I spent hours last night watching the July 4th fireworks.  I took these photos off the TV set.  It again occurred to me that these displays are blatantly terrible for the environment.  Why do current air pollution laws allow this to happen? We can begin by blaming the Chinese .  They accidentally invented fireworks  around 200 BC.  The story goes that it took them another millennium for an alchemist to mix sulfur, charcoal and potassium, and again accidentally, invent gunpowder, which became the major ingredient for fireworks and bullets. The records are not totally clear, but enter Great Britain around 1600 when King James II's firemaster was awarded knighthood for developing modern fireworks.  I again as yesterday  quote John Adams  on this 2July1776 letter to his wife Abigail: "This day will be most memorable in the history of America," he predicted. "I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great ann...