The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives - Sciencemadness Dot Org

PYROTECHNIC MIXTURES 59
chloride is somewhat hygroscopic and tends to cake, and it is
now no longer used; indeed, the chloride is unnecessary in compositions
which contain chlorate or per chlorate. In the Ruggieri
"we have two pyrotechnists who can be considered to represent
the best skill of France and Italy; in fact, it was Ruggieri whose
arrival in France from Italy in or about 1735 marked the great
advance in pyrotechny in the former country." 9 The elder Ruggieri
conducted a fireworks display at Versailles in 1739. In 1743
he exhibited for the first time, at the Theatre de la Comedie
Italienne and before the King, the passage of fire from a moving
to a fixed piece. "This ingenious contrivance at first astonished
the scientists of the day, who said when it was explained to them
that nothing could be more simple and that any one could have
done it at once." 10 In 1749 he visited England to conduct, with
Sarti, a fireworks display in Green Park in celebration of the
peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. The younger Ruggieri conducted many
public pyrotechnic exhibitions in France during the years 1800-
1820, and wrote a treatise on fireworks which was published both
in French and in German.
Potassium chlorate had been discovered, or at least prepared
in a state of purity, by Berthollet in 1786. It had been tried unsuccessfully
and with disastrous results in gunpowder. Forty
years elapsed before it began to be used in pyrotechnic mixtures,
where, with appropriate salts to color the flame, it yields the
brilliant and many-colored lights which are now familiar to us.
At present it is being superseded for certain purposes by the safer
perchlorate.
James Cutbush, acting professor of chemistry and mineralogy
at West Point, in his posthumous "System of Pyrotechny," 1825,
tells 11 of the detonation of various chlorate mixtures and of-their
use for the artificial production of fire. "Besides the use of nitre
in pyrotechnical compositions, as it forms an essential part of all
9 A. St. H. Brock, "Pyrotechnics: The History, and Art of Fireworks
Making," London, 1922. This is a scholarly and handsome book, bountifully
illustrated, which contains excellent accounts both of the history of
fireworks and of present manufacturing practice. The author comes from
several generations of fireworks makers.
10 Quoted by Brock, op. cit., p. 124.
11 James Cutbush, "A System of Pyrotechny, Comprehending the Theory
and Practice, with the Application of Chemistry; Designed for Exhibition
and for War," Philadelphia, 1825, p. 22.