Part 15

In certain cases it is necessary to use an acid brick, and for the manufacture of these a highly siliceous mineral, such as chert or ganister, is used, mixed if necessary with sufficient clay to bind the material together. Dinas fireclay, so-called, and the ganisters of the south Yorkshire coal-fields are largely used for making these siliceous firebricks, which may be also used where the brickwork does not come in contact with basic material, as in the arches, &c., of many furnaces. It is evident that no particular kind of firebrick can be suitable for all purposes, and the manufacturer should endeavour to make his bricks of a definite composition, texture, &., to meet certain definite requirements, recognizing that the materials at his disposal may be ill-adapted or entirely unsuitable for making firebricks for other purposes. In setting firebricks in position, a thin paste of fireclay and water or of material similar to that of which the brick is composed, must be used in place of ordinary mortar, and the joints should be as close as possible, only just sufficient of the paste being used to enable the bricks to bed on one another.

It has long been the practice on certain works to wash the face of firebrick work with a thin paste of some very refractory material--such as kaolin--in order to protect the firebricks from the direct action of the flue gases, &c., and quite recently a thin paste of carborundum and clay, or carborundum and silicate of soda has been more extensively used for the same purpose. So-called carborundum bricks have been put on the market, which have a coating of carborundum and clay fired on to the firebrick, and which are said to have a greatly extended life for certain purposes. It is probable that the carborundum gradually decomposes in the firing, leaving a thin coating of practically pure silica which forms a smooth, impervious and highly-refractory facing. (J. B.*; W. B.*)

FIREFLY, a term popularly used for certain tropical American click-beetles (_Pyrophorus_), on account of their power of emitting light. The insects belong to the family _Elateridae_, whose characters are described under COLEOPTERA (q.v.). The genus _Pyrophorus_ contains about ninety species, and is entirely confined to America and the West Indies, ranging from the southern United States to Argentina and Chile. Its species are locally known as _cucujos_. Except for a few species in the New Hebrides, New Caledonia and Fiji, the luminous _Elateridae_ are unknown in the eastern hemisphere. The light proceeds from a pair of conspicuous smooth ovoid spots on the pronotum and from an area beneath the base of the abdomen. Beneath the cuticle of these regions are situated the luminous organs, consisting of layers of cells which may be regarded as a specialized portion of the fat-body. Both the male and female fireflies emit light, as well as their larvae and eggs, the egg being luminous even while still in the ovary. The inhabitants of tropical America sometimes keep fireflies in small cages for purposes of illumination, or make use of the insects for personal adornment.

The name "firefly" is often applied also to luminous beetles of the family _Lampyridae_, to which the well-known glow-worm belongs.

FIRE-IRONS, the implements for tending a fire. Usually they consist of poker, tongs and shovel, and they are most frequently of iron, steel, or brass, or partly of one and partly of another. The more elegant brass examples of the early part of the 19th century are much sought after for use with the brass fenders of that date. They were sometimes hung from an ornamental brass stand. The fire-irons of our own times are smaller in size and lighter in make than those of the best period.

FIRENZUOLA, AGNOLO (1493-c. 1545), Italian poet and litterateur, was born at Florence on the 28th of September 1493. The family name was taken from the town of Firenzuola, situated at the foot of the Apennines, its original home. The grandfather of Agnolo had obtained the citizenship of Florence and transmitted it to his family. Agnolo was destined for the profession of the law, and pursued his studies first at Siena and afterwards at Perugia. There he became the associate of the notorious Pietro Aretino, whose foul life he was not ashamed to make the model of his own. They met again at Rome, where Firenzuola practised for a time the profession of an advocate, but with little success. It is asserted by all his biographers that while still a young man he assumed the monastic dress at Vallombrosa, and that he afterwards held successively two abbacies. Tiraboschi alone ventures to doubt this account, partly on the ground of Firenzuola's licentiousness, and partly on the ground of absence of evidence; but his arguments are not held to be conclusive. Firenzuola left Rome after the death of Pope Clement VII., and after spending some time at Florence, settled at Prato as abbot of San Salvatore. His writings, of which a collected edition was published in 1548, are partly in prose and partly in verse, and belong to the lighter classes of literature. Among the prose works are--_Discorsi degli animali_, imitations of Oriental and Aesopian fables, of which there are two French translations; _Dialogo delle bellezze delle donne_, also translated into French; _Ragionamenti amorosi_, a series of short tales in the manner of Boccaccio, rivalling him in elegance and in licentiousness; _Discacciamento delle nuove lettere_, a controversial piece against Trissino's proposal to introduce new letters into the Italian alphabet; a free version or adaptation of _The Golden Ass_ of Apuleius, which became a favourite book and passed through many editions; and two comedies, _I Lucidi_, an imitation of the _Menaechmi_ of Plautus, and _La Trinuzia_, which in some points resembles the _Calandria_ of Cardinal Bibbiena. His poems are chiefly satirical and burlesque. All his works are esteemed as models of literary excellence, and are cited as authorities in the vocabulary of the Accademia della Crusca. The date of Firenzuola's death is only approximately ascertained. He had been dead several years when the first edition of his writings appeared (1548).

His works have been very frequently republished, separately and in collected editions. A convenient reprint of the whole was issued at Florence in 2 vols. in 1848.

FIRESHIP, a vessel laden with combustibles, floated down on an enemy to set him on fire. Fireships were used in antiquity, and in the middle ages. The highly successful employment of one by the defenders of Antwerp when besieged by the prince of Parma in 1585 brought them into prominent notice, and they were used to drive the Armada from its anchorage at Gravelines in 1588. They continued to be used, sometimes with great effect, as late as the first quarter of the 19th century. Thus in 1809 fireships designed by Lord Cochrane (earl of Dundonald) were employed against the French ships at anchor in the Basque Roads; and in the War of Greek Independence the successes of the Greek fireships against the Ottoman navy, and the consequent demoralization of the ill-disciplined Turkish crews, largely contributed to secure for the insurgents the command of the sea. In general, however, it was found that fireships hampered the movements of a fleet, were easily sunk by an enemy's fire, or towed aside by his boats, while a premature explosion was frequently fatal to the men who had to place them in position. They were made by building "a fire chamber" between the decks from the forecastle to a bulkhead constructed abaft the mainmast. This space was filled with resin, pitch, tallow and tar, together with gunpowder in iron vessels. The gunpowder and combustibles were connected by trains of powder, and by bundles of brushwood called "bavins." When a fireship was to be used, a body of picked men steered her down on the enemy, and when close enough set her alight, and escaped in a boat which was towed astern. As the service was peculiarly dangerous a reward of L100, or in lieu of it a gold chain with a medal to be worn as a mark of honour, was granted in the British navy to the successful captain of a fireship. A rank of _capitaine de brulot_ existed in the French navy of Louis XIV., and was next to the full captain--or _capitaine de vaisseau_.

FIRE-WALKING, a religious ceremony common to many races. The origin and meaning of the custom is very obscure, but it is shown to have been widespread in all ages. It still survives in Bulgaria, Trinidad, Fiji Islands, Tahiti, India, the Straits Settlements, Mauritius, and it is said Japan. The details of its ritual and its objects vary in different lands, but the essential feature of the rite, the passing of priests, fakirs, and devotees barefoot over heated stones or smouldering ashes is always the same. Fire-walking was usually associated with the spring festivals and was believed to ensure a bountiful harvest. Such was the Chinese vernal festival of fire. In the time of Kublai Khan the Taoist Buddhists held great festivals to the "High Emperor of the Sombre Heavens" and walked through a great fire barefoot, preceded by their priests bearing images of their gods in their arms. Though they were severely burned, these devotees held that they would pass unscathed if they had faith. J.G. Frazer (_Golden Bough_, vol. iii. p. 307) describes the ceremony in the Chinese province of Fo-kien. The chief performers are labourers who must fast for three days and observe chastity for a week. During this time they are taught in the temple how they are to perform their task. On the eve of the festival a huge brazier of charcoal, often twenty feet wide, is prepared in front of the temple of the great god. At sunrise the next morning the brazier is lighted. A Taoist priest throws a mixture of salt and rice into the flames. The two exorcists, barefooted and followed by two peasants, traverse the fire again and again till it is somewhat beaten down. The trained performers then pass through with the image of the god. Frazer suggests that, as the essential feature of the rite is the carrying of the deity through the flames, the whole thing is sympathetic magic designed to give to the coming spring sunshine (the supposed divine emanation), that degree of heat which the image experiences. Frazer quotes Indian fire-walks, notably that of the Dosadhs, a low Indian caste in Behar and Chota Nagpur. On the fifth, tenth, and full moon days of three months in the year, the priest walks over a narrow trench filled with smouldering wood ashes. The Bhuiyas, a Dravidian tribe of Mirzapur, worship their tribal hero Bir by a like performance, and they declare that the walker who is really "possessed" by the hero feels no pain. For fire-walking as observed in the Madras presidency see _Indian Antiquary_, vii. (1878) p. 126; iii. (1874) pp. 6-8; ii. (1873) p. 190 seq. In Fiji the ceremony is called _vilavilarevo_, and according to an eyewitness a number of natives walk unharmed across and among white-hot stones which form the pavement of a huge native oven. In Tahiti priests perform the rite. In April 1899 an Englishman saw a fire-walk in Tokio (see _The Field_, May 20th, 1899). The fire was six yards long by six wide. The rite was in honour of a mountain god. The fire-walkers in Bulgaria are called _Nistinares_ and the faculty is regarded as hereditary. They dance in the fire on the 21st of May, the feast of SS. Helena and Constantine. Huge fires of faggots are made, and when these burn down the _Nistinares_ (who turn blue in the face) dance on the red-hot embers and utter prophecies, afterwards placing their feet in the muddy ground where libations of water have been poured.

The interesting part of fire-walking is the alleged immunity of the performers from burns. On this point authorities and eyewitnesses differ greatly. In a case in Fiji a handkerchief was thrown on to the stones when the first man leapt into the oven, and what remained of it snatched up as the last left the stones. Every fold that touched the stone was charred! In some countries a thick ointment is rubbed on the feet, but this is not usual, and the bulk of the reports certainly leave an impression that there is something still to be explained in the escape of the performers from shocking injuries. S.P. Langley, who witnessed a fire-walk in Tahiti, declares, however, that the whole rite as there practised is a mere symbolic farce (_Nature_ for August 22nd, 1901).

For a full discussion of the subject with many eyewitnesses' reports _in extenso_, see A. Lang, _Magic and Religion_ (1901). See also Dr Gustav Oppert, _Original Inhabitants of India_, p. 480; W. Crooke, _Introd. to Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India_, p. 10 (1896); _Folklore Journal_ for September 1895 and for 1903, vol. xiv. P. 87.

FIREWORKS. In modern times this term is principally associated with the art of "pyrotechny" (Gr. [Greek: pur], fire, and [Greek: techne], art), and confined to the production of pleasing scenic effects by means of fire and inflammable and explosive substances. But the history of the evolution of such displays is bound up with that of the use of such substances not only for scenic display but for exciting fear and for military purposes; and it is consequently complicated by our lack of exact knowledge as to the materials at the disposal of the ancients prior to the invention of gunpowder (see also the article GREEK FIRE). For the following historical account the term "fireworks" is therefore used in a rather general sense.

_History._--It is usually stated that from very ancient times fireworks were known in China; it is, however, difficult to assign dates or quote trustworthy authorities. Pyrotechnic displays were certainly given in the Roman circus. While a passage in Manilius,[1] who lived in the days of Augustus, seems to bear this interpretation, there is the definite evidence of Vopiscus[2] that fireworks were performed for the emperor Carinus and later for the emperor Diocletian; and Claudian,[3] writing in the 4th century, gives a poetical description of a set piece, where whirling wheels and dropping fountains of fire were displayed upon the _pegma_, a species of movable framework employed in the various spectacles presented in the circus. After the fall of the Western empire no mention of fireworks can be traced until the Crusaders carried back with them to Europe a knowledge of the incendiary compounds of the East, and gunpowder had made its appearance. Biringuccio,[4] writing in 1540, says that at an anterior period it had been customary at Florence and Siena to represent a fable or story at the Feast of St John or at the Assumption, and that on these occasions stage properties, including effigies with wooden bodies and plaster limbs, were grouped upon lofty pedestals, and that these figures gave forth flames, whilst round about tubes or pipes were erected for projecting fire-balls into the air: but he adds that these shows were never heard of in his time except at Rome when a pope was elected or crowned. But if relinquished in Italy, fire festivals on the eve of St John were observed both in England and France; the custom was a very old one in the days of Queen Elizabeth,[5] while De Frezier,[6] writing in 1707, says it was commonly adhered to in his time, and that on one occasion the king of France himself set a light to the great Paris bonfire. Survivals of these curious rites have been noted quite recently in Scotland and Ireland.[7] Early use also of fireworks was made in plays and pageants. Hell or hell's mouth was represented by a gigantic head out of which flames were made to issue:[8] in the river procession on the occasion of the marriage of Henry VII. and Elizabeth (1487) the "Bachelors' Barge" carried a dragon spouting flames, and Hall relates that at the marriage of Anne Boleyn (1538) "there went before the lord mayor's barge a foyst or wafter full of ordnance, which foyst also carried a great red dragon that spouted out wild fyre and round about were terrible monstrous and wild men casting fire and making a hideous noise."[9] These individuals were known as "green men." Their clothing was green, they wore fantastic masks, and carried "fire clubs." They were sometimes employed to clear the way at processions.[10]

Soon after the introduction of gunpowder the gunner and fireworker came into existence; at first they were not soldiers, but civilians who sometimes exercised military functions, and part of their duties was intimately connected with the preparation of fireworks both for peace and war. The emperor Charles V. brought his fireworks under definite regulations in 1535,[11] and eventually other countries did the same. The _ignes triumphales_ were an early form of public fireworks. Scaffold poles were erected with trophies at their summits, while fixed around them were tiers of casks filled with combustibles, so that they presented the appearance of huge flaming trees; at their bases crouched dragons or other mythical beasts. With such a display Antwerp welcomed the archduke of Austria in 1550.[12] Then the "fire combat" came into fashion. Helmets from which flames would issue were provided for the performers; there were also swords and clubs that would give out sparks at every stroke, lances with fiery points, and bucklers that when struck gave forth a detonation and a flame. A picture of a combat with weapons such as these will be found in Hanzelet's _Recueil de machines militaires_ (1620). In addition, the fireworker grew to be somewhat of a scenic artist who could devise a romantic background and fill it with shapes bizarre, beautiful or terrific; he had to make his castle, his cave or his rocky ravine, and people his stage with distressed damsel, errant knight or devouring dragon. Furthermore he had to give motion to the inanimate persons of the drama; thus his dragon would run down an incline on hidden wheels, be actuated by a rope, or be propelled by a rocket.[13] In 1613 at the marriage of the prince palatine to the daughter of James, the pyrotechnic display was confided to four of the king's gunners, who provided a fiery drama which included a giant, a dragon, a lady, St George, a conjurer, and an enchanted castle, jumbled up together after the approved fashion of the Spenserian legends.[14] As time went on a more refined taste rejected the bizarre features of the old displays, artistic merit began to creep into the designs, and an effort was made to introduce something appropriate to the occasion. Thus Clarmer of Nuremberg, a well-known fire-worker, celebrated the capture of Rochelle (1613) by an adaptation of the Andromeda legend, where Rochelle was the rock, Andromeda the Catholic religion, the monster Heresy, and Perseus on his Pegasus the all-conquering Louis XIII.[15] In the first half of the 17th century many books[16] on fireworks appeared, which avoided the old grotesque ideas and advocated skill and finesse. "It is a rare thing," says Nye (1648), "to represent a tree or fountain in the air." The most celebrated work of them all was the _Great Art of Artillery_ by Siemienowitz, which was considered important enough to be translated into English by order of the Board of Ordnance, nearly eighty years after it had appeared.[17] The classic facade now came into fashion; on it and about it were placed emblematic figures, and disposed around were groups of rockets, Roman candles, &c., musket barrels for projecting stars, and mortars from which were fired shells called balloons, which were full of combustibles. The figures were carved out of wood which was soaped or waxed over and covered with papier mache so that a skin was formed: this was cut vertically into two parts, removed from the wood, formed into a hollow figure, and filled with fireworks.

National fireworks now assumed a stately and dignified appearance, and for two centuries played a conspicuous part all over Europe in the public expression of thanksgiving or of triumph. Representations and sometimes accounts will be found in the British Museum[18] of the more important English displays, from the coronation of James II. down to the peace rejoicings of 1856, during which period national fireworks were provided by the officials of the Ordnance. But since the days of Ranelagh and Vauxhall fireworks have become a subject of private enterprise, and the triumphs of such firms as Messrs Brock or Messrs Pain at the Crystal Palace and elsewhere have been without an official rival. (J. R. J. J.)

_Modern Fireworks._--In modern times the art of pyrotechny has been gradually improved by the work of specialists, who have had the advantage of being guided by the progress of scientific chemistry and mechanics. As in all such cases, however, science is useless without the aid of practical experience and acquired manual dexterity.

Many substances have a strong tendency to combine with oxygen, and will do so, in certain circumstances, so energetically as to render the products of the combination (which may be solid matter or gas) intensely hot and luminous. This is the general cause of the phenomenon known as fire. Its special character depends chiefly on the nature of the substances burned and on the manner in which the oxygen is supplied to them. As is well known, our atmosphere contains oxygen gas diluted with about four times its volume of nitrogen; and it is this oxygen which supports the combustion of our coal and candles. But it is not often that the pyrotechnist depends wholly upon atmospheric oxygen for his purposes; for the phenomena of combustion in it are too familiar, and too little capable of variation, to strike with wonder. Two cases, however, where he does so may be instanced, viz. the burning of magnesium powder and of lycopodium, both of which are used for the imitation of lightning in theatres. Nor does the pyrotechnist resort much to the use of pure oxygen, although very brilliant effects may be produced by burning various substances in glass jars filled with the gas. Indeed, the art could never have existed in anything like its present form had not certain solid substances become known which, containing oxygen in combination with other elements, are capable of being made to evolve large volumes of it at the moment it is required. The best examples of these solid _oxidizing agents_ are potassium nitrate (nitre or saltpetre) and chlorate; and these are of the first importance in the manufacture of fireworks. If a portion of one of these salts be thoroughly powdered and mixed with the correct quantity of some suitable combustible body, also reduced to powder, the resulting mixture is capable of burning with more or less energy without any aid from atmospheric oxygen, since each small piece of fuel is in close juxtaposition to an available and sufficient store of the gas. All that is required is that the liberation of the oxygen from the solid particles which contain it shall be started by the application of heat from without, and the action then goes on unaided. This, then, is the fundamental fact of pyrotechny--that, with proper attention to the chemical nature of the substances employed, solid mixtures (_compositions_ or _fuses_) may be prepared which contain within themselves all that is essential for the production of fire.