EXPLOSIVE FACTS ABOUT FIRECRACKERS

EXPLOSIVE FACTS ABOUT FIRECRACKERS

BERKELEY, Calif. (Wireless Flash) -- Most Americans associate firecrackers with the Fourth off July but they were also a Christmas tradition until the 1930s. According to firecracker historians Warren Dotz, Jack Mingo and George Moyer, fireworks have been an American Fourth of July tradition since 1787 when ship owner Elias Derby brought Chinese explosives back to Massachusetts. Before that, the colonists celebrated Independence Day by shooting guns and exploding anvils with gun powder. Up until the 1930s, folks in the south preferred exploding firecrackers at Christmas time, mainly because the Civil War left them ambivalent about America. Dotz, Mingo and Moyer blow the lid off fireworks in a new book, "Firecrackers: The Art And History" (Ten Speed Press).