"You can't doubt," said la Peyrade, "that the virtuous Cerizet is at the bottom of it; he has thrown this firecracker between your legs by way of revenge."
"The Lesser Bourgeoisie"
Honore de Balzac
"And Mrs. Harper told about Joe scaring her with a firecracker, and you told about Peter and the Painkiller-" "Just as true as I live!"
"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 5."
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
They were at once a call and an identification of Soames as a person using a device like a tiny copper firecracker, with the head of a pin where a fuse would belong.
"Long Ago, Far Away"
William Fitzgerald Jenkins AKA Murray Leinster