![](http://www.alamy.com/thumbs/6/AF2E0E36-1F19-4B95-8523-A1C942EA4B5D/B5J9WN.jpg)
The fireworks sketched from the mall in saint james s park June 7 1856 The Illustrated London News Page 636
A firework is classified as a low explosive pyrotechnic device used primarily for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. The most common use of a firework is as part of a fireworks display. A fireworks event (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics) is a display of the effects produced by firework devices. Fireworks competitions are also regularly held at a number of places. The biggest fireworks event in the world is held in Madeira, Portugal at the New Years' Eve celebrations, as documented in the Guinness World (devices) take many forms to produce the four primary effects: noise, light, smoke, and floating materials (confetti for example). They may be designed to burn with colored flames and sparks. Displays are common throughout the world and are the focal point of many cultural and religious were originally invented by the Chinese for entertainment purposes, as a natural extension of the Chinese invention of gunpowder. Such important events and festivities as Chinese New Year and the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival were and still are times when fireworks are guaranteed sights. China is the largest manufacturer and exporter of fireworks in the world. China is estimated to have exported over 6 million cases or 120,000 tons of fireworks to the US in are generally classified as to where they perform, either as a ground or aerial firework. In the latter case they may provide their own propulsion (skyrocket) or be shot into the air by a mortar (aerial shell).The most common feature of fireworks is a paper or pasteboard tube or casing filled with the combustible material, often pyrotechnic stars. A number of these tubes or cases are often combined so as to make, when kindled, a great variety of sparkling shapes, often variously colored. The skyrocket is a common form of firework, although the first skyrockets were used in war. The aerial shell, however, is the backbone of today's commercial aerial display
Size: 5025px × 3363px
Photo credit: © Alan King engraving / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -fashioned, 1800, 19th, 2d, academic, age, ancient, antique, antiquity, birdcage, book, buckingham, bw, bygone, central, century, classical, commonwealth, copy, crowd, display, drawing, duck, duplicate, educational, empire, engrave, engraved, engraver, engraving, etching, evening, expression, figure, foreign, formal, fountains, front, frontispiece, graphic, guards, hand, heritage, historic, historical, history, horse, hospital, illustration, image, imperial, island, islands, james, lake, late, legend, legendary, leper, lifelike, london, majestic, majesty, mall, margin, master, monotone, national, night, nineteenth, notable, obscure, observe, obsolete, office, oldest, original, outdoor, palace, paper, park, period, pictorial, picture, portrait, pre, press, previous, print, printed, printing, prior, proof, publication, publicity, queen, rare, real, realism, realistic, reference, replica, represent, representation, repro, reproduce, reproduction, retro, review, romantic, royal, show, small, social, spectator, st., standard, steel, studio, style, subject, teach, time, title, tool, topic, topical, tract, trees, true, unusual, version, victoria, victorian, visual, walk, west, westminster