The Science of Fireworks!

A brief history of the modern firework.
Help us write subtitles for thislecture: http://www.youtube.com/timedtext_video?v=rmtK2BgmGCw
Professor Chris Bishop, presenter of the 2008 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, gives a family lecture on the history of the modern firework.

Through demonstrations of pyrotechnic chemistry hear how Chinese incendiaries made from honey led to the development of gunpowder; discover how the loud bangs of fireworks are routed in the origins of photography; and find out how an accident in a nineteenth-century kitchen sparked a new chemistry for firework making.

Recorded at the University of Cambridge on the 4 November 2011.

Watch the 2012 Christmas Lectures in full on the Ri Channel: http://bit.ly/VJM09x

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