The Chemistry of Powder and Explosives - Sciencemadness Dot Org

MINES 97
match or fire wick), for the invention 44 of plumbic powder by
which a silver shower (pluie d'argent) is produced, and for originating
43 the idea of the diamond pastille with colored fires which
Chertier called the dahlia pastille but for the making of which
he did not give precise directions.
Mines
Mines are paper mortars—commonly strong paper tubes each
standing vertically on a wooden base into which it is countersunk
and glued—arranged to throw into the air a display of stars,
serpents, etc. They are often equipped with fountains, Roman
candles, etc., which make a display on the ground before the
final explosion occurs.
A serpent mine (pot a feu) is represented in Figure 24. This
starts with a steel fountain. When the fire has reached the bottom
of the fountain, it is carried by quickmatch to a charge of
gunpowder in the paper bag, a. Immediately above the paper
bag arc the serpents. These are small paper tubes, rammed with
a mixture of meal powder, gunpowder, saltpeter, sulfur, and
mixed charcoal, crimped or plugged with clay at one end, supplied
with match (as in the diagram) or merely left open-ended
at the other. The lower, matched or open, ends of the seipents
take fire from the burning of the gunpowder, which also blows
them into the air where they dart and squirm about like little
tailless rockets leaving a trail of sparks. In Audot's diagram,
directly below the fountain and above the closed ends of the
serpents, is a mass of wadding. This tends to offer a slight resistance
to the force of the gunpowder, with the result that the
serpents receive the fire more surely and arc shot farther into
the air before they begin to go their several ways.
Saucissons are constructed in the same way as serpents, but
are larger, and have, next to the closed end, a small charge of
gunpowder which makes them end with a bang. They are used
in mines and in rockets.
Mines which discharge serpents, stars, English crackers, etc.,
are often made by loading these materials into the same paper
bags which' contain the blowing charges of granulated gunpowder.
About two level teaspoonfuls of blowing powder is used
44 Ibid., p. 281.
43 Ibid., p. 414.