Question

Boom! The History of Fireworks
Teen Channel: History

John Adams knew how to party.

The illustrious 18th-century U.S. leader understood there's nothing quite like some fireworks to celebrate a special occasion. In 1776, after Adams and his fellow Founders declared the new nation's independence, he foretold that future Americans would use fireworks, or illuminations, to commemorate the historic juncture. "I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival," he wrote. "It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with…Bonfires and Illuminations…from this Time forward forever more."

Adams's glowing prognostication was spot-on. The following year, on July 4, 1777, Americans honored the occasion just as he had proposed, and they've been ooooooing and aaaahhhing over annual fireworks extravaganzas ever since.

But Americans weren't the pioneers of pyrotechnics. People around the world were setting off fireworks long before the United States even existed.

It all started in China sometime around the year 800, when alchemists mixed sulfur, charcoal, and the food preservative saltpeter, a.k.a. potassium nitrate. They were reportedly trying to brew up an elixir that would bestow eternal life, but their dreams of discovering the secret to immortality went up in smoke (literally) because the volatile mixture caught fire and—boom—gunpowder, which is a key ingredient in fireworks, was born.

Revelers soon recognized gunpowder's potential for saluting big days with a bang. If you were invited to an event feting the New Year, a marriage, or an infant's birth in China in the 9th century, the festivities might include early versions of fireworks, which were made of bamboo or paper tubes packed with gunpowder and then tossed into a fire, where they exploded. They weren't much to look at—in fact, their main purpose was to make a lot of noise. (Historians seem to be silent on the issue of whether babies appreciated the cacophony created in their honor.)

Flash forward a few hundred years, and the first aerial fireworks took off. At a martial demonstration or lavish imperial feast in China in the 1200s, you could watch with wonder as rocket-propelled fireworks zoomed aloft to explode.

From China, gunpowder and fireworks spread to other places in the world, making their way to the Middle East and Europe around the 1200s. At the behest of European monarchs seeking to upstage one another, "firemasters" came up with large, increasingly baroque designs to showcase at flamboyant royal functions. At one of these spectacles in Europe around the year 1600, a guest could have witnessed a variety of fireworks shooting overhead and bursting in blazes of glory, but they would all be the same color: fiery orange.

So when did fireworks make the shift from monochromatic to multicolored? There's evidence that Chinese pyrotechnicians had been experimenting with coloration for centuries, but the modern, multihued fireworks we now see in most professional displays were invented in the 1830s in Italy. Italian engineers systematically added metals that burn in different colors and developed the aerial shell that propels these fireworks high into the sky.

Today, brilliant minds are still working to improve pyrotechnics, devising fireworks that burn cleaner and are better for the environment. With less smoke in the air, spectators can breathe easier and get a clearer view.

When it comes to commemorating America's independence, 21st-century fireworks are even more scintillating than John Adams could have imagined. The pyrotechnic palette now includes the patriotic hues of red, white, and blue, and modern engineers have used an impressive combination of precise technical skill and amazing artistry to spell out USA and even recreate the entire American flag. These sky-high masterpieces might only last a few moments, but they're the explosive culmination of more than a thousand years of innovation.

Think about and discuss these questions:
Describe new insights or understandings you have after reading this article.
What else would you like to know about the history of fireworks? Where do you think you could find that information?

Video credit: © Achieve3000

Question 3


3 / 8

Which is the closest synonym for the word baroque?


somber
collegiate
flamboyant
tolerable

Answer 1

flamboyant

Explanation: "Baroque" here means overly ornate or showy, which matches "flamboyant."