The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives - Sciencemadness Dot Org

PYROTECHNIC MIXTURES 53
colors. His problem is twofold: the esthetic one of combining
these effects in a manner to produce a result which is pleasing,
and the wholly practical one of contriving devices—and the
means for the construction of devices—which shall produce these
results. Like the graphic artist, he had but few colors at first, and
he created designs with those which he had—lights, fountains,
showers, Roman candles, rockets, etc. As new colors were discovered,
he applied them to the production of better examples of
the same or slightly modified designs. At the same time he introduced
factory methods, devised improvements in the construction
of his devices, better tools, faster and more powerful machinery,
and learned to conduct his operations with greater safety and
with vastly greater output, but the essential improvements in his
products since the beginning of the seventeenth century have been
largely because of the availability of new chemical materials.
Development of Pyrotechnic Mixtures
The use of antimony sulfide, Sb2S3, designated in the early
writings simply as antimony, along with the saltpeter, sulfur,
and charcoal, which were the standard ingredients of all pyrotechnic
compositions, appears to have been introduced in the
early part of the seventeenth century. John Bate's "Book of Fireworks,"
1635, containing information derived from "the noted
Professors, as Mr. Malthus, Mr. Norton, and the French Authour,
Des Recreations Mathematiques," 2 mentions no mixtures which
contain antimony. Typical of his mixtures are the following.
Compositions for Starres. Take saltpeter one pound, brimstone
half a pound, gunpowder foure ounces, this must be
bound up in paper or little ragges, and afterwards primed.
Another receipt for Starres. Take of saltpeter one pound,
gunpowder and brimston of each halfe a pound; these must
be mixed together, and of them make a paste, with a sufficient
quantity of oil of peter (petroleum), or else of faire
water; of this paste you shal make little balles, and roll
them in drie gunpowder dust; then dry them, and keepe them
for your occasions. 3
The iron scale which John Bate used in certain of his rocket
2 F. Malthus (Francois de Malthe), "Treatise of Artificial Fireworks,"
1629; Robert Norton, "The Gunner," 1628.
3 John Bate, "The Mysteries of Nature and Art," London, 1635, Second
Part, p. 101.