HAPPY BIRTHDAY ‘MERICA!!

You look good for 233 years old (not a day over 229 years old).

Watching a suburban neighborhood in Santa Cruz, CA attempt to re-enact scenes from “Apocalypse Now” with fireworks – drunk on gunpowder and patriotism – inspired me to look up a few things:

• AD 1044 - The Chinese Wujing Zongyao military compendium contains the oldest surviving recipe for gunpowder and also a description of how to use explosives-laden birds as weapons. [link]

• AD 1325 - The Chinese Huolong Jing military manual describes a weapon called Huolong Chu Shui “Fire Dragon Issuing from Water.” It had booster rockets that carried the dragon-shaped missile into enemy territory, then other charges ignited rocket-powered arrows which shot from the mouth of the dragon. [link]

• AD 1325 - The Chinese Huolongjing military manual describes a weapon called “Flying Crow with Magic Fire.” A crow-shaped wickerwork kite with rocket boosters beneath its wings – it delivered a tremendous explosion upon impact.

• Fireworks Colors - Modern fireworks are colored by mineral salts added to the explosive mixtures. REDS: strontium or lithium salts; ORANGES: calcium salts; YELLOWS: sodium salts; GREENS: barium or chromium salts; BLUES: copper salts; PURPLES: potassium salts or mixing strontium and copper salts; WHITES: barium oxide or powdered magnesium, titanium, or aluminum; GOLDS: powdered iron.


Thousand Fire Dragon Thunderclap Bonus Round:
The fury of 16,000 firecrackers

(images from Wikimedia Commons, photo by Semnoz)

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