Fireworks added sparkle to celebrations for centuries

"Why do we use fireworks to celebrate July 4?" asked a teen bike enthusiast at the Libertyville Recreation Department's Teen Travelers Summer Biking Camp.

As the night darkens on July 4, anticipation builds while audiences smooth out blankets and ward off pesky mosquitoes with swats and squirts of bug spray. Chatter halts when the first rocket arcs through the sky with a thunderous boom preceding a fountain of glittery sparks.

In many communities throughout the United States, fireworks cap off Independence Day festivities, a tradition that goes back to the early days of our country.

Our first Independence Day was July 4, 1776, and the first fireworks displays were seen the next year in our nation's former capital, Philadelphia, in Boston and in other major cities throughout the 13 states. A 1789 Independence Day fireworks display at the courthouse in Worcester, Massachusetts, promised audiences the thrill of "rockets, serpents, wheels, table rockets, cherry trees, fountains, and sun flowers." For more than 240 years, communities throughout the United States have presented fireworks displays as the grand finale for Fourth of July Independence Day celebrations.

The tradition of igniting gunpowder to celebrate special events goes much further back in time. It began in China around the year 850 A.D. The search for a potion to ensure eternal life yielded the recipe for gunpowder. A mix of saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal would "fly and dance violently," an ancient observer exclaimed. In China, gunpowder was used only for fireworks. After explorers carried the mixture from China to European countries, the gunpowder saw a new purpose: firepower for cannons. This, of course, made an overwhelming, revolutionary impact on warfare.

The captivating sky displays enjoyed by China's emperors took the European audiences by storm. In the 1400s, experiments with the gunpowder in Italy led to pyrotechnic displays using exploding rockets as the special spark to make memorable celebrations. Spectacles were produced that included fireworks as one element of a celebration, fastening them to sets which would become illuminated by the special rockets. Feast days, saints days, coronations, royal weddings and other special events were capped by a brilliant, loud pyrotechnic display. Into the 1700s, festivities included re-enactments of events like the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and victorious battles. In 1730, Czar Peter the Great, ruler of Russia, built a Theatrum Pyrotechnicum across from his opulent winter palace in St. Petersburg. His son's birth was honored with a four-hour fireworks display.

Basically, fireworks are packed powder in tubes that are set on fire using fuses. Just as the artisans in Italy constructed tubes to hold the gunpowder, the craft of building fireworks still involves hand work. Today's rockets incorporate a lift charge, main fuse, launch tube, black powder tube and "stars," specially designed to allow for sequential ignition of the various components and pressure to force the powder to burst high and wide across the sky.

In the U.S., sales for the fireworks industry, both commercial and retail, total $1 billion annually. The origins in China are still felt; China manufacturers 90 percent of the world's fireworks, although fireworks trade between the U.S. and China has been on the decline since 2013.

What new features will provoke "oohs" and "aahs" at this year's displays? Always trying to find new ways to impress their audiences, fireworks manufacturers focus on creating new designs punctuated by earsplitting, heart-thumping sounds.

"Often the process of developing a new effect is led by reverse imaging," explained Sandy McStay of Zambelli Fireworks, the largest fireworks producer in the world. "Recently one of our customers wanted a fireworks to represent their school logo: a bear paw. We sent the image to our China manufacturer and they developed a template that produced the desired shape in the desired color. Truly special when shot in front of a home football crowd." Zambelli Fireworks is a Pennsylvania company that has produced displays for kings, presidents, special events, jubilees and other momentous milestones and celebrations.

Taking fireworks into your own hands can extremely dangerous. Let the professionals launch Roman candles, diadems, crosettes and rockets so you can safely sit back and enjoy the night time display.