BROCKS’ FIREWORKS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26636, 5 December 1947, Page 4

BROCKS’ FIREWORKS

WORLD-FAMOUS NAME GROWTH THROUGH EIGHT GENERATIONS ARRIVAL OF DIRECTORIt was definitely established that eight generations of his family had been engaged in making fireworks, but even before that, in 1712, a John Brock had died from burns accidentally caused at his home. It might be assumed that he, too. was experimenting with fireworks, said Mr C. D. Brock, a director of C. T. Brock and Co. s Crystal Palace Fireworks, Ltd., when interviewed by the Daily Times' yesterday morning, after his arrival in Dunedin from the Hermitage. Mr Brock has come out to New Zealand personally to direct a spectacular display of pyrotechnics on February 28 during the Otago centennial celebrations, and #-his, to use his own words, wiU be "the biggest show ever to be fired south of the equator.” Since ‘1720, .when Thomas Brock began his business of making fireworks, the Brock family had steadily built up a huge concern, which at present was the biggest in the world, Mr Brock said. The factory at Hemel Hempstead covered an area of 300 acres, and’ about 400 men were employed. Mr Brock said that he had travelled all over the world organising . fireworks displays for various important occasions. He was making his first visit to New Zealand, after directing the pyrotechnical display at the Toronto Exhibition in September. War Contributions

In the earliest chapter of the Brock family’s history the men had been “engineers in charge of the engines of war,” Mr Brock told the reporter. A contrast was the recent World War, when the whole of the Brock organisation’s output had been directed to a war effort. Some of the materials supplied were photo flares, various ignition devices, and “anti-invasion measures”—burning oil, etc. The family had also made valuable contributions during the First World War. Commander Frank Brock, an elder brother, who was killed on the Zeebrugge operation, was largely responsible for devising the fog screen which had played such an important part in the British success. “ Only the other day, at Hanmer Springs, I met Commander Harrison, who was at Zeebrugge with my brother,” Mr Brock remarked. The first incendiary bullets, which had destroyed a German Zeppelin in-the First World War, "had been invented by Brocks, he added. His factory had been practically untouched by the blitz in the. recent war. Mr Brock continued. For the official peace celebrations in London in 1945 the full resources had been tapped to make the show a success. “These occasions are red-letter days for us, and everybody turns out,” he said. Hyde Park shows, coronations, and jubilees had all been times when the organisation was able to present fireworks exhibitions justifying the claim that Brocks were the leading pyrotechnical firm in the world. >

“After seeing the recent Toronto an American told me that he was astounded at the show we were able to provide—and that coming from an American,” Mr Brock said.

Mr Brock, who. is staying at the City Hotel, said that the cost of the display for Dunedin’s centennial may nave been criticised, but the purchase of the materials for the exhibition would be helping England more-than the purchase of clothing, for instance, whicli was urgently required by the people themselves. Mr and Mrs Brock will leave Dunedin on Monday for a week's holiday at the southern lakes.