the spiral of a pinwheel and once formed the zigzag body of a rip rap jumping cracker. It protects fuses from damage, acts as a wadding to keep small projectiles snug in their launch tube, and fixes the projectile part of an aerial shell to its propellant charge.

Glue is a little-noticed ingredient in the manufacture of fireworks. In a diluted form it turns multiple layers of since the earliest days. The strong wood-like wound paper into rigid card, the result even structure of bamboo found use as a handy strong enough to turn the paper into a mortar casing in early Chinese noise fireworks, tube - the gun barrel for an aerial shell. Glue producing loud bangs when lit, similar to the fixes rocket sticks to their casing and bonds banger we know today. In their larger forms, the heart of a pinwheel in the centre of the and bamboo can be very large indeed, they spiral, providing the core for the fixing nail. became effective weapons to scare, It glues multiple tubes together to produce disorientate and wound an enemy. the multishot cakes and barrage fireworks so popular today. Wood found its place in the spikes used to secure small fireworks in the ground, in the From wooden bases in mortar tubes and supports for ornate machines (elaborate mines, through to the heavy stakes used to constructions over which the fireworks secure mortars for the safe firing of shells, performed, they were popular from the 17th wood has been an integral part of fireworks to 19th century) and in set-piece fireworks, including large wheels, bouquets and fans. It also makes the stick of the rocket.

In addition, being forgiving, responsive and non-sparking, wood became the core material of the manufacturing apparatus of fireworks. It finds use in almost every tube forming, powder ramming and star making machine, as well as in the hand tools with which fireworks are still mostly made.

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Although rarely seen on consumer fireworks, string is important in the production of aerial shells. Wrapped around the inner card walls, string provides the projectile with sufficient strength to survive the blast from the mortar, and to hold the structure in shape to give the best burst pattern. It also constrains the explosion of the shell for a few milliseconds to increase the bursting pressure and help shape the effect.

Another common pyrotechnic use of string sees cotton string coated with a slurry of glue and fine black-powder. When dried and then lit, the coated string burns to make a useful, if somewhat unpredictable fuse called black match. By encasing the black match used to fire shells from their mortars, and to string inside a narrow tube of glued paper, ignite multi part fireworks, such as shapes, the contained flame flashes with great speed waterfalls and messages. Quick match gives through the bore. This is quick match and is the pyrotechnician the ability to fire, in quick succession, many clusters or lines of fireworks, producing volleys, barrages, or the fury of a display finalé. Although still in common use, electric ignition and plastic igniter cord is beginning to replace quick match in the toolbox of the firework display.

Dry impacted clay seals the ends of tubes, and when driven into a solid plug around a central spindle, produces the heat-resistant washer shaped choke of rockets, and for powerful fountains known as gerbs. In the same manner it makes drivers, which are small rockets used as motors to turn larger wheels and novelty fireworks.

With these simple and common materials, the firework maker can create every type of firework. The cases, supports and arrangement work together to shape and harness the carefully blended chemicals, creating a vast range of patterns and effects.

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Purple is another colour easily produced in modern compositions - those based on ammonium perchlorate instead of potassium nitrate. Copper and strontium compounds, in suitable proportions, produce a mixture of blue and red light, giving various shades of purple.

Antimony sulphide, with sulphur and During the 20th century, pyrotechnic potassium nitrate, makes white, but for a chemists turned to spectroscopy and high- really brilliant white, use a mixture that temperature chemistry to gain a better includes barium nitrate and powdered understanding of the production of coloured aluminium. Adding fine particles of metallic flames. Coloured light is emitted by various aluminium, to a carefully adjusted mixture hot gases in the flame. The art and science of of mealed gunpowder, potassium nitrate, coloured flames, lies in optimizing the sulphur and antimony sulphide, produces a mixture of chemicals in the firework lovely shimmering silver glitter. composition, to generate the right gases in the flame to produce the desired colour. For gold sparks, add fine iron filings to a simple gunpowder mixture. This is what produces the sparkle of the sparkler. Gold Here is a list of the main colours of the firework spectrum, and the gases that produce them: streamers, found in some graceful golden Red: Strontium monochloride. Orange-red: Strontium monohydroxide, calcium monochloride. Orange: Calcium monohydroxide. Yellow: Sodium vapour. Green: Barium monochloride, barium monohydroxide, copper monohydroxide, boron dioxide. Blue: Copper monochloride. White: Barium monoxide.

Blue was once a very difficult colour to produce in fireworks, but in recent times chemistry has come to the rescue and now several copper compounds make good blues, in combination with suitable oxidisers, fuels and chlorine donors. Beautiful blues come from mixtures based around ammonium perchlorate, the same oxidiser used in the solid rocket boosters of the Space Shuttle and other launch vehicles. This chemical is both an excellent oxidiser and chlorine donor, and is perfect for making copper monochloride blue.

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rocket tails and breathtaking willow shells, are made by adding lamp black (essentially pure soot) to the mixture. Although horribly filthy to handle, this material produces some of the most beautiful of all firework effects. Fireworks produce oohs and ahhs, but only a few can produced a stunned silence, and the willow shells fall into this category. This is why they often close a display, their tendrils slowly falling through the smoke of the previous shells to leave the audience entranced. Next time you see this effect, remember it is due to the clever use of soot. material creates a series of small but rapidly If you like noisy, bright, crackling sparks, occurring explosions that resonate within the then add particles of magnalium, a firework container to create the sound. magnesium-aluminium alloy, to the mixture. Exactly why, and how, this happens is still a To create a whistle, pyrotechnists use the mystery. The musical note drops in pitch as intriguing burning characteristics of sodium the mixture burns away, so increasing the salicylate. When burned with a suitable resonating air column, the firework tube oxidiser, the cyclic decomposition of this acting like a tiny organ pipe.

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fountains

ountains are the simplest and purest form Fof firework, and were among those first perfected in the early days of the pyrotechnic art. They are usually cylindrical, with either short squat tubes or long thin tubes, and make use of metal rich mixtures to produce plumes of sparks and twinkles. Another form of fountain uses a thin walled conical case, and creates the ever-popular volcano in all their multitude of names and sizes. Restricted at the mouth or left fully open, fountains produce showers, plumes or jets of coloured fire and sparks. They can last a few gentle seconds, or a whole noisy minute and can produce a few inches of lazy, floating flame, or a roaring jet of sparks many metres tall. By adding larger metal particles to the core compound, halos of beautiful bursting sparks will create a firefly effect, or points of brilliant floating white to make a snowstorm. By adding tiny pellets of colour fire compound (the same material used to make the stars in a rocket or shell burst), little balls of coloured light appear within the sparks, tumbling out to create a lovely effect.

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Roman candles

aking the form of long narrow tubes, Tthey fire single or multiple stars into the air, one after the other with a small pop each time. The stars consist of solid pellets of colour or trailing fire composition, and are exactly the same as those found in mines, rockets and shells. The stars are fired from the tube using the gun principle, with a short delay added between each successive shot.

Candles vary enormously in their effect, and so too in their size. Some are tiny, with barely the power to send a star above the level of an upstairs window, while others are several inches in diameter, a metre in length and project a series of small shells into the air.

Beyond simple coloured stars or long-tailed comets, they can also let loose brilliant searchlight stars, mini shells, bangs, hummers or whistles.

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mines

ometimes called a Jack-in-the-Box when Ssmall, the garden variety of this simple firework consists of a wide, squat tube containing a small bursting charge of gunpowder and an assortment of stars and effects. Often, a small fountain or Roman candle fires first, to delay the final burst. If so, the first few seconds appear unspectacular until, with a loud startling bang, they blow their main contents into the sky in a wide bouquet, which might contain small air-bombs, whistles or serpents.

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wheels

epresented by a few distinct types, these Rever-popular fireworks include the pinwheels, also known as Catherine Wheels. One of the most ubiquitous and popular of all fireworks, they are often little more than a few turns of paper tube, filled with a gunpowder-type composition and wrapped around a small central disk. When lit, they spin vigorously for a few seconds in a ring of fluffy fire before slowing to a stop, leaving a scorched circle on the surface where nailed.

More powerful spinning fireworks turn A third type of turning device consists of a through the power of small rocket motors rapidly burning gunpowder mix that fires called drivers. Fixed to card or wooden base, from its container not by the end, as would a they rotate rapidly around a central fixing. rocket, but through a hole bored into the side Small wheels can carry two or three drivers, of the casing. With a nail fixed through the while the larger wheels might contain device at right-angles to the emitted jet, multiple drivers, with two or more firing at these fireworks, called saxons, will spin to once for extra push. Some of these wheels remarkable speeds in the centre of can even slow, stop, and reverse their spectacular roaring disks of colour and direction with the firing of rearward facing sparks. drivers, adding an element of surprise to the performance. Driver propelled wheels can be truly monstrous in scale, with some Maltese festival wheels measuring over 10 metres in diameter, with wheels turning within wheels and all spinning entirely under their own pyrotechnic thrust

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rockets

hese are the most exciting and Tspectacular of all retail fireworks. They are also a very old firework type, being one of the first developed, unfortunately as a weapon of war rather than an item of entertainment. Stabilised with a long wooden stick, at their simplest they consist of a narrow and strong tube with one end sealed and the other restricted, or choked. This narrow nozzle forces the escaping gases to accelerate away from the rocket, producing a force in the opposite direction, the force sufficient to lift the rocket free from the ground. Rockets can be tiny, some so small they ride aloft in the heads of larger rockets were, on release, they dash away like demented tadpoles. They can also be enormous, carrying huge shell bursts to astonishing heights.

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shells

hese are one of the most important Ttypes of firework, and are, by far, the most spectacular of all display fireworks. Fired from strong tubes called mortars, they rise into the air before exploding with a loud bang, throwing stars, comets and noisemakers into the sky. Whether they be cylindrical or spherical in shape, they make all the chrysanthemums, peonies, willows, palms, spiders, circles and other patterns seen in sky above any large display. Aerial shells can be as small as 25mm in diameter, but have been as large as a metre.

In typical shows, the shells range from 75mm to 200mm in diameter, although it is not uncommon to have 250mm and 300mm shells used as a final burst to round off the largest displays. The largest shell available, off-the-shelf, measures in at a whopping 600mm (24-inches) in diameter, weighs more than 100 kilograms and explodes 600 metres in the air with a final spread of stars nearly half a kilometre across. Quite impressive when you consider the monstrous projectile is entirely handmade using just paper, card, glue and string.

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other types

parklers: The only handheld firework Snow permitted for sale in the UK, after the banning of handheld fountains and rains. These simple little fireworks, consisting of a metal wire dipped into a slurry of pyrotechnic mixture, produce a small radiance of beautiful crackling sparks after lighting. Iron filings produce the most beautiful branching golden sparks, and fine aluminium and titanium make white sparks. They are the firework that most engages the user, and are therefore largely responsible for introducing each generation to the magic of pyrotechnics.

ance-work: These are the fire pictures Land good night messages often seen at large displays. They consist of patterned wooden frames covered with hundreds of individual little fireworks called lances, all linked with quick match to catch fire at once. They can be sessile, as in a portrait or message, or mobile, making dancing skeletons, or aliens who raise an arm to fire a Roman candle ray gun. Each individual lance is a thin walled fire composition about 100mm long by 10mm wide. They come in many colours and will burn for 30 to 40 seconds.

aterfalls: These consist of long ropes Wfrom which dangle titanium or other metal rich fountains. The fireworks hang upside down to produce a long waterfall-like cascade of sparks. The cases can also hang on their own short lengths of string, slung beneath the main span, in which case the slightest breeze will give a swaying curtain effect to the waterfall. In the right location, these are among the most hauntingly beautiful of all pyrotechnics effects.

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the lost fireworks

Beyond these basic fireworks types, and much of the never-ending battle between the those restricted to professional use only, yin and yang of fireworks; the struggle there are also the items now restricted in the between the freedom to enjoy, sometimes UK because of their erratic and supposedly with a degree of risk, and the need to control dangerous nature. These missing types and restrict without question. Among the include many of the most popular and fondly fireworks now missing from Guy Fawkes remembered of all fireworks. This tells Night are the following:-

angers: The playful mischief-makers Bbeloved of boys, and a nuisance to many, they began their little performance with a short fizzing fuse delay followed by a loud bang. They were at their best in alleys and under bridges, and were often a rite of passage when growing up. Your first banger. Despite undergoing a series of downgrades in size and noise throughout the years, they made their final echo at the end of the nineties.

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ir Bombs: Single shot noise-making ARoman candles, these small and once popular fireworks were recent casualties to noise and nuisance controls. Pushed into the ground on their brightly coloured plastic spike, they produced a small fountain of flame and sparks, which ended with an abrupt thump. A small projectile would fly into the air to burst overhead with a loud and brilliant electric blue flash. They were withdrawn from sale as recently as 2004.

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umping Jacks: Known as rip raps or JEnglish crackers. Removed from the shelves by 1972, these old fireworks were the most unusual in outward appearance, being a snakelike zigzag of narrow, gunpowder filled pipe, bound with string or tape. After lighting, they would fizz, bounce, leap and spin in all directions, amid a rapid series of small bangs. Great fun, and greatly missed, but not for the fainthearted.

quibs, flying squibs, serpents, demons Sand fliers: Squibs were small, thin fountians (sometimes called rains) often with a gunpowder bang, or bounce, at the end. Flying squibs and serpents were effectively small stick-less rockets, which would shoot erratically across the ground with a tail of golden sparks. They flew for their last time in 1960s.

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FO's, Flying Saucers, Helicopters and UAirplanes: Also called tourbillions, from the French word for whirlwind, these once popular little fireworks, complete with their cardboard wings, would spin up from the ground, rising with a loud swishing sound. They too flew no more after 1972 - a year that would prove a poor one for firework lovers.

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the makers

Words are only painted fire; a look is the fire itself. Mark Twain

irework makers are a unique type of Of course, not all fireworks are perfect. person. They are unlike most other There are duds in the box, and pathetic ones Fbusiness leaders, in that very few barely worth the value of their paper people have ever started a firework factory wrapping. There are those with the with the prime purpose of making money. If promising name that burn with an insipid, money is your wish, then the manufacture of short-lived flame of disappointment. And fireworks is not for you. In the history of there have been injuries too, many of them, British firework makers, one trait is and tragic accidents both through their use apparent, and it is their almost childlike love and during their tricky manufacture. There of fireworks. They became firework makers has, however, by way of balance, been an because they liked watching fireworks, enormous amount of sheer fun, pure handling them, talking about them and excitement and a rich food for the designing displays to best show them. imagination in their centuries of performing Firework makers are entertainers who make for us on special occasions. A pinwheel their own props. They make the props, spinning on the fence. A beautiful fountain design the show and turn the night sky into of gold. The magic of the firework maker's their theatre. Beginning in the medieval alchemy revealed in the pop and deep colour period, the European fire-masters in Italy, of a Roman candle star. That a small rocket Germany, France, Spain and here in Britain, can rise from a garden is a visceral wonder lived to entertain an appreciative and ever to behold. A short stick and a cardboard tube hungry audience. From the formal displays possessed with the ability to take to the air of the 17th and 18th centuries, to the with the touch of a flame, the flight drawing spectacular choreographed aerial displays of others to look when the light catches the modern times, entertainment and thrill has corner of their eye. This is why people love led the way before the sole pursuit of wealth. fireworks, and it is the reason why those who choose to make them, do.

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Another interesting quality found in firework makers, arises from their apparent insularity. Once supplied with the raw materials and chemicals, they often became fully self-sufficient, with their tube making, designing, typesetting, printing, packaging, marketing and delivery all conducted from within the factory, with little or no outside help.

When people remember the wonderful designs of the fireworks from their youth, they are recalling the creativity of the firework makers, not the intense deep thinking of a design bureau with their touchy-feely market research programs and mood sheets. The names, designs and artwork came from within the factory, from the hand of the worker, and for this reason old fireworks provide us today with an insight into the mind of the worker, and a flavour of their time. Their unique artwork has reflected the events and fashions of the day. They have captured the atomic age, space flight, war, the colours of the sixties and the seventies, and have reflected nearly every contemporary art movement.

Firework factories are unlike the stereotypical factory of the imagination - the monolithic building with offices at one end, a chimney at the other and the processes of manufacture occurring beneath the main span of the roof. Owing to the inherent dangers involved with handling explosive, flammable and often poisonous materials, firework factories scattered themselves across green fields. They consist of many individual small huts and sheds, where the specific stages of

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manufacture occur. The buildings are usually of a wooden construction, and loosely assembled so that, in the unfortunate event of an explosion, the building quickly breaks apart to help dissipate the blast. Wide spaces separate the individual buildings, so ensuring that an explosion cannot initiate sympathetic blasts in neighbouring huts. Sometimes tall blast walls lie between the buildings, while in other places the generous width of the open grass and connecting paths are enough to limit the spread of the destruction, should it come.

The safety measures at the factory go much and keys, coins, jewellery and watches are further than merely the spacing of the all banned. They will sometimes wear buildings, and the choice of wall and roof overshoes to prevent stones, trapped in the material. Workers remove metal objects soles of their shoes, from striking sparks on from their clothes and body before entering, the powder-dusted floors. Beside the entrances are earthing plates, there to dissipate static electricity generated by the worker's clothing. And, as an additional safety measure, individual huts will have specific tasks, with certain chemicals being kept in separate buildings, for some will react violently if mixed by accident.

Beyond the short-term predictable cycle of the working day, the factories followed a yearlong cycle, aiming their output for a single night of the year, and the hectic sales and delivery window of October. This cyclic process continued year after year, generation after generation, and all the while with very little appearing to change. The factories barely changed across the years, as did their basic product. Taken in their naked tubular form, fireworks appear identical across the decades. They are nothing but dull greyish-brown tubes with a plug at one end and a fuse at the other. To the

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Roman candle maker or fountain maker in their numbered shed, only the labels and the changing methods of fusing have marked the evolution of the firework. Whether it is a Silver Fountain or an Electric Storm, the tube appears the same, and it will take the same number of steps to roll, plug, fill, tamp and fuse the naked firework, before it receives its label and its identity. As basic bare card tubes, fireworks have remained unchanged for centuries.

The 20th century saw the heyday of the British firework industry, reaching a peak employment of around 10,000 workers in factories spread throughout the land. With the changes in social attitudes of the 1960s, including the raised perception of safety and nuisance, the factories and their supporting communities began to feel the pressure as fireworks came under attack. First to go were the erratic or unpredictable fireworks, removed from the back gardens between 1968 and 1972. Then, from the end of the 1970s, the supply of small single item fireworks began to decline, the consumer left with only selection boxes for the traditional small garden variety.

Fireworks have been available in priced selection boxes since before the 1920s, but from the 1980s onward, the consumer has had no choice but accept the maker's selection for an evening's entertainment. This has profoundly changed the appearance of the retail sales display, and helped remove a little of the magic from the season. From the 1970s onward, increased insurance costs, safety legislation, the wage-price inflation cycle, the rising price of raw materials, and the arrival of cheap imported fireworks from

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Malaysia and China, have conspired to send the industry into a decline. By the start of the 1990s, the decline had become terminal. The factories closed and the huts were disassembled or left to rot. The communities lost an employer and Britain, as a whole, lost the skills, imagination and heart to keep Guy Fawkes' Night its own. Today, our fireworks are almost all supplied by China.

Will firework making return to the United carried firework adverts, colouring the Kingdom? I think the answer is yes; one day it autumn with their imagination and promise, will. The desire and interest goes deep, and and taking over the shops to making late given the chance there are many to whom the October and early November their own. challenge of building a new British-made firework brand might prove a delicious What follows is nowhere near a complete list temptation. Should there be a turnaround in of all the companies involved in producing the Chinese economy, or should their export fireworks in Britain during the last century. prices rise through internal inflation or trade- Many names appeared and disappeared war tariffs, then perhaps the hunger we have without making any lasting impression on the in Britain for fireworks will see our own industry, their brands now recalled through a production base reborn. single old firework found in a collection. Many of the companies, including the largest, Although most of the manufacturers kept few detailed records other than their mix represented here have long since vanished, recipes and ingredients - their well-guarded their names now stand mute witness to a time books of secrets. This means today we have when thousands of men and women found very little with which to rebuild their image, employment making and selling these unusual other than the fireworks now residing in seasonal goods. They capture a period of private collections, and the labels and posters unique industrial and retail history. A time in scrapbooks. In brief, here are some of the when newspapers, comics and television ghosts of the British firework industry . . .

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Many other firework companies have important to preserve and study. Although existed beyond those listed here. Some left many fields of industry have grown and hardly any a trace of their existence, their declined over the years, only a few have name only an intriguing entry in an old almost vanished without a trace. The British business directory, or a brief mention in a firework industry has the dubious honour of local newspaper of the time. For many a nearly doing so. But for the dedicated company, all that now remains to mark the enthusiasts, and their collections of effort, skill and energy of the workers, are a ephemera and old fireworks, there would be few labels and posters, price lists and precious little to show now of this once brochures. This is why these otherwise sizeable industry, and of the colour it lent to inconsequential bits of paper and card are so the weeks leading up to the Fifth.

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culture

Now Autumn's fire burns slowly along the woods and day by day the dead leaves fall and melt. William Allingham

uch like hearing the season's first the night has largely come about since the cuckoo, there comes a time in each Victorian era. Before then, the annual Myear when the fireworks make firework displays given to the public, in their return. Whether it is Bastille Day in large staged events, were most often France, Independence Day in the USA, the associated with commemorating great Indian festival of lights, Diwali, or a host of victories in war, or royal events and other festivals and celebrations across the birthdays. The shift of fireworks, away from planet, the reasons and excuses for fireworks the hands of the professionals and into the are many and easy to find. Fireworks are hands of the people, has less to do with the harbingers of a characteristic time in the Gunpowder Plot than it has commerce, calendar, particularly so in Britain where marketing and the lively competition of the they take possession of the autumn to give it firework makers. a scent, sound and mist all of their own. After the repeal of the original Observance What is remarkable about our annual night of 5th of November Act, in 1859, Guy of firework celebration is that we have it at Fawkes Night stood alone. Unprotected by all. The simplistic idea that our modern official statute, its fate depended on public Firework Night is solely with us to opinion, and whether they wished to keep commemorate the Gunpowder Plot, is wide the fiery traditions alive or let them die. As of the truth. For a long time, November the we know, the night did not become silent and Fifth was not the primary night of annual still, for when it fell to the people to continue firework celebration in Britain. Fireworks the tradition, it also fell to the manufacturers saw use on the Fifth, but their dominance on to help them with the task.

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By pure coincidence, removing Gunpowder Treason Day from the calendar of anniversaries, coincided with the seismic shift in the gunpowder industry brought about by the introduction of smokeless powder and new blasting and military explosives. Without the demand from the armed forces and civil industry, the ball- mills of the gunpowder works would have fallen silent but for them finding a new and hungry consumer for their product. With its greater availability, and with the government's coffers closed, gunpowder's wholesale price began to fall. On the back of the cheap gunpowder came cheaper fireworks, and thus the growth of the back garden firework display; a vast market compared with the established display companies. With the cheap fireworks and the growing demands of the retail marketplace, came a flourish of new firework companies, the first three decades of the 20th century seeing a vast increase in the number of manufacturers. metal salts brought richer colours and a This increase in the number of wider spectrum of effects. The supply of manufacturers saw an increase in more product required more outlets, and this competition, and the competition in turn tied in well with the growth in number of fuelled the introduction of more product small retailers, then emerging within the lines and a greater innovation in the art and expanding suburbs. Toyshops, tobacconists, science of fireworks. New chemicals and general stores and newsagents, they all sought another range of seasonal goods to sell, this one filling the void between summer and Christmas. This competition in turn drove a dynamic growth in the marketing of fireworks, giving rise to much loved comic and newspaper advertising, and a colourful and inventive High Street presence. Late October saw the firework poster emerge among the confectionery signs, its brilliance shining in the otherwise drab autumn surroundings, the vibrant labels and shapes pouring a unique light into the lengthening evenings.

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As part of their marketing ploy, the firework industry helped create the modern image of Guy Fawkes, giving him a flourish and a wicked, knowing grin, while isolating his image from any vestigial connotations of religion-inspired mass murder. The industry sterilised the treasonous origins of the night, leaving an evening of fun. Few questioned the meaning behind it all.

This drawing in of children to the event, making it a family occasion, The firework companies' smartest move was also had the benefit of changing the nature of to target children directly, by making the the night as seen by the wider public. No advertising exciting, and by appealing to longer was Guy Fawkes Night a time of young eyes with mind-boggling names and drunken youths and latent menace. It thrilling images. Pester-power is nothing became instead a children's day and a family new. And although children where not night; the only nationwide nonreligious and allowed to buy the product, they did become unofficial celebration of the year. Firework the prime market and the most willing Night offered an evening of noisy fun and supporters of both the firework industry and wide-eyed wonder, in an otherwise quiet of the resurgent Firework Night. quarter of the calender, with Hallowe'en then having a far lower profile than it does today.

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Before their physical arrival in the shops, would gather to assess any additions that fireworks first returned to the conscience of year joining their favourites - those children, boys in particular, and did so fireworks already assigned a place in the within a matter of weeks after the start of wish-list for the night. In the post-war school in September. By October, on the heyday of the industry, firework shops had walk home from school, or when out with the unerring ability to attract children, much the family, their eyes turned towards the like cider attracts wasps in a pub garden in counters and windows of their local firework late summer. The poster-bedazzled windows sellers, waiting with impatience for the of the shops glowed like lighthouses, telltale clearing away of the summer goods. drawing the attention of a child when A space beneath the counter meant only one passing in the car or by bus. And there were thing in October: the fireworks were on their simply never too many firework shops to way. Then, once the fountains, rockets and visit and ogle, even if the pockets were not wheels were back beneath the glass, children as deep as one would have liked.

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The cost of fireworks has always been a primary consideration. They are handmade, use rare materials and sell within a limited period of the year. These considerations showed in their price, certainly when associated with a quality manufacturer. Cheap in fireworks is never good. Cheap means either short-lived and feeble, or unreliable and feeble. Most often it means both.

For children, the cost of fireworks, should no parent or other generous adult be willing to pay, has always been the bane of the season. For most children, they faced three choices in acquiring their fireworks, should their parents be unwilling. They could either save their pocket money, resisting all the ice creams and footballs of summer, or they could build a Guy and cadge small change outside the shops. As a third option, they might have joined a firework club, run by the retailer, where the child might save their spare pennies they made good commercial sense for the throughout the year for the buying of their retailers. The clubs helped build a loyalty with bangers, rip-raps and rockets when the time the shop, and guaranteed firework sales to the came. Firework clubs were common during parents of the children, who often cluttered the the middle portion of the 20th century, and shops for days without otherwise buying anything.

By the 1980s, the firework clubs were all but forgotten, so too the extensive shop displays. Storage restrictions and the reduction in length of the sales period from six weeks to four, and then down to the present fortnight, meant the appeal of selling fireworks soon waned. So did the effort of decorating the shop for such a short spell, compared with summer, Easter and Christmas goods. Where once a retailer might bedeck several cabinets, and have imaginative displays of giant dummy fireworks and fascinating firework boards, now a single poster in the shop window and a small area beneath the counter will suffice. The loss of the shop displays, foreshadowed the eventual loss of fireworks from the seasonal product range of most small local shops. It is rare to see fireworks on sale

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in newsagents today, or in small independent toyshops. High Street firework shops do spring up, but they are often in disused retail units, where a temporary seller throws together a rough display area, sells for a fortnight, and then closes down to leave the shop empty for Christmas.

The High Street selling of fireworks dwindled in lockstep with the changes taking place to many local newsagents and toy shops. These changes have resulted in a shift both in the number of outlets, and in their importance within their local community. In recent times many newsagents have closed. Others have become small general stores, themselves having since suffered under the overpowering influence of the supermarket chains.

One aspect of this loss of fireworks, from the small shops, is the sad fact that few people thought to record the shop's transitory retail displays. If images of the shop windows and counters do exist, taken perhaps by a shopkeeper, proud of that year's decoration, then these images await discovery, tucked away in old filing cabinets or perhaps in an attic. Along with the discovery of pristine After selecting the fireworks, the next stage fireworks, these are the ultimate reward of of the experience began with their intimate those who today wish to record the lost examination once home. In the past this industry and its appealing mercantile face. meant appreciating their artwork - the often over-the-top decoration of items intended for burning and disposal. In a manner similar to confectionery goods, fireworks once wore highly appealing and attractive labels. A single little banger arrived dressed with a two or three-colour label, some with simple text based designs, but others with intricately detailed scenes. Because of their full-wrap artwork, examining the firework became an integral part of the experience in the days before their use.

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For a century and a half, garden fireworks have brought the magic and alchemy of pyrotechnics to the heart of childhood. Seeing fireworks perform is only half of the experience. Holding them and understanding their form is the other. To handle the firework brings the end user and the maker into direct contact. The previous hands to touch the firework may well have belonged to the person who assembled it, or completed the last of its many stages. There is an inherent charm visible in the slight inaccuracies and variations found in handmade fireworks. There to see are the misaligned and misprinted labels, the crooked sticks and glue marks, all details unimaginable in confectionery or mass- produced toys. These errors trace the fingers of the maker, rather than the repetitive, accuracy of a machine. This is what makes them so appealing and also, sometimes, examination, the instructions tumbled unpredictable. through the fingers, once as part of the label design, but today in plain yellow text boxes. And through holding and examining the Not to be held. Not to be thrown. Light at fireworks, the titles and warning texts took arm's length and stand well back. The on greater meaning. The names and artwork firework warnings, seen through a child's fired the imagination, and the stark warnings eyes, helped prepare the way for life's other helped turn the card tubes into potent written warnings and codes of conduct and devices, the mind filling with a fabrication safety. Do not drink and drive, or do not of what they might do when lit. Under swim when the red flags are raised.

The visual appeal of the labels produced another interesting effect. They made some children wish to collect the spent fireworks after their brief performance, squirreling them away before their parents threw the smelly, sulphurous and soot blackened tubes in the bin. For many children, the tail-end joy of firework night came during the days afterwards, in the streets and open areas, collecting fallen rockets and the tubes of spent bangers. This childhood collecting bug has had important repercussions, for it led

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some to begin a lifelong passion for After the weeks of build-up, the talk with collecting firework related materials. We friends, the excitement of the shops and the must today thank these people for having the quiet examination of the bought fireworks, foresight to preserve the evidence of the lost along came the night itself. For many, time firework industry, when at its most dynamic slowed on the Fifth, the day dragging, and and best. Without the collectors, little would the wait until darkness stretching ahead with remain to show of the industry or its retail a yawning vastness. Throughout the and social heritage, for as previously afternoon, whether spent at home or school, mentioned, the makers themselves kept few a churning expectancy rose, welcoming the records and they kept hardly any examples twilight to listen for the first sounds of the of their products. There are no official night. The distant boom of an air bomb or collections or archives of their designs, and the crackle of an early fountain, one lit to it is near but impossible now to place a name appease childish impatience, or to fit within against any individual artwork. Thankfully, the bedtime routine of the littlest. As the however, through a dedicated handful of night deepened, alert ears listened out for the people, and the rare survival of fireworks in rush of a rocket, the pop of a Roman candle, the storerooms of old shops, enough items the fizz of a fountain, or just the unusual have remained to help trace a picture of our sound of so many people out on the streets at pyrotechnic past. night, children included.

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torch, a hammer for the pinwheel, and waterproof boots for the wet grass of the local park. The fireworks are the artefacts, and the tradition of the night passes orally from one generation to the next, through the explanations, descriptions and nostalgic reflections of an earlier childhood experience. We never ask why, nor search for the deeper meaning behind our actions. We do it because we want to, and because we wish for our children to experience the magic of the moment as once we did.

The lore of the Fifth stays well hidden The procession of families, all converging behind its noise and celebration. Whether on a central place where fireworks and in the quiet of a garden, or out among a perhaps a bonfire await, is a lovely modern crowd in the park, there are few who will reflection of the original Celtic fire stand in the glow of the display and thinks of processions, themselves converging on the Guy Fawkes, or of an ancient autumn spirit central spirit-ridding pyre. This night time festival. There is nothing now to reflect on or journey, towards a common place of celebrate on November the Fifth, nothing gathering, is one of the many aspects of the other than the fireworks and the bonfires, folklore of Firework Night. and the active tradition itself. We are taken by the sense of cosy civic involvement - our The lore of the night envelopes its instinctive need to be a part of something participants like the night's familiar ghostly greater, and to experience it with others. All mist; a vaporous shroud, formed by the other meanings have long since lost their coalescence of moisture around the smoke of relevance in our modern lives. countless bonfires and fountains in the cold damp November air. The modern night Despite the lamentable decline in the retail echoes it Celtic origin, and has its storybook presence of fireworks, plus the near total legend in Guy Fawkes. It has the ceremony loss of the British firework industry, Guy of setting up and lighting the fireworks, plus Fawkes Night remains a popular institution the yearly ritual of finding batteries for the in the United Kingdom. Our desire to

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celebrate with fireworks at other times shows little sign of decline too. Fireworks are one of the best ways to make people turn off their televisions and computers, and head out into the night. People will travel great distances to see large displays, and this past year saw billions watch through their televisions as fireworks mourned the dying of the Olympic flame over London. This is the key to their longevity and success. In every country in the world, different people view fireworks through the same eyes. There is no musical taste in fireworks, no language barrier and no narrowing of mind through changing fashion and trend. Fireworks appear and mean the same to everyone, and have done so throughout noise will lessen the spectacle. The designs their long history, and it is through the and materials of firework shows may have professional firework display where this changed through their evolution, from the mass appeal is most apparent. simple to the technological, but the principle has remained the same. Light, colour, From the earliest origins of fireworks, sparks, movement, illuminated smoke and people have used them to entertain others. noise; these are the standard palette of They are a cost-effective and highly capable fireworks, and only their relative ratio has form of mass entertainment. A firework changed across the centuries. We no longer display is visible to hundreds of thousands of build vast the wooden fabrications of the people across a wide area, unlike a big 17th and 18th centuries, but we do, however, screen or stage where distance and crowd still organise displays in a set order.

Starting with an impressive opening burst to gain attention, the display will then pass through a series of different themed sections, often spaced with flights of rockets and aerial shells. Fountain sections, walls of Roman candles stars and comets, a section with wheels and set pieces.

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The display will have barrages of bangs, Interestingly, since the decline of the British whistles and hummers, there to make the firework making industry, we have seen an smallest in the audience whimper. Then, at expansion in the number of professional and the end, there will come the inevitable high quality display companies. A great onslaught of the finalé. Get the finalé right, number have come into formation during the and the entire crowd will depart thinking past twenty years, and mirror the growth in they have just witnessed the best ever popularity of fireworks for events other than firework display. But skimp on the finalé, those on November the Fifth. Today, there and you may find yourself without an are around three hundred or more companies invitation to return the following year. Either listed in the UK as offering designed way, the point is this, although the firework displays. Many specialise in technology has changed beyond belief, and corporate events, weddings and birthdays, the chemistry of fireworks has given us but many others have the means to organise fabulous rich colours and breathtaking the largest public firework events, such as effects, the basic structure of a display those seen at New Year over the Thames in remains the same. This is because the London, or famously above the castle walls fireworks have themselves remained the in Edinburgh. same. Candles, fountains, comets, mines, wheels, set-pieces, rockets and shells - these dependable brushes paint every display, no matter the location, cost or scale.

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Using modern technology, firework displays today operate with near military precision, their firing cues scripted with the intricate care of a theatrical lighting plan. Modern displays often match the beat of a musical soundtrack - although I must admit I prefer the natural sound of the fireworks, rather than a distorted medley of cheesy rock ballads, naff pop songs and ill-chosen movie themes. I like to hear the bang, whiz, hiss and crackle of the firework maker's art, rather than the cacophony of a song arriving from several speaker stacks at once.

Music aside, by using the exquisite of a computer. Hidden from you are the fine professional fireworks now available, and wires, wireless relays and the flash of using them with electric ignition and ignition from small electric igniters, buried computer fire-control sequencers, we have deep within the composition of the the privilege today to witness the best fireworks. These are our modern gifts to the firework displays ever given. Few can argue ancient art of pyrotechnics, and through otherwise. We may now witness the most them we have gifted the art an entirely new exquisite chases, mine walls, timed shell palette. bursts, and choreographed candle stars and traceries of interweaving comets, all of This said, it is also the case that a little of the which are near impossible to achieve magic of being the fire-worker has gone. through manual firing. When you see a chase Today the operatives still dig and stake and of comets rise above Sydney Harbour tie. They still spend the day outdoors in the Bridge, or run the height of the Eiffel Tower, elements, their fingers sometimes raw and or form an expanding halo around the numb. But now they may link wires and London Eye, you are witnessing the output connect electronic relays, instead of taping down a fuse in a place an outstretched arm may reach. They check for electrical continuity, rather than check if anyone has a match to light the first portfire. And now, when ready, they take their place like spectators and watch a computer get to play. But there is nothing like being in the middle of a large firework display. There is nothing like standing inside a swirl of sparks, wondering whether you should light a bouquet of 20mm candles next, or a touch a flame to the quick-match fuse of a wheel perched way above your head. That is when the magic of the firework maker, one’s inner child and the thrilled adult all come together.

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What therefore of the future of Firework As for fireworks themselves, they are safe Night and of fireworks? For the former, the while we still find the desire to experience future is unclear. The steady growth in their entertainment and excitement. We live popularity of our modern Hallowe'en, driven in an age where we can digitally reproduce by its North American influence and plastic anything, bringing dinosaurs back to the big mass-produced commercialism, may yet screen, and gladiators and space battles. We sway the fortune of the Fifth. We may see a can produce three-dimensional images and future merging of the events, with families create sounds so pure they bring tears to our and local authorities combining their annual eyes, but we will never, ever, be able to firework display with a lantern festival or reproduce a firework display. Fireworks can spooky get-together. Maybe we are only exist in the real world where the viewer beginning to see the fading of November the senses them to the full. For this reason Fifth as an observed event. It will be ironic if fireworks, now well into their second the light and flames of Guy Fawkes Night millennium, will remain a part of our world. return to join the Jack-o'-lanterns and It is in our nature to demand then. We have wandering spirits of October 31st, the day taken them out of their box and can never that began it all three thousand years earlier. put them back. Each firework captures the But while the autumnal fires of Albion still moment when the alchemic past reaches out burn, then it matters not if they flicker on to remind us of a purer pleasure, one born of one night or two. It matters only that they light and noise and one that triggers our remain alight for future generations to enjoy. ancient, instinctive fascination with fire.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank all those who contributed in their different ways to the making of this book.

Firstly, I would like to thank the photographers and photographic services for allowing me the use of their images. Their generosity matches their talent. (I detail the contributors in the next section.)

I would also like to thank the firework collectors, John Bennett, Colin Searle, and the late Nick Sampford, for their generosity in allowing me access to their important collections. So too Stan Johnstone, for letting me photograph a portion of his lovely collection, and for keeping me abreast with his fascinating acquisitions. Without their help and dedication, this book, and my previous one, would be a lot shorter.

Thanks go to Simon Costin, at the Museum of British Folklore, for supplying images from the impressive collection of firework materials donated by Maurice Evans; Martin Weselby, for allowing me use of several wonderful advertisements collected on his website dedicated to old firework adverts; Fred Van De Geer at the Hampshire Museum and Archive Service, for allowing me access to the Pain's archive materials gathered by Mr. John Deeker; Laura Peters, at Black Cat Fireworks Ltd. for allowing me access to view and photograph the Standard Fireworks archive materials; Darryl Fleming at Kimbolton Fireworks Ltd. for allowing me the use of a wonderful image from one of the many impressive displays.

I would like to thank John Bennett, editor of Fireworks Magazine, for his valuable knowledge and for giving the rough draft a once-over to check for errors. Similar credit goes to Barry Sturman, for his checking of the chemical side of things.

Lastly, I must thank my wife, Monica, and son, Edward, for their patience in allowing me far too much time at the computer.

Thank you all

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Photo Credits

Each image entry consists of a page number, position, description and then source reference. All images remain the property of their respective photographers.

2 - Setting off fireworks - Bill Longshaw 4 - London 2012 Olympic Cauldron - Kulvinder Singh Matharu, www.metalvortex.com 7 - Sparks From Fire. - John Harvey, www.JohnHarveyPhoto.com 12 - John Bull magazine cover, 1954 - M.Fleming, 2013. Collection of the author 15 - Engraving of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators - public domain, processed by the author 16 - lower - Facsimile of the Monteagle Letter, 1605 - public domain, processed by the author 17 - upper - Guy Fawkes head on post, 1606 - public domain image, processed by the author 17 - lower - Lion Fireworks advertisement, 1953 - www.firework-ads.co.uk 18 - Lewes Bonfire Celebration, 2007 - Dominic Alves 19 - Penny for the Guy, portion of Astra Fireworks trade advert, 1965 - www.firework-ads.co.uk 23 - Guy Fawkes Night, Chirk, 1954 - Geoff Charles 28 - upper - The explosion of a banger - www.pureimaginary.com 28 - lower - Illustration of an early handgun, from Johann Hartlieb's Kriegsbuch, 1411 31 - Standard Advert, Tit-bits Magazine, November 5th, 1938 - collection of the author 32 - Wheels and jumping crackers - by author, 2013 33 - upper - Firework Temple at Vauxhall Gardens, 1845 33 - lower - Firework display on the River Elbe, 10 September 1719, Johann August Corvinus 34 - upper - Shell Burst - WParksGal-Stock, deviantART 35 - lower - Falling trails of willow shells - AreteStock, deviantART 37 - upper - Fountain Close Up - www.observare.it 37 - middle - Fountain fireworks - by author, 2013 38 - upper - Roman candle shots - Anita George, deviantART 38 - middle - Roman candle fireworks - by author, 2013 39 - upper - The eruption of a mine - Morguefile, www.morguefile.com 39 - middle - Mine fireworks - by author, 2013 40 - upper - Catherine Wheel - Peter Van Der Sluijs 40 - middle - Wheel fireworks - by author, 2013 41 - upper - The flight of a rocket - creative commons source 41 - middle - Rockets - by author, 2013 42 - top left - Shell burst - www.emilysimagery.com 42 - top middle - Shell burst - AreteStock, deviantART 42 - top right - Shell burst - AreteStock, deviantART 42 - centre left - Canfield Fireworks, 2009 - WDWParksGal Stock, deviantART 42 - centre middle - Shell burst - AreteStock, deviantART 42 - centre right - Canfield Fireworks, 2009 - WDWParksGal Stock, deviantART 42 - lower left - Shell burst - AreteStock, deviantART 42 - lower right - Shell burst - AreteStock, deviantART 43 - upper - Palm Shell - AreteStock, deviantART 43 - middle - 250mm round shell - Museum of British Folklore 43 - lower - Giant Shell Burst, 2005 Nagaoka Festival - Kropsoq 44 - upper - Sparkler - Gabriel Pollard

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44 - middle - Lancework - Morguefile 44 - lower - Fireworks and waterfall off Sydney Harbour Bridge - Morguefile 46 - Banger Boy. Tom Browne RA, for Boy's Own Magazine - Museum of British Folklore 47 - upper - Assorted bangers - by author, 2013 47 - lower - Discarded banger - by author, 2008 48 - upper - Airbomb burst - WDWParksGal Stock, deviantART 48 - middle - Single shot noise candles - by author, 2013 49 - English Jumping Crackers and Squib - by author, 2013 50 - upper - The take off of a UFO firework - James Glendinning, www.slephoto.com 50 - middle - Aeroplane and UFO fireworks - by author, 2013 51 - Original Wells' artwork by Fred Holman, 1930 - Hampshire Museum and Archive Service 52 - Firework Collection dating from 1948 - by author, 2006 54 - upper - Standard Fireworks Poster - Museum of British Folklore 54 - lower - Brock's Firework Factory, illustrated price list - by author, 2005 55 - upper - Inside the Small Fountain Shed, Standard Fireworks - Museum of British Folklore 55 - lower - James Pain & Sons price list cover - by author, 2005 56 - upper - Brock's Fireworks advertisement, 1931-32 - www.firework-ads.co.uk 56 - lower - Portion of Brocks illustrated price list - by author, 2005 83 - upper left - T.Hammond & Co. advertisement, 1902-03 - www.firework-ads.co.uk 83 - upper right - H.W.Darby advertisement, 1855 - www.firework-ads.co.uk 83 - middle right - Unico Sparklers Packet, circa 1948 - by author, 2005 83 - lower - Mersey Fireworks Box Lid, date unknown - by author, 2013 84 - Phoenix Fireworks poster - Hampshire Museum and Archive Service 85 - Standard Fireworks retail advertisement, 1977 - www.firework-ads.co.uk 88 - lower - Illustrated London News, Nov 8, 1851 - Museum of British Folklore 89 - upper - Original sketch for Standard advertisement, by A.E.Beard - by author, 2005 89 - lower left - Standard advertisement, 1927 - www.firework-ads.co.uk 89 - lower middle - Punch advertisement, 1947 - author's collection 89 - lower right - Lion advertisement, 1962 - www.firework-ads.co.uk 90 - Shop Window Display, 1920s - Museum of British Folklore 91 - upper - Original photograph for Standard Fireworks advertisement - by author, 2005 91 - lower - Children with Pram and Guy, circa 1920s - public Domain 92 - upper - Wilder's advertisement, 1948-49 - www.firework-ads.co.uk 93 - lower - Lion Display Board - Museum of British Folklore 94 - Detail from Brock's & Wilder's trade brochure, 1967 - www.firework-ads.co.uk 95 - Pain's fireworks, circa 1950s - by author, 2013 95 - Lion Fireworks selection box cover - by author, 2013 96 - upper - Sparkler play - www.rgbstock.com 96 - lower - Detail taken from Lion Fireworks advertisement, 1952 - www.firework-ads.co.uk 97 - New Year's Eve 2012 fireworks - Nick Alloway, Kimbolton Fireworks Ltd. 100 - Bonfire revellers - Dominic Alves, 2007 101 - Portion of Brock's Fireworks advertisement - Museum of British Folklore

All other images, of boxes, labels and posters, are taken from the Firework Art database. These are mostly photographs (taken by the author) of original artworks, and have been gathered since 2005. Although the author lays no claim to the content copyright, which resides with the relevant companies and original artwork designers, the photographs and subsequent processed images are the property of M.Fleming and must not be reproduced without prior permission.

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Any interesting finds?

If any reader finds or knows of old fireworks, posters, or photographs, particularly of shop displays and collections, then please let me know. There are still a good many holes to fill in the history of fireworks, and all materials are important and welcome.

www.rumblebook.co.uk

Website contacts www.fireworks-mag.org Firework Magazine: the premier fireworks publication www.firework-ads.co.uk Firework Adverts: a fantastic collection of old advertisements www.museumofbritishfolklore.com The Museum of British Folklore www.morguefile.com Morguefile: stock photography www.deviantart.com deviantART: a portal to creativity www.rgbstock.com RGBStock: photographic stock images www.metalvortex.com The photography of Kulvinder Singh Matharu www.JohnHarveyPhoto.com The photography of John Harvey www.kimboltonfireworks.co.uk Kimbolton Fireworks Ltd. www.painsfireworks.co.uk Pain's Fireworks Ltd. www.blackcatfireworks.co.uk Black Cat Fireworks Ltd (Standard Fireworks)

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FIREWORK ART

A stunning photographic exploration of the evacative artwork of 20th Century British fireworks. Featuring over 230 full colour reproductions of the beautiful labels,posters and boxes remembered by so many

order through Amazon or direct from the Firework Art website www.firework-art.co.uk

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