1634 fireworks cookbook

A 17TH-CENTURY manual for building homemade fireworks using gunpowder has been unearthed - complete with health and safety tips.

- BY NATHAN PYNN

The rare 1634 first edition, entitled The Mysteryes of Nature and Art, was found in an old wardrobe in Bristol.

Written by English author John Bate, the manual offers instructions on making basic rockets and crackers plus ambitious designs like "flying dragons" - a spark-spouting beast designed to fly between two houses - and "fire-drakes", kites fitted with crackers.