The first fireworks were most likely created in China during the tenth century and employed for ceremonial purposes. Dependent on black powder ( gunpowder) for their pyrotechnical displays, fireworks typically consist of a fuel source, an oxidizer, a fuse, and color-producing compounds. The gunpowder itself, a ground-up mixture of potassium nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal, is the most important variable and determines the speed, height, and bursting power of the charge. The large-scale manufacture of fireworks is carried on today in a number of countries, including Japan, France, England, Spain, Italy, and the United States. Major fireworks displays are enjoyed the world over and have become requisite centerpieces of such festivals, observances, and holidays as the Fourth of July, New Year's Eve, Mardi Gras and the Chinese New Year. The history of fireworks, a peaceful invention, is intertwined with that of early instruments of war. From the tenth until the late seventeenth century, gunpowder was employed primarily with projectiles, first arrows and, later, gunshot and cannon balls. Similarly, the first firework was also a projectile, resembling the modern-day Roman candle and spewing balls of fire from a bamboo tube.
Although the Chinese were the originators of this device, the Arabs hold claim to developing, in 1353, the first gun, a bamboo tube reinforced with iron to withstand the explosive pressure of the compacted powder. However, it was an Englishman, Roger Bacon (c. 1214-1292), who wrote the first specific instructions for the preparation of black powder in the form of a Latin anagram printed in 1242. Bacon's recipe has since been altered and improved upon for both military and industrial uses. For fireworks manufacturers--nearly all longstanding, family-owned businesses--black powder recipes are highly prized and carefully guarded trade secrets. Perhaps the first person to ardently promote and cultivate the stunning visual and dramatic possibilities of fireworks was King Louis XIV of France, who reigned from 1643 to 1715 and whose palace at Versailles formed the perfect backdrop for his lavish, fireworks-punctuated galas. In much the same Baroque spirit today, the best fireworks displays emphasize pageantry, ornateness, and surprise, all with the assistance of computerized choreography, split-second electrical firing, elaborate one-of-a-kind set pieces, and massive lines of mortars from which the large shells (stars, chrysanthemums, comets, peonies, salutes, etc.) are launched. The six basic fireworks colors (along with their key ingredients) are white (magnesium or aluminum), yellow (sodium salts), red (strontium nitrate or carbonate), green (barium nitrate or chlorate), blue (copper salts), and orange (charcoal or iron). Fireworks, which come in three general classifications, are widely restricted or prohibited for private use, and range in size from the 3/4 inch-long (2 cm) ladyfinger firecracker to the world record Fat Man II, a 720-pound (326 kg), 40.5 inch-diameter (102 cm) shell fired near Titusville, Florida, on October 22, 1977.
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