* There are different shapes of fireworks and each shape has its own name. The skill of creating and setting them off is called pyrotechnics.
* There are three main components that are required, which are an oxidizer, a fuel, and a chemical mix to produce the colour.
* Fireworks were invented more than 2000 years ago in China. As early as 200 B.C., the Chinese were writing on green bamboo stalks and heating it on coals to dry. Sometimes if left too long over the heat, the wood would expand and even burst, with a bang.
* A firework can be defined as a device that uses combustion or explosion and produces a visual or auditory effect.
* According to Scientific American, Chinese scholars noticed that the noises effectively scared off abnormally large mountain men. And, thus, the firecracker was born. By some accounts, fireworks were also thought to scare away evil spirits.
* China is also the largest manufacturer and exporter of fireworks. Approximately 90% supply originates from there.
* While China invented fireworks, Italy invented the “aerial shell” in the 1830s. That’s what creates the shape that a firework produces. It propels pyrotechnic stars made of chemicals into the sky.
* Italy also figured out that using different metallic powders in the fireworks could produce specific colours.
* How do they make the different colours? When the different metal elements burn, their electrons get excited, and they release energy in the form of light. Different chemicals burn at different wavelengths of light; that means that we see different colours.
* To name some examples, titanium and magnesium burn silver or white; calciumburns orange; sodium burns yellow; and barium burns green.
* Blue is the most difficult colour to create, and blue fireworks tend to look dimmer than the other colours.
* Even some of the very first Independence Day celebrations in the United States of America involved fireworks: On July 4, 1777, Philadelphia put together an elaborate day of festivities which included a grand exhibition of fireworks.
* Animals don’t react well to the loud fireworks: Dogs whimper. Cats hide under the bed. Birds become so startled they get disoriented and fly into things. Even some people have extreme fears of fireworks or noise phobia.
* Queen Elizabeth I was really into fireworks and she even created a court position called “Fire Master of England”.
* Firework makers are strictly instructed to wear cotton clothes because synthetic fabrics generate static electricity.
* The first ever recorded use of fireworks was in England at the wedding of King Henry VII in 1486.
* The largest consumer of fireworks is the Walt Disney Company.
These facts were compiled from Easyscienceforkids.com and Smithsonian.com
