To the right is a picture of an early Chinese man lighting a firework.

 

 

As you can see from above, the flying firework has been around for a few thousand years. Most people think the Chinese discovered fireworks, but no one is sure. However, if the Chinese did discover fireworks it was probably an accident. Part of the mystery of where they came from is that the main ingredient in fireworks is gunpowder. Gunpowder is made of charcoal, sulfur, and saltpeter. These things can be found almost anywhere on earth.

One theory is that a group of people living in China ran out of salt, so they used saltpeter instead. (Saltpeter tastes like salt, and some Chinese still use it to season their food today.) The maybe someone accidentally dropped some saltpeter in the cooking fire, then they surely would have noticed the bright flames that followed. They could have then experimented and found that saltpeter makes charcoal burn a long time. This could be used for making a new campfire somewhere else. After all that maybe a rock used to line the fire pit had a little bit of sulfur in it and then it VIOLENTLY would explode. The people could then use this mixture to make fireworks.

Another, more simple, idea is that a Chinese alchemist (a man who messes with chemicals.) was experimenting with these mixtures and found that they cause explosions. This could have happened because alchemists often tried to turn everyday materials into gold. Sulfur has a yellow color so he may have been using this over a fire, with saltpeter, BANG!

The first people to document the usage of fireworks where also the Chinese, they showed how to wrap gunpowder in paper, and add a few chemicals to make a "Fire Pill". The book this was in is believed to come from A.D. 1040. Other pages tell of fireworks much like those used today.

Many people believe gunpowder got to Europe by Marco Polo’s first visit to China, others believe that it was also discovered in England when the people didn't’t know about the Chinese discovery.

Another early usage of fireworks was by the Roman’s, it is believed it was used around A.D. 670. What they did was mix sulfur, saltpeter, and several other chemicals. This made a slow burning, highly flammable liquid that could be dumped on the enemy. Years later they used small gunpowder charges to hurl this mixture much farther. Thus the first guns were created. Since the Roman "gun" fired liquid, the first cannon kind of gun was made in Germany in the 1300"s.

Eventually the military started to light fireworks to entertain people for major events. By the early 1500’s people had jobs totally devoted to fireworks, and all this led up to the fireworks of today.

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