How Did Fireworks Came About?

The creation of fireworks, or namely the invention of gunpowder is believed to have happened by chance about 2,000 years ago in China.

It was thought that a Chinese cook carelessly mixed 3 kitchen ingredients that were heated over a fire and dried to give a black flaky powder which burned with a loud noise when ignited. This crude, early mixture today is known as gun powder.

The Chinese named this interesting black powder as "huo yao" meaning fire chemical and developed it more. The mixture was placed into the hollow of a bamboo stick and when thrown into a fire, the gases inside produced by the ignited burning powder inside caused a powerful build up of pressure and blasted the tube apart. And so the basic fire cracker was born.

Fire crackers later then played an important part in Chinese festivities - weddings, religious rituals because of their explosions due to the belief that they were thought to be good enough to scare off the evil spirits that bring bad luck.

Later when people would begin to think that these now powerful explosives could be used for warfare. The Chinese knew of the killing power these explosives had and within 100 years had not only developed fire arrows (bamboo fire crackers attached to regular arrows and shot at the enemy) but even 'Ground Rats'. These were made of propelling rats from inside the bamboo fire crackers and thrown toward the enemy, creating a good psychological effect -scaring soldiers and causing cavalry horses to go wild.

And so, the knowledge of fireworks began to spread to the West. It is believed that the great Italian explorer Marco Polo on one of his many trips to China transported this invention to the Middle East where European Crusaders brought it to England.

An English Scholar, Roger Bacon (1214-1294), was one of the first Europeans to study gunpowder and write about it. He realised that it was the Saltpeter or Potassium nitrate (KNO3) that was the driving force behind the explosion. On the contrary, he knew his findings had the deadly potential of completely revolutionizing warfare. Therefore, he wrote his findings in code in the hope to save lives in case information reached the hands of bad people. This code wasn't unlocked for hundreds of years.

During 1560, European Chemists managed to make gunpowder as explosive as possible by experimenting with the ratios of the ingredients. The final proportion was set as follows: Salt Peter 75%, Charcoal 15% and Sulfur 10%. Some 500 years later, these ratios are still used today.

This brought medieval warfare to end because metal armor could now be punctured by bullets and once thought of impenetrable walls of castles could be just blown to bits by cannon balls.

It was the Italians who made fireworks into a dazzling art form. It was they who were able to develop aerial shells that launched upward and exploded into fountains of color; lighting up the night sky to the enjoyment of spectators.

These firework displays grew more and more complex over the years, gradually working their way into the back gardens of the people. For nearly 2,000 years, the only colors fireworks could produce were yellows and oranges using steel and charcoal. It was only in the 19th Century that pyrotechnicians had the technology to bring reds, greens and blues explosions to the night sky.

However the field of pyrotechnics is far from perfect. There are problems that have been encountered are yet to be solved (for example the production of forest green-colored fireworks) and certain areas of the field have not yet even been studied.

The field of pyrotechnics has both a bright history and future and research and development continues to this day.

Happy, Prosperous New Year to all my fellow Steemers!!!

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Sources: www.ch.ic.ac.uk/local/projects/gondhia/history.html
skykingfireworks.com/kings-classroom/history-of-fireworks
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