These are little cases charged with white or coloured star composition. They should be of white or coloured double-crown paper, rolled dry on the squib former, and secured at the edge with paste in the usual way. They may be from 2¹/₂ to 4 inches long, as may be required; press in one end to make a bottom. To do this, bore a hole through a piece of cork or a small bung, and through it push a piece of brass wire or stair-rod, fig. 81, of a suitable diameter. It can then be set to any distance, like a cutting gauge. If the lance case is 2¹/₂ inches long, set the bung at rather more than 2¹/₄ inches from the end. Put it up the case, and, holding it with the left hand, with the right, with a piece of wire push in the end to make a flat bottom. Charge with the squib funnel and wire; and prime the mouth with very slightly damped meal. Lances are used for forming letters and designs, similar to gas jets. Frames for letters and devices are made with pieces of thin wood and cane, or hooping, for straight lines and curves. A number of wires, 3 inches apart, are driven into the frames so as to stand forward, at right angles, and the lances are fixed on them. The following is the way of proceeding. Procure some inch French nails, or inch rivets; the former at the ironmonger's; the latter at the grindery shops. Drive them in, at the proper distances; then, with a pair of cutting pliers or nippers, cut off their heads. Drive a piece of wire, the same thickness as the nails, into a bradawl handle, and leave it projecting ³/₈ of an inch; file this triangular, or three-sided, and pointed. Push this triangular bradawl up the bottom of the lance, then fix the lance on the wire destined to receive it; it will be more secure if the wire is touched with a dip of glue before pressing the lance on. Having completed the letter or device, proceed to leader it. For this purpose have a supply of ¹/₂-inch rivets; they may be purchased at the grindery shops for about 5d. per lb. Take a length of leadered or piped quickmatch; lay one end of it on the mouth of a lance; push the triangular bradawl through the match and down into the lance; turn the bradawl round, which will insure the breaking of the match and of the priming; withdraw the bradawl, and push in a rivet; and so proceed. Take a strip of flannel 3 inches broad, roll it into the shape of a cork, and secure it from untwisting with a bit of string. Dip this into a solution of gum arabic or thick dextrine, and rub it over a sheet of double-crown. When dry, cut the sheet into pieces about half an inch broad and an inch and a half long, something like postage stamps. Take one of these, damp it like a postage stamp, and press it over the joining, and smooth it round the lance. Or a strip of paper may be pasted, and pressed round. The match will thus be nailed, as it were, to the lances; and prevented from slipping off by the gummed or pasted strip of paper. A common bradawl will not answer the purpose so well as a triangular one, as the sharp edges of the latter break the match and priming, and insure the ignition.

To Form a Device, Or Design.

Take a sheet of paper, and draw upon it a representation of whatever is intended, as a temple, a mosque, a ship, a horse, George and the dragon, &c.; then cross the design with lines, at regular distances, and at right angles, so as to cover it with squares, as fig. 86. It is now requisite to have a floor, of a considerable size; but not necessarily so large as the design intended to be fired, as a part can be done at a time; this floor must be divided into large squares, and the device from the small pattern, fig. 86, transferred to it, and the outlines chalked on the floor, fig. 87. After this a number of frames are to be made, of deal, or other wood, like square lattice-work, as fig. 91. A frame is then to be laid on the floor, so as to cover a portion of the design; and the French nails, or inch rivets, before mentioned, driven in, at distances of 3 inches, to receive the lances. Every frame must be numbered, and a copy kept in miniature, so that they may be correctly fitted together, to form the figure, without delay or error. To distribute the fire rapidly, over an extensive piece, it is necessary, at points, to make one leader light several, simultaneously. Suppose 10 are to be lighted at once: bring the 10 ends together and tie them; envelope them with a piece of double-crown, projecting a couple of inches; in the void put a scoop of meal; bring in the single match that is to light them, and tie as usual. Paste a piece of paper over all, to make secure.

To Preserve Steel Filings, or Cast-Iron Borings.

Put 1 lb. into a frying-pan, or iron ladle, with 3 ounces of marine glue; set it over the fire; and, as the glue melts, stir it about till thoroughly incorporated with the filings, or borings. When cold, bottle them, and cork. Marine glue may be obtained at Pattrick and Sons, 51, High Street, Whitechapel. It is 1s. per lb., which is the smallest quantity sold. Marine glue is made by putting pieces of india-rubber into mineral naphtha; the caoutchouc swells up; it is then to be triturated into a uniform mass, mixed with shellac, and melted. Wax solution, or stearine solution, rubbed up in a mortar, with steel filings, or cast-iron borings, also preserves them. The nitre of the gunpowder, however, attacks them, and ultimately rusts them; so that fireworks are never so brilliant as when recently charged.