Fireworks are meant to dazzle the eye and the mind with spectacular colors. The colors burst out into awesome shapes and are accompanied by extremely loud booms, bangs and whistles. By definition the word “firework” means: a device for producing a striking display by the combustion of explosive or flammable compositions. Fireworks are one of the few things today that were discovered by accident.
Fireworks have an interesting history; well actually they have many histories. The history of fireworks goes back thousands of years to the Han dynasty, about 200 B.C. long before gunpowder was invented. It is believed that the first “firecrackers” were chunks of green fresh cut bamboo were thrown onto fires when dry wood ran short. They began to burn nicely, but eventually they randomly exploded. What happened is that because bamboo grows so rapidly that pockets of air and sap are trapped inside the bamboo chute. And when the air is heated is expands, keep on heating it and pressure builds up in the bamboo until it explodes with a loud long crack!
Now for the gunpowder side of the story. The birthplace of fireworks is generally recognized as China, this belief has not been disproved. The way gunpowder was discovered is actually quite funny. A cook in a field kitchen supposedly discovered gunpowder accidentally; some time in the Song dynasty, about 960-1279 A.D. This cook had found that a mixture of sulfur, saltpeter and charcoal were very flammable when mixed together. (The funny part is that these 3 items were all common kitchen ingredients). Okay so it isn't that funny, but it is odd. This crazy cook also discovered that it become explosive than confined in a small space and ignited. It is surprising that this field cook lived to tell the tale of the exploding substance. Now after sharing his discovery, other monks and cooks alike were experimenting with gunpowder a lot. They found that certain colors were created when other colors were added into the mix, and then ignited.
The Chinese developed rockets and used them to help defeat the Mongol invaders of 1279. Fireworks have had many uses over the hundreds of years since they have been created. The Chinese had many uses for it. Because fireworks were new to the world the loud booms and bangs were frightening to animals and humans. The Chinese figured that if it scared living creatures so much, it would probably scare away spirits, particularly an evil spirit called Nian, who they believed to eat crops and people. After that, it became customary for them to throw green bamboo onto a fire during the Lunar New Year in order to scare Nian and other spirits far way, thus ensuring happiness and prosperity to their people for the remainder of the year. Soon, the Chinese were using bursting bamboo for other special occasions, such as weddings, coronations, and births. The "bursting bamboo", or pao chuk as the Chinese called it, along with simple firecrackers continued to be used at such events and are still used today. Today they aren't as primitive as they used to be, but in one way or another the Chinese still use fireworks, or bamboo in celebrations.
Although gunpowder was discovered in china, the majority of the research and usage was happening in Europe. Germans were developing fireworks to use them in battles. The Italians were using fireworks to mark great occasions. Firework schools were established in Germany and Italy during the renaissance. The one in Italy emphasized elaborate fireworks while the one in Germany stressed scientific advancement. The British were using fireworks for all kinds of celebrations; even some people of the middle class were using them. Queen Elizabeth I loved fireworks so much she created a royal position for a professional firework maker: “The Fire Master of England” King James II liked the fireworks display at his coronation that he knighted his Fire Master. Black powder also enabled the development of rockets, cannons, and guns. But throughout all these developments, fireworks were still just a bright light in the sky; there really wasn't that much color. This went on until around the 19th century, until pyrotechnicians started experimenting with metals.
Before the 19th Century, the only colors that could be produced were yellows and oranges with
Temperature (C)
Color
480
Faint Red
580
Dark Red
730
Red/Orange
930
Bright Orange
1100
Orange/Yellow
1300
Yellow/White
>1400
White
the use of steel and charcoal. Later development involved Chlorates that introduced basic reds and greens to the repertoire. Good blues and purples were not developed until this century and the quest for a deep forest green firework color is still going on. There are two ways to make a firework produce color: incandescence and luminescence. Incandescence is the light produced from heat. Heat causes the substance to grow hot and glow. This results in the emission of infrared rays, then moves up the spectra to white light spectra, which is visible to our eyes. But heating of a substance to produce light can only work to about the color orange. Then it becomes too hard to get any color further along the spectrum. Blues and greens require much higher temperatures and so cannot be formed using this method. Instead, they are created by Luminescence.
