Firecrackers and ground rats

Look below for some fast facts about the history of fireworks.

Look here if you want some more details about fireworks. That's where the fast facts came from.

Fast facts for fireworks:

• The first firecrackers were most likely chunks of green bamboo. They exploded if you threw them in a bonfire. That's because bamboo grows so fast that pockets of air get trapped inside. The air and sap expands and the plant explodes with a bit of a bang!
• The strange sound frightened people and the Chinese thought they would scare nasty spirits even more. That;s why they started to throw green bamboo onto bonfires at special occasions like the New Year, birthdays and weddings. The Chinese called the "bursting bamboo" pao chuk.
• A Chinese cook might have discovered gunpowder accidentally when he mixed some chemicals over a fire. He ended up with a flaky black powder which burned with a huge puff of flame when lit!
• It was also found that the bamboo exploded with an even bigger bang if the huo vao (fire chemical) was poured into the bamboo. These bamboo bangers could have been the world's first firecrackers.
• Over time the firecracker experts worked out how to make their explosives more powerful and noisier. They even found out how to shoot firecrackers on their arrows to scare their enemies.
• It wasn't long before the firecracker makers began to fill paper tubes with gunpowder. They made little fuses out of tissue paper. The paper bangers were louder than bamboo!
• One day the ground rat was invented. One end of the fire cracker was left open and the burning gas inside shot out and propelled the cracker along the ground. The army started to use these ones to give their enemies a bit of a fright.
• Sometimes the rats flew up in the air so someone made fins for the crackers to straighten their flight path. Now the Chinese had rockets!

What if you were the Chinese cook?

Write a recipe for his cook book. Set it out like your dumpling recipe so it shows how he made his famous bamboo firecracker. Just make up the names of his chemicals. For example he may have used a pinch of fire sand, a teaspoon of sparkle powder and half a cup of rocket juice!