Star.
（Pyrotechnics.) 1. A small piece of inflammable composition, which burns with a colored flame, depending on the character of the ingredients employed. They are usually formed by pressing the composition, while wet, into a cylindrical mold, and afterward dredging with mealed powder. Sometimes the composition is formed in a large cake, which is afterward divided into cubical pieces. They are used as ornaments for rockets, for filling wooden shells, and in Roman candles. The following recipes are given for different colored stars:— White. 4 niter, 2 sulphur, 1 mealed powder; or 9 niter, 3 sulphur, 2 antimony. Yellow. 1 charcoal, 1 sulphur, 6 nitrate of soda; or 20 chlorate of potassa, 10 bicarbonate of soda, 5 sulphur, 1 mastic. Red. 5 chlorate of potassa, 20 nitrate of strontia, 4 gum dammar; or 20 nitrate of strontia, 12 chlorate of potash, 11 sulphur, 2 charcoal, 2 antimony, 1 mastic. Blue. 2 chlorate of potassa, 1 ammoniated sulphate of copper, 1 gum dammar; or 20 chlorate of potassa, 14 carbonate of copper, 12 sulphur, 1 mastic. Green. 12 chlorate of potassa, 24 nitrate of baryta, 8 sulphur, 1 lamp-black; or 12 nitrate of baryta, 28 chlorate of potassa, 15 sulphur, 1 mastic. Violet. 9 chlorate of potassa, 4 nitrate of strontia, 6 sulphur, 1 carbonate of copper, 1 calomel, 1 mastic. Proof spirit, in which gum benzoin has been dissolved, is used for giving consistency to the mass. 2. The series of radial spokes, forming handles, on the roller of a copperplate or lithographic printing-press.
3. (Printing.) A reference mark (*) used in printing. An asterisk.
