The Science of Fireworks - with Chris Bishop

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.
The Ri is on Twitter: / ri_science
and Facebook: / royalinstitution
and Tumblr: / ri-science
Our editorial policy: www.rigb.org/home/editorial-po...
Subscribe for the latest science videos: bit.ly/RiNewsletter

[@bitsofskin2088]

This guy is very easy and enjoyable to watch/follow as he talks. My kids have alot of respect for him. Very informative, and he keeps his audience 100% engaged. Brilliant presentation Thank you, Prof. Bishop.

[@fyrcrack1]

This guy is a brilliant educator!

[@pentachronic]

I've always loved the Ri lectures. As a kid I used to look forward to them at Christmas. So glad they are still going.

[@Jager-er4vc]

Just imagine if all teachers were this informative, amazing and engaging! I would have looked forward to going to school like Christmas Morning!!

[@WinAtLottery]

Unfortunately, science teachers can’t do that. This lecture is expensive and to do this multiple times a day would be too costly. These are also just the highlights of an entire course. 95% of the course would be calculating the chemistry involved which is not as fun as the demonstration. Putting something together like this takes a lot of time that teachers don’t have. Most of our time is going to be spent grading your papers. This great for a 1 off presentation but impossible to do daily in a real educational setting. Just facing reality, science is mostly boring with the occasional awesomeness. You are just seeing the awesome parts here, just all at once.

[@MadScientist267]

Dude should get him a real timer tho... His "seconds" are funny 🤣

[@arwelroberts2123]

In a lot of ways I wish I was a child growing up in todays modern age. As a child I hated school and bunked off as often as I could get away with which left me in the lowest of the low forms. I did however make good my education after joining the Royal Navy and then the Ambulance service where I studied to become a Paramedic. Today learning is made such fun and so easy with programs like this and the Periodic Lectures to name but a few. Even at the age of 61 I still find learning fun. Thank you.

[@Observ45er]

+Arwel Roberts : Glad to hear you made good of yourself. Thank you for this service. You may look at Mr Wizard videos on KZbin. I grew up with Don Herbert's TV show. Cheers, ScienceAdvisorSteve

[@TheChipmunk2008]

Arwel Roberts I agree completely with Observ45er, making good, and more importantly keeping the enjoyment of learning, is a wonderful thing :)

[@DhanukaEdirisinghe]

+Arwel Roberts Really? I find it rather boring now, this stuff never ever happens at our schools! This is really fun! But I guess it is easier to learn though. With new technology. But even if, I should be glad and happy about my life being lucky enough unlike some people to watch these programmes. Therefore Ri Thanks.

[@Oliepolie]

Arwel Roberts trust me, it probably got worse, I haven't learned that much about science in school. About 2/3 of science things I learn, it's from myself a looking up videos

[@2450logan]

Oliepolie from years 7-12 all I remember is blowing stuff up in science, heck I burnt a substantial number of tables, gunna miss high school

[@zlmdragon]

This man just straight up taught a bunch of kids exactly how to make gun powder and I'm all for it

[@JesterAzazel]

Now they're all going to be digging their 20 ton grinders out of the bottom of their toy boxes.

[@MaryAnnNytowl]

Hey, it's kinda hard to get good quality potassium nitrate, so... it's not much of a concern until they get old enough to have their own debit cards to order it online 😄

[@TheExplosiveGuy]

@@MaryAnnNytowl You've never heard of Stump-Out, have you?🤣 KNo3 is readily available at the hardware store, as is sulfur, and proper charcoal is easy enough to make with some willow branches packed in a sealed metal box which then gets placed in a fire, and nobody would question a kid wanting a rock tumbler😂. I was making black powder by age 12 and was getting into _much_ more energetic substances by age 14🤣. Now that I'm older I stick to safer stuff like rockets and fireworks lol.

[@TheMeanAdmin]

I knew how to make nitrocellulose since I was 10 or 11, and gunpowder quite a bit earlier... But then - I was going to a Russian school, dunno how's science taught in Britain or US

[@lukebaehr3851]

@@TheMeanAdmin here in the US the Marxist subverting infilitraters are teaching that chemistry is racist!

[@kiamania]

This is great for everyone who enjoys Fireworks, showing the hard work these professionals do for our entertainment on firework displays.

[@ANTINUTZI]

... As Professor Bishop was setting up his experiment to see how long that line of his handmade gunpowder would take to burn through, the Eternal Boy Scout that still lives somewhere within me mentally set up to time the line's burn, using the classic silent "One-one thousand, Two-one thousand, Three-one thousand" & etc. technique ... and I got 8 seconds. When the good Professor guesstimated the burn time as *12* seconds, my jaw dropped. So, I grabbed a handy digital timer which I keep on my worktable, scrolled the video back and timed the burn time again ... *7 seconds,* and I was a smidge late starting the timer. ... Fair Point to me, I think. Seeing Lycopodium powder again brought back fond memories of elementary school science class. I was fascinated to learn that the powder was actually dried spores of the puffball fungus, which I'd seen for myself while stomping around the woods on camping trips. Being A Boy, when I espied some of the little round puffballs, I stomped them, and was surprised to see what looked for all the world to be a blast of fine dust come out. My science teacher further amazed me with the information that this very powder was what was first used as "flash powder" during Photography's early days. They sprinkled it into that T-shaped gizmo they would hold up during the photograph's exposure, and touch it off. But Lycopodium powder had one more fascinating trick ... my science teacher half-filled a beaker with water, sprinkled some of the powder into it, and it all floated on the surface. None of it seemed to be mixing with the water. My teacher chose me to come up, and just dip my forefinger into the water, right through the powder, up to the second knuckle, and then pull my finger back up and out ... because she knew my reaction would be priceless ... and it was. My jaw literally dropped, because my finger remained *absolutely dry.* ... Now armed with a little knowledge and therefore dangerous, the very next camping trip I went out on, I made sure that I was carrying my little waterproof cannister of phosphorous-tipped (strikes on anything) wood matches, and you just *know* what's coming, don't you? I found the most amazing close grouping of three nice, round puffballs, and with my fellow Scouts wondering what the Hell I was up to, I got a match at the ready, quickly mentally rehearsed what you already know I pulled off, stomped as hard as I could on the three puffballs, the spores exploded up and out into the air, and I struck the match. The brilliant flash of flame and light that resulted got even more of the reaction I'd hoped for ... my fellow Scouts were looking at me like I had suddenly sprouted *horns* from my forehead, or something. They couldn't get over it, and that night, we were all sneaking around in the woods, stomping and detonating all the puffballs we could find. What that must have looked like from a distance must have been magical. I seriously doubt that there was a single puffball left intact within a half-mile radius that night ... and in the dark, that flash was simply *spectacular.* I'll be 67 next month, and my lifelong love of Science has served me wonderfully well throughout my last 42 years of making multimedia art. Creative effects are merely the Onstage of what's *really* going on *Backstage.*

[@elephystry]

I think he must have counted the burning of the fuse.

[@ANTINUTZI]

... You might be right about that. Back in the late '60's, you could buy a smallish container of saltpeter at your friendly neighborhood drugstore. It was sold as a diuretic, but I and my goofily diabolical buddies had *other* plans. Also at the drugstore you could buy "flowers of sulphur", which was sold as a laxative. For the charcoal, we ground up a couple of briquets intended for backyard barbecues. Guesstimating the prescribed proportions as best we could, we mixed it all up, and then poured out a 1" thick line on my house's asphalt driveway (mistake), and lit 'er up. Worked like a charm. Yet as excited as our youthful testosterone got us, we weren't dumb enough to try for an actual explosion by packing the stuff into something. The lit line did a job on the driveway's asphalt, but quick thinking fixed the problem by waiting for the molten asphalt to cool somewhat, and then stomping it back into it's original form, more or less. And believe it or not, we were all so amazed by the stuff's power that we genuinely couldn't think of anything to do with it that wouldn't be too dangerous ... so we carefully poured it all into a bucket, wet it down using the garden hose, and then power-blasted the resultant slurry with the hose until it was watered down, and ran down into the lawn, where we throughly power-blasted it again to further dilute it. Then we worried that it would kill the lawn, but it didn't. Quite the opposite, the lawn *loved it* ... and for some years afterwards, that part of the lawn was much lusher, and greener than the rest. We all showed some solid common sense that day, and that's a good memory. We had a great time, and afterwards, could still count to 10 on our fingers. Crazy, just a little. *Stupid,* not at all.

[@DMSG1981]

handy digital timer, eh? Any particular reason you didn't you have a look at the timestamps of the beginning and ending of the combustion? It's a digital video after all. Btw, if you do that, you get 7-8 seconds as well.

[@elephystry]

+DMSG1981 r/nobodyasked

[@theyappingvoyager]

Thomas Cervasio, you must have a very happy childhood.

[@Veaseify]

You would never guess his day job is researching machine learning for Microsoft, this is essentially his 'hobby' - if only all brilliant men were able to relate to the general public as easily as he does, wonderful stuff.

[@zackh8759]

chris bishop is the perfect person to make education scientific videos, just brilliant

[@onnersbaba12]

Sure, why not. Thanks Algorithm!

[@keanuvanlierop1088]

Yea same but a year later. Sometimes KZbin knows I want, but mostly not

[@MadScientist267]

Home of the 8 second 12 seconds

[@crzydreamer]

I love it. This needs more views. Saw it before going to a fire work show, and made the fireworks more interesting...at least to me. Thank you for the awesome lesson!

[@Name-js5uq]

Chris I just want to say I know you probably don't get the thank you that you deserve but I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping set up that nice demonstration.

[@W.O.P.R]

I could watch Mr. Bishop’s lectures and demonstrations all day

[@billthomas9109]

Another great lecture. Super presentation!!!!

[@ElTurbinado]

I love Chris Bishop's lectures, thanks!

[@hawkeye0248]

What a lovely presentation.

[@keithbrown2458]

Always enjoy your presentations my grandson loves them as well, thank you so much for sharing. Well done sir!

[@rgarlinyc]

That was very, uh... enlightening! Thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it!

[@andrewdurant5452]

Excellent lecture, I really enjoyed the whole thing.

[@noctisves6293]

I had to do a presentation in fireworks, what they were made of and how and why they work the way they do and this helped me so much! Thank you very much! 😁

[@concordskijr]

Absolutely brilliant! He's such a nice guy aswell!

[@terryofford4977]

A wonderful presentation. My Science masters at my school were much like Prof Bishop. Chemistry and general science was vitally interesting and thankfully, I became so wrapped in it . Ultimately I created my own chemical business and the rest is history. Science is NOT a subject to be afraid of,the world revolves around the sciences, knowledge of the sciences is a great and ever changing method of creativity. It would be nice to see more girls becoming interested in the sciences. Think about it,Cosmetics, Hair shampoos, Cooking, all products of the sciences.Terry Offord

[@nicksgarage8295]

And what business is that chemical production ?

[@ZoonCrypticon]

Excellent work with the children, thank you for that!

[@darkerarts]

Brilliant production. Would love to be studying the sciences again.

[@razelramacula5412]

This lecture is very educational and entertaining! Chris Bishop wonderfully explains and demonstrates, through experiments, how the chemistry of fireworks over time has changed and developed to create stronger combustion, different colors and different creation of explosions.

[@MamaRavensCreations]

This is absolutely fantastic! I wish you were my chemistry professor

[@frankvde8964]

Fascinate children through fun experiments and therefore encourage them to follow science lessons is a beautiful thing.

[@Name-js5uq]

Chris because of you I learned a lot today and also thank you to the presenter as well

[@athb4hu]

Most enjoyable, thank you.

[@jakemartin876]

i had to watch this for homework and i was suprisingly entertained

[@fadumamohamed3272]

Mr Rawat?

[@noahtabor9399]

What a lovely demonstration!

[@justinmcgillivary3702]

Wonderful lecture! Thanks for sharing!

[@krisgold9077]

Thank you for sharing, kind Sir's!

[@iamanon4u]

Superbly explained and demonstrated. Well done!

[@TheChannelOfU]

Thank you for making me NOT fail my chemistry test!

[@trackinggod8087]

If every chemistry lecture had been this interesting, I would have learned it a lot faster and remembered it longer!

[@kevintucker3354]

He he yeah, fire.

[@manmarvels]

Goog fifth ng

[@manmarvels]

Citric

[@mixolydian2010]

Very slick throughout, very good speaker, very clear explanations.

[@gkelly941]

Great lecture and demonstration. And a great way to get children interested in chemistry.

[@joelfromportland]

I can't wait to copy the demonstrations at home!

[@joelfromportland]

Just kidding of course 😉

[@kylealexander7024]

@@joelfromportland tell that to ur NSA handler bub

[@raredesign]

Amazing lecture. Thank you.

[@philkennedy342]

Stunning lecture really enjoyed watching and learning on a fascinating subject 👍👍👍

[@daved295]

Entertaining and educational. Really enjoyed this.

[@ravestyle]

Great lecture and demonstration.

[@OPGAMER.]

I Just Come here randomly and now I am loving their videos

[@DonnaChassis]

Thank You, Royal Institution, for this, interesting lecture.

[@wpchastain]

Really enjoyed the presentation. Thanks

[@TrasherBiner]

Wow ... Kevin Spacey has really made a turn in his carreer, dropping Hollywood life for the Royal Institute. He even put those glasses on to look more scientist-like. I like his new accent too. Keep it up, Kevin.

[@Djembe908]

So edicational! Keep up uploading!

[@newmoon54]

This reminds me of when I was in elementary school, and we would get guest visitors from NASA, and the Brookhaven Lab, an many others. They would do experiments like these, and also liquid chemistry experiments as well. Those were wonderful moments that I can't forget if I wanted to!!!! I hope the grade schoolers are still getting visits from the science labs, and Nasa!

[@slowcloudorca5071]

Very well done!

[@ANOLDMASTERJUKZ]

' Excellent lecture and demo's !!! '.

[@manoj26885]

really good demonstration on fire work. Like it. Vikram Sarabhai Community Science Center, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. Thanks.

[@gravityimage5]

This is fascinating.

[@xXNightFighterXx]

Amazing!

[@pedramzadeh1097]

I absolutely love chemistry and physics

[@sumithamohan3428]

I love the lecture

[@chriscopeland1455]

awesome presentation loved it lol im a huge firework chemistry fan

[@pyrothefirst]

nice!! a good introduction into fireworks. From a 30 year pyro and manufacturer

[@jincheng9549]

I love your videos.keep making more

[@Barak24893]

That's just great !! although I've learned must of it at school, that was a great lecture !

[@iratozer9622]

What an excellent presentation. This is how children should be enthusiastically educated.

[@throwaway2011]

1 hour of science! Yeah!!!!

[@lewisn3330]

Great video

[@anthonyhettinger9702]

He has the perfect outgoing personality with great balance of human traits..

[@ra777wow]

Very good lecture.

[@hariishr]

Good one, very well explained

[@YourFirst100k]

Loved it!

[@cyklotronpl7785]

excellent lecture

[@DoubleDeckerAnton]

Fantastic...I learned so much.

[@coastwalker]

Its sad that so few people have seen this as it is great fun and tells you a lot about fireworks

[@Slow.Learner.Devolution]

Fantastic!

[@paulnixon752]

Chris Bishop is my favorite

[@mohammadobeidat6418]

Good Job And Nice Lecture Professor

[@swadeshtaneja3512]

Absolutely fabulous presentation. 🙏🌹🇮🇳

[@MrGuitars8]

SHARP MINDS , I LOVE IT .

[@honkynel]

K is the last letter of firework. Legend.

[@JasonVladimir]

Good show!

[@Suburp212]

Well prepared lecture

[@nikhilpundir1433]

This 1 hour lecture broadened my knowledge more than all the years of high school put together... 😍😍

[@MaryAnnNytowl]

That's an extremely poor indicator of the quality of the schools you attended. Either that, or a poor indicator of your willingness to learn at the time. Or, both, really. And, one would surmise, you mean chemistry knowledge, not... other sciences, English, maths, spelling, geography, or any other of the myriad of subjects not covered here. 🤨

[@danagol1985]

Ah a nice hour long one! The videos you guys upload are always interesting. I've set the quality to HD, and while it buffers I will have a cigarette and cup of tea. I greatly anticipate watching this video!

[@kunstwert]

welcome in 2020. we got 4K instantly...

[@sethgecko3739]

great teaching... would have some of this Lecture in germany

[@chrisandcarleen]

Perfectly choreographed and thought out. very professional

[@08C6PaceCar]

Great speaker very engaging

[@chriscubbernuss3288]

"There are some who call me...Tim?"

[@mkalte666]

that was awesome

[@jilijeg]

another good lecture from Professor Kevin Spacey :)

[@rjpmcmillan]

Very good thank you very much.

[@SteveWalden73]

16:52 Do not use this man to set your clocks. An interval of 8 seconds magically becomes 13.

[@mjinba07]

I noticed that, too, lol... It's possible, though, that with the processes of recording and playback we might not be seeing his presentation exactly at the same rate it occurred.

[@demoncloud6147]

Time stretched to fit order of magnitude !

[@ianthetech1455]

a simpler solution. He counted the fuse time, about 5 seconds, and the gunpowder burn, about 8 seconds, to arrive at 13 seconds total. Its odd that he started counting with the fuse, but it makes the 13 second time work. His clocks are safe :)

[@flinnius]

@@ianthetech1455 Unfortunately, when he ignited the commercial gunpowder, he counted it at about half a second, when it was probably closer to 2-3. If he included the fuse burn time in that as well, he should have at least come up with 5.5 seconds.

[@oumpstar]

I got 6 seconds, I agree with you.

[@flashcracker1]

An excellent presentation. I would suggest that Alder makes better gunpowder charcoal than Willow. I have visited the Royal Gunpowder Mills at Waltham Abbey and coppiced Alder was what they used. Waltham Abbey were the masters of English gunpowder makers.

[@jokuart]

A really good documentaion thanks for uploading

[@MrWeAllAreOne]

Actually it is a lecture! Not even sure what word you were trying for, documentation, documentary,neither would be correct. Maybe you should watch something related to the understanding of the English language.

[@mauritsschoonderwaldt676]

MrWeAllAreOne aww come on be a little nice to him he was making a compliment not an super correct english statement

[@jcat3409]

Thank you Kevin Spacey.. very informative..

[@henrytimpe6597]

thanks you for this video. it helped me a lot with the my understanding of hydrogen.

[@J.B24]

51:37 fire that burns under water. Glorious!

[@TheLotusManFILMs.]

i'm going to try all of these at home

[@VioletGiraffe]

Preferably not at your own!

[@c.smythe3022]

cool

[@itrurelig1on759]

You might get the terrorism police round yours if you start sourcing saltpetre charcole and sulphur 😆😆😆

[@cjpatz]

I will never look at fireworks the same again.

[@killthebuddha5034]

haha....

[@gordonbailey6262]

the chemisty and science into fire is amazing thank you how could i see one of these lectures in person?

[@TheRoyalInstitution]

Gordon Bailey I'm glad you like it! We have a whole programme of public events here at the Royal Institution in London and you can book directly online: rigb.org/whats-onA new programme will be launched very soon!

[@gordonbailey6262]

alright so question im a seasonal wildland firefighter and ive never travled out of the states but know the process i was just seeing if u had a list of when these lectures are or is it within the link?

[@felixanderson9337]

+The Royal Institution Please can you guys make a Channel just related to chemistry if you guys could translate this lectures to Spanish it would be asome you guys are doing a great job getting people interested in chemistry and science and I'm just thankful that I found this channel.

[@cyrillecervantes9993]

so that's the best thing of being scientist --- being paid to have fun. 👍👍👍👍 Big Thumbs Up 👍 to this video. Education. Interesting. Informative. 👍👍👍

[@DatLuckyFella]

The 23 dislikes are people that hate life. I MEAN HONESTLY WHO CAN HATE FIREWORKS

[@GeekOnAdventure]

They're disliking the video.

[@DatLuckyFella]

no shit sherlock

[@GeekOnAdventure]

not firework

[@mattmcchesney5673]

My neighbors at 11 at night laugh out loud

[@ZeHoSmusician]

Well, I do still dislike the noises and loud sonic booms of fireworks...but I am in awe of the colours and underlying chemical reactions--so no 'dislike' for this video. :)

[@kaustubhkishore497]

thumbs up for chris and professor

[@rtherdaily]

enjoyed every minuet :-)