The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives - Sciencemadness Dot Org

CHINESE FIRECRACKERS 111
English Crackers or Grasshoppers
These devices are old; they were described by John Bate and
by Hanzelet Lorrain. English crackers are represented in the
lower right-corner of Figure 23, reproduced from Lorrain's book
of 1630. They are used in bombshells and, as Lorrain used them,
in rockets, where they jump about in the air producing a series
of flashes and explosions. Children shoot them on the ground
like firecrackers where their movements suggest the behavior of
grasshoppers.
English crackers are commonly loaded with granulated gunpowder,
tamped into paper pipes like those from which pinwheels
are made. The loaded pipes are softened by moisture in
the same way, passed between rollers to make them flatter,
folded in frames, and, for the best results, tied each time they are
folded and then tied over the whole bundle. They are generally
supplied with black match for lighting. They produce as many
explosions as there are ligatures.
Chinese Firecrackers
Firecrackers have long been used in China for a variety of
ceremonial purposes. The houseboat dweller greets the morning
by setting off a bunch of firecrackers, for safety's sake in an iron
kettle with a cover over it, to keep all devils away from him
during the day. For their own use the Chinese insist upon firecrackers
made entirely of red paper, which leave nothing but red
fragments, for red is a color particularly offensive to the devils.
Firecrackers for export, however, are commonly made from tubes
of cheap, coarse, brown paper enclosed in colored wrappers.
Thirty years ago a considerable variety of Chinese firecrackers
was imported into this country. There were "Mandarin crackers,"
made entirely from red paper and tied at the ends with silk
thread; cheaper crackers plugged at the ends with clay (and
these never exploded as satisfactorily); "lady crackers," less
than an inch long, tied, and no thicker than a match stem; and
"cannon crackers," tied with string, 6, 8, and 12 inches long,
made of brown paper with brilliant red wrappers. All these were
loaded with explosive mixtures of the general nature of black
powder, were equipped with fuses of tissue paper twisted around
black powder, and were sold, as Chinese firecrackers are now
sold, in bunches with their fuses braided together. The composi-