Ceaseless Experimentation Sparks Fireworks, Art, and Science

earliest documentation of the genesis of fireworks points to the 7th century Tang Dynasty in China. Subsequently, these celebratory practices fanned out to other cultures and countries. Some speculate that Marco Polo or returning Crusaders introduced fireworks to the West, though fireworks probably trickled in over the course of many years, tucked among the belongings of various missionaries, traders, or explorers returning from sojourns to the East. Regardless of how knowledge of fireworks seeped into Europe, once there, it took root and flourished. During the Renaissance, two European schools of pyrotechnics emerged and thrived: Italians stressed intricate fireworks displays, and Germans focused on the science behind the spectacle. For centuries, fireworks displays were marvels of sound, fury, and smoke, as pyrotechnicians had far more success mastering the formulas for the oxidations and reductions that ensured successful ascensions and explosions than those that would consistently yield color.