Fireworks

Kids Learning

Fireworks

No celebration, big events or festivals are complete without the spectacular forms and lights of fireworks. The discovery of fireworks or the formulation of gunpowder is thought to have occurred by chance, some 2,000 years ago in China by a Chinese cook who accidentally mixed three common kitchen ingredients: KNO3, Sulfur and Charcoal. These were heated over a fire and dried to give a black flaky powder which burned with a noisy bang when ignited. This crude mixture is popularly known as gunpowder in this modern time. The Chinese named this strange black powder \”huo yao\” (\”Fire Chemical\”) and developed it further. This mixture was put in into the empty space of a bamboo stick and when thrown into a fire, the gases formed by the ignited burning powder within caused a massive build up of pressure and blasted the tube apart and this process lead to the birth of basic fire cracker. From then onwards, fire crackers played an indispensable part to Chinese festivities as were believed to be powerful enough to scare off evil spirits. it was Italians who developed fireworks as a true art form by developing aerial shells that launched upward and exploded into a fountain of color; lighting up the night sky to the delight of the observers.