PYROTECHNY

, the art of sire, or the science which teaches the application and management of fire in several operations.

Pyrotechny is of two kinds, military and chemical.

Military Pyrotechny, is the science of artificial fire-works, and fire-arms, teaching the structure and use both of those employed in war, as gunpowder, cannon, shells, carcasses, mines, fusees, &c; and of those made for amusement, as rockets, stars, serpents, &c.

Some call Pyrotechny by the name Artillery; though that word is usually confined to the instruments employed in war. Others choose to call it Pyrobology, or rather Pyroballogy, or the art of missile fires.

Wolfius has reduced Pyrotechny into a kind of mixt mathematical art. Indeed it will not allow of geometrical demonstrations; but he brings it to tolerable rules and reasons; whereas it had formerly been treated by authors at random, and without regard to any reasons at all. See the several articles Cannon, Gunpowder, Rocket, Shell, &c.

Chemical Pyrotechny, is the art of managing and applying fire in distillations, calcinations, and other operations of chemistry.

Some reckon a third kind of Pyrotechny, viz, the art of susing, refining, and preparing metals.