firework

[Eng. fire, and work.] *1. Work done in the fire. fire worker 2. A preparation, in various shapes, of gunpowder, sulphur, and other inflammable materials, used for explosion at times of public rejoicing, . The word is used now only in the plural. Fireworks were invented by the Chinese, and were first used in Europe about 1360. 3. A name given to various combustible preparations used in war. 4. An exhibition or display of fireworks; pyrotechnics. (Obsolete in the singular .) "The night before last the Duke of Richmond gave a prework."- Walpole : To Mann , ii. 297. *fire-wõrk-er, s. [Eng. firework ; -er.] An officer of artillery, subordinate to the fire master. fir-Ing, pr . par., a. & 8. [FIRE, v.] A. & B. As pr . par . & particip . adj.: (See the verb.) IMG:content-1667.png:[blocks in formation] 1. Farriery : The act of cauterizing; the application of a cautery. 2. Furnace : The mode of introducing fuel into the furnace and working it. Hard-firing: charges in quick succe ion, with frequent stoking. Heavy firing: large charges of fuel and frequent stoking. Known also as Close-firing, Thick-firing, and Charging, from the large body of fuel introduced at a time. Light-firing: moderate and frequent in quantity; coking the charge on the dead-plate, and then pushing it onto the coals. Also called Open firing, as the charge is thinly spread on the grate bars and the draft is free. 3. Gla Man.: The proce of fixing the colors upon gla . The colors are metallic oxides, ground up with flint gla and borax, and laid by a paint brush upon the pieces or sheets of crown-gla . These are then removed to the kiln, where the colors become fused and unite inseparably with the surface of the gla on which they are laid, the flux enabling the color to melt before the gla plate becomes distorted by the heat. The crown-gla being a silicate of potash and lime is much more intractable than a gla into whose composition lead enters. IMG:content-1668.png:[blocks in formation] "What new firk of folly has entered into the rascal's head?"-Davenant: The Man's the Master (1669). *firk-er-ý, s . [English firk ; -ery.] A freak, a prank. fir-kin, s. [O. Dut. vier=four, and suff. -kin, as ın kilderkin. ( Skeat.)] 1. A measure of capacity; the fourth part of a barrel, or nine gallons. "Strutt's servants get such a haunt about that shop, that it will cost us many a firkin of strong beer to bring them back again." -Arbuthnot. 2. The quantity of liquid which a firkin would hold. "There were set six water pots of stone taining two or three firkins apiece." -John ii. 6. con 3. A small wooden ve el used for butter, tallow, ., and of no fixed capacity. "Now list to another, that miracle's brother, Which was done with a firkin of powder." Denham: A Second Western Wonder.