Fireworks

Based on explosive gunpowder, show-stealing fireworks have a colorful past.Fireworks Celebrating with a BANG!

Chinese launch

Gunpowder was discovered accidentally when ancient Chinese alchemists looked for a magic potion to create eternal life. It was produced by mixing three powders—saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal. When burned, the combination released so much gas that explosions resulted. Bamboo poles filled with gunpowder formed the world’s first fireworks. They were used to mark festivals and religious occasions.

It paved the way for…

Cannons containing gunpowder and other explosives were an

effeCtive weapon when fired across battlefields during the Middle Ages. The Chinese used fireworks to create devices called flares. These blazing lights could signal over long distances.

Did you know? China is the world’s largest manufacturer and exporter of fireworks, producing more than 90 percent of the total amount.

Today’s fireworks are launched by compressed air, so their displays are not obliterated by smoke.

Colors are determined by different combinations of chemicals.

In the Middle Ages, rockets became weapons, catapulted into enemy bases to explode on impact and set camps on fire. Famous English conspirator Guy Fawkes plotted a similarly dastardly deed with gunpowder. His failed attempt to blow up London’s Houses of Parliament on November 5, 1605, is remembered every year with dummies of Fawkes burned at Firework displays.

Spectrum of color

The future is glowing bright for fireworks. Color chemistry has developed a rainbow effect—magnesium and aluminum make white light, sodium salts make yellow, copper salts make blue, strontium nitrate or carbonate makes red, and barium nitrate makes green. Scientists are researching different chemical combinations in order to make ever more impressive fireworks.

HOW Once lit, the fuse allows you to retreat IT WO R KS to a safe distance before the fuel propellant sends the firework into the sky. Once there, a part of the fuse called the delay controls when the chemical reaction in the rocket happens by slowing the ignition of the gunpowder. When the gunpowder is lit, it creates loud banging sounds and shoots the stars out of the firework. Gunpowder

Stars

Delay

Propellant

Lit fuse How it changedFireworks have delighted audiences for centuries, but the gunpowder at their core has also been used as a devastating weapon of war.

the world

The strong, stable explosive dynamite was developed from gunpowder. Used in construction, it is also a harmful weapon. Key dates are celebrated

with firework displays. On New Year’s Eve, many countries set off fireworks at midnight to welcome