Fireworks

Graphic:  Fireworks.jpg

Written By:  Andrew Eide

I believe everyone enjoys fireworks. There are some who don’t enjoy the noise but most people enjoy watching fireworks.

I saw an episode of the Discovery Channel program called Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe where his dirty job was to work at a fireworks factory. The program was enlightening as the owner of the factory explained to Mike how they place different items inside the fireworks so that when it explodes in the sky different colors and shapes and designs are made.

During my research on fireworks I came up with some basic information. It appears the history of fireworks goes back thousands of years to China. It seems that some early “fireworks” may have been produced even before the invention of gunpowder.

The idea is that one of the first “firecrackers” may have been chunks of green bamboo which someone threw into a fire when dry fuel ran out. Of course the bamboo rods sizzled and blackened, and after a while, the bamboo unexpectedly exploded. The reason is bamboo grows so fast that pockets of air and sap get trapped inside the plant’s segments. When they are heated the air inside of the holly reeds expands and eventually bursts through the sides.

Later in China gunpowder was produced. It appears that gunpowder, with its current uses, may have been an accidental discovery while alchemists of that day were developing a sulfurous mixture as an elixir of life. Over time they worked on perfecting gunpowder in a form similar to what we use today. Along with the perfection of gunpowder came the perfection of weapons. However we are not talking about weapons today so I will return to the subject of fireworks.

Although the Chinese developed early fireworks it is noted that after the technology was brought to Europe, the Italians worked on perfecting fireworks to a form similar of those we have today.

I cannot go into every detail of how fireworks work the way they do so please feel free to do your own research on that. I will close my comments today to let you know the ingredients, other than gunpowder, which may be placed into fireworks to give them the different colors, etc. These ingredients include:  Metal powders to give white sparks such as: Strontium for red color. Barium for green color. Copper for blue color. Sodium for yellow color. They also include Potassium Chlorate which burns faster and hotter than Potassium Nitrate. This allows them to create colors which are deeper and brighter.

What truly amazes me is how they can put so many different items into a “ball” or “capsule” which is shot into the air and when it explodes it produces a specific pattern or design. Think about the concept. You stuff all these little items inside the “ball” or “capsule” and you have to figure it out ahead of them what it will turn into when it explodes in the air.

I find this truly amazing.