Fireworks Fun Facts 

• The exact origins of fireworks are unknown, although legend has it that the Chinese made the first fireworks in 800 a.d. by filling bamboo shoots with gunpowder. However, they may have been developed in India or the Arab world. Europeans became familiar with fireworks during the 1300's, probably after the Crusaders returned home.
  

• Fireworks were soon applied to warfare by attaching them to arrows. The first such use, sometime in the 1200's, involved placing powder into paper tubes with a fuse or a trail of gunpowder wrapped in tissue paper that was attached to the arrows.
  
• By the 1400's, Florence, Italy, was the center of fireworks manufacturing. 
  
• During the 1700's fireworks displays became more elaborate and were popular with European royalty.
  
  • King Louis XV held extravagant displays at Versailles
  • Czar Peter the Great put on a five hour show after the birth of his son
  • American settlers used fireworks to mark happy occasions
    
• The first Independence Day fireworks display was in 1776 
  
• Early fireworks were more about sound than show. Over time, people discovered that using chemical compounds with greater amounts of oxygen made explosives burn brighter and longer. 

• Multi-hues displays enjoyed today began in the 1830's, when Italians added trace amounts of metals that when burned at high temperatures create colors. Adding calcium deepens colors, titanium creates sparks, and zinc creates smoke clouds.

Common Colors
Blue: Copper salts
Gold: Aluminum, magnesium
Green: Barium Salts
Red: Strontium Salts
White: Aluminum, magnesium
Yellow: Sodium Salts 

• Because the static electricity in synthetic clothing can cause sparks, those who make shells wear cotton clothing, all the way down the their underwear. 
  
• Thirty years ago, a typical fireworks display lasted an hour, while today's shows rarely last more than 20 minutes. 
  
• The art of making fireworks is known as pyrotechnics; firework professionals are known as pyrotechnists or pyrotechnicians.
  
• Because of the effect caused, pyrotechnicians call a firework that misfires and explodes within the launch tube a flowerpot. 

• While consumer fireworks are illegal in some of the 50 United States, licensed public displays are forbidden in none.