How Fireworks Work

Britain lights its Bonfire Night fireworks on 5 November, remembering the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, and Diwali follows on 8 November 2026. This film explains the established chemistry behind every burst: black powder, discovered by Chinese alchemists in the 9th century, and why a mixture of saltpetre, charcoal and sulfur burns so fast; how an aerial shell is launched from a mortar and timed to burst; how heated atoms of strontium, barium, copper and sodium give off their own colours, and why blue is the hardest; where the white sparks, the bangs, the crackles and the whistles come from; and what fireworks leave behind, from smoke and perchlorate to injuries, with the cleaner chemistry chemists are working on.

Colours from atoms

How black powder, paper shells and heated atoms make a firework.

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