Fireworks Blog

Even born and raised in Portugal, now I'm living in Brazil (my second country) and here, the people are very festive and fireworks is something that is present in all kinds of celebrations. From soccer games to New Years Eve, everyday you can hear fireworks banging! Here, in Rio de Janeiro (I believe in other brazilian states is the same), the most used consumer firework is the famous "12x1", that essentially means 12 little bangs and a bigger bang at the end. This firework consists of a mortar filled with a lift charge and the little salutes and works pretty like a mine. Take a look at one of these in the picture below: As you can see, there is the black powder at the bottom, a cardboard disk, then the 12 little salutes, a new cardboard disk and finally, the bigger salute. The salutes didn't go too high as the length of the mortar is not that much, which does not help. Usually you can buy a box containing 6 units for a price about 20 BRL (aprox. ...

In the past 8th February, 2020, a new Guinness World Record was established - The largest aerial Firework Shell ! It weighs about 1,268 kg (2,797 lbs) and was launched at Steamboat Springs ( Colorado - USA ). Despite its big size and weight, in my personal opinion, the effect was not so beautiful as the Japanese huge shells usually are. See the moment of its explosion in this Passfire's channel video below: You can read more about this record visiting the Guinness World Records website  here Congrats to the record holders:  Ed McArthur, Eric Krug, Tim Borden, Jams Cowden Widmann

Today I will talk about the traditional Portuguese fireworks rockets! In my country (Portugal) the most traditional fireworks kind ever made where the rockets . They basically consist of a wood stick or cane with a rocket motor (propellant casing) and a paper bag containg flash bombettes or color effects. They are traditionally hand-launched and many times lit by a cigarette. Rockets, along with other types of fireworks, are used in Portugal mainly in Catholic saints feasts by night, but also during the daylight. Do you know what's the Portuguese word for Rocket ? It's Foguete and the word for Fireworks is Fogo-de-Artifício. Unfortunately, the rockets are banned and replaced by mortars/shells in the summer because the suspect that they caused forest fires during the hot weather when their hot motor (propellant casing) or other parts come falling from the sky but during other seasons you could see rocket displays in many cities and vill...

Today i'm going to talk about the anatomy and function of a Fireworks Shell. As you may already now, there is a variety of fireworks like shells, rockets, mines, roman candles and many others, but today, let's see how a shell looks like and works. The principle is very simple, take a look at the below image: The shell consists of a hard casing, usually made of cardboard or plastic, in this case with a spherical shapping. Inside it, are the stars spread around the casing and in the middle, a bursting charge, made with a black powder like composition and a time fuse, which takes the fire from the outside into inside of the shell, making the burst charge to explode and disperse the starts all around in the air. In the shell bottom, there is a lifting charge, made of granulated black powder that explodes and expels the shell into a high altitude. All the package is put inside a mortar - a tube made with a hard material like steel, iron, cardboard or plastic (H...

Today, let's talk a little about the Fireworks history . It all started with the Chinese threwing bamboo pieces into fire to produce explosions. A batch of Gunpowder: Later, they invented the Gunpowder (Black Powder) , a mixture of Potassium Nitrate (KNO3) - 75%, Charcoal (C) - 15% and Sulphur (S) - 10% near the 9th century and used it primarly in some kind of ancient fire arms like fire arrows, fire lances and hand cannons. The previous bamboo pieces thrown into fire, were now replaced by Gunpowder packed artifacts, later known as Firecrackers and here, the Fireworks shows as we know nowadays started happening. The Chinese believed the bangs caused by their Fireworks were capable of expel evil spirits and give happiness and luck - true or not, if you see a Fireworks show today, you'll certainly feel happy for at least moment! Years later, explorers and travellers took Gunpowder into Europe and the Italians started adding metal and/or metal salts to ...

Welcome to The Fireworks Blog ! The main purpose of this website is to talk and learn about the Fireworks Culture, Art and Technique all around the world. For those that loves Fireworks, it's a must to know about how each country makes and celebrates with Fireworks. I'm a portuguese that lived with Fireworks celebrations every year of my life and the color, sound and smell of gunpowder affected me to a level that take me to build my own Fireworks in a near professional way. From the raw materials to the most impressive effects in the sky there's a mix between science, art and techique that all the people must know about. Interesed in From this: to this: From the curious to the professionals, let's talk and learn about Fireworks!