Devil." Pyrotechnic is as old as history itself; we have an
excellent description of a rocket in a document at least as
ancient as the ninth century. And that a species of pyrotechny
was resorted to by those who sought to imitate flight we have
proof in the following recipe for a flying body given by a
Doctor, eke a Friar, in Paris in the days of our King John:--

"Take one pound of sulphur, two pounds of willowcarbon, six
pounds of rock salt ground very fine in a marble mortar.
Place, when you please, in a covering made of flying papyrus to
produce thunder. The covering in order to ascend and float
away should be long, graceful, well filled with this fine
powder; but to produce thunder the covering should be short,
thick, and half full."

Nor does this recipe stand alone. Take another sample, of
which chapter and verse are to be found in the MSS. of a
Jesuit, Gaspard Schott, of Palermo and Rome, born three hundred
years ago:--

"The shells of hen-eggs, if properly filled and well secured
against the penetration of the air, and exposed to solar rays,
will ascend to the skies and sometimes suffer a natural change.
And if the eggs of the larger description of swans, or leather
balls stitched with fine thongs, be filled with nitre, the
purest
sulphur quicksilver, or kindred materials which rarify by
their caloric energy, and if they externally resemble pigeons,
they will easily be mistaken for flying animals."