11 NOVEMBER 1989, Page 26

Fuse update

Sir: I am sorry to report that Peter Brookes's cartoon (4 November) is out of date. Because of something called BS7114, the fireworks I bought this year had no blue .touchpaper. Instead they had long thin fuses, like the ones on those old- fashioned bombs (marked BOMB) that anarchists used to throw at archbukes. The instructions read 'Straighten fuze (sic), light tip of free end at arms length and retire immediately at least 5 metres'.

The design of fireworks, it seems, has moved from England in the 17th century to Eastern Europe in the 19th.

N. H. H. Sitwell

352 Kcw Road, Kew, Richmond,Surrey