It takes a lot of work to create the extraordinary displays we enjoy on the Fourth of July. Sometimes, the staging alone can take hours of planning for a few minutes’ worth of display—it takes even ...

Matt Shea has photos of himself at age 9 during a bicentennial celebration in 1976, wearing a tricorn hat. “Fifty years ago, a fireworks company would visit the fire department. They shot the ...

In a multi-break firework, stars are contained in separate cardboard compartments within the shell. Each compartment has its own bursting charge, which ignites and throws out the stars. In order to ...