During the Second World War restrictions were placed on the production of cracker snaps. The Ministry of Defence commissioned Tom Smith to fold and tie bundles of three to six snaps together with special string and regulation knots. These bundles were then used by soldiers in training as, when the string was pulled, they mimicked the noise of machine gun fire. After the war, vast quantities of these surplus cracker snaps were released back into the cracker trade. As the demand for crackers increased, Tom Smith merged with Caley Crackers in 1953 taking over their headquarters and factory in Norwich, East Anglia. Further merges took place over the following years with Mead and Field, Neilson Festive Crackers and Manson and Church, each specialists in their own particular field. Today Tom Smith Group is a subsidiary of Napier Industries, the largest manufacturer of crackers in the world.
|
|
Tom
Smith made wonderful crackers. In the early days there was an extremely
large variety of specialist boxes including Wedgwood Art Crackers from
original designs by permission of Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, and designs
such as Japanese Menagerie crackers containing the latest novelties
from Japan specially manufactured and imported. These include animals,
birds and and reptiles and even mottoes in Japanese. The company was,
importantly, very aware of current affairs and the political and leisure
activities of each period. Crackers were created for the War Heroes,
Charlie Chaplin, The Wireless, Motoring, The Coronation and even the
Channel Tunnel in 1914. Exclusive crackers were also made for members
of the Royal Family and still are to this day.