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In presenting this work to the public as a system of Pyrotechny, which, we have reason to believe, is the only full and connected system that has appeared, we may be permitted to remark, that, in our arrangement of the subject, we have appropriated separate heads for each article.
This plan, of the subject being considered in chapters and sections, and forming with the divisions of the work, a connected system of arrangement, enables the reader to have a full view of the whole, and, at the same time, all the facts in detail belonging to the chapter, or section under consideration. By referring to the Table of Contents, this plan will be seen without further comment. The arrangement of the different articles in this manner, necessarily comprehends in the onset all the substances, which are employed in various preparations. In considering this part of our subject, we have given the chemical characters, or peculiar properties of each substance respectively; by which a rationale of pyrotechnical effects may be the better understood, and, consequently, the action of bodies on each other better illustrated.
In this part we also comprehend the General Theory of Fire-works, which it may be proper to remark, we have drawn from the known effects of chemical action; so far, at least, as the laws, of affinity, which govern such action, are applicable to the subject. The importance of this inquiry, although having no relation to the mere manipulations of the artificer, can not be doubted; since a knowledge of chemistry has already improved the preparation of gunpowder, and its effects are now known to be owing to the formation of sundry elastic aeriform fluids. On this head, that of the application of chemistry to Pyrotechny, we claim so much originality, as, so far as we know, to have been the first, who applied the principles of chemistry.
