July 4th Eve firecracker post

On this July 4th Eve, which some people unimaginatively call July 3rd, we have a video of Chinese firecracker and fuse factories. For the most part the work is dirty and looks to be tedious piecework. I hope they get paid a decent salary. Give a thought to these poor worker bees as you light the fuses on your fireworks tomorrow.

 

Images from old Japanese fireworks catalogs

Click any image to enlarge

The 4th of July is nearly upon us and of course that means fireworks. These images are from CR Brock and Company's early 20th Century catalog of Japanese fireworks. They are from the City of Yokohama library's digital collection and I found them via La boite verte's article De riches catalogues de feux d’artifices japonais en haute resolution.

You can download PDFs of the catalogs from the Yokohama library site. Run the URL though Google Translate Web to be able to find the links to the PDFs.

As an aside my wife, son and I watched a Tokyo fireworks display from our hotel room a few years back. I have no idea what the occasion for the fireworks was, but it was a very impressive show.