The Pros and Cons of Pyrotechnics

Pyrotechnics are applied in many tasks in our world. Some of these are

ejection seats for military aircraft, exploding dye capsules for banks, trail making, propellant for bullets, fire extinguishing, demolition, airbags for cars, mining, mountain carving, and even helping clean up the tragedy of the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Pyrotechnics have shaped the earth and country with many uses.

The first explosive ever discovered was by old Asian alchemists, they were mixing certain chemicals for a certain spell to cast on themselves. They took the mixture and placed it on a fire, within seconds it exploded causing them to become burned and their hut to burn down. The alchemists wanted to find out what caused it, so they used different combinations of chemicals they has used before until they found out what caused the explosion. They eventually found out that the two chemicals that caused the explosion were sulfur and saltpeter (potassium nitrate). Little did they know that this would give birth to a huge assortment of uses, such as fighting wars and showing art exploding with beautiful colors in the sky. Their creation was not put into use until some time later, but after time passed they experimented by taking a bamboo reed and putting the substance in the hollowed out reed, then inserted arrows on top of the chemical and applied fire to the chemical. The Asians tried to keep this new invention a secret, but the secret got out and spread like a wildfire. (“!History!”)

By the 13th century a man named Roger Bacon the godfather of explosives, showed interest in this new technology and began experimenting with it until he found an even better formula for this powder. He used the original two chemicals, saltpeter and sulfur, but add...

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...very affectively. They say getting hit with just one rubber ball from a sting ball is equivalent to being hit with a 100 MPH pitch from a major league baseball pitcher (“Sting-Ball”). Another law enforcement device that is mostly used for hostage situations and used mainly by S.W.A.T. is the flash bang. The flash bang causes an extremely bright flash of light and a very loud bang and temporally blinds the person or persons in the area and also causes temporary deafness. These devices are a safe and effective alternative to using lethal force. (“Flash-Bang”)

Pyrotechnics have shaped our country and earth in both good and bad ways, they can be beautiful or even deadly fun or dangerous. They serve many purposes on this earth and should continue to do so and shape our earth and nation, although maybe not always for the best but hopefully the good will outweigh the bad.