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July 3, 2014

Kaboom! 10 Facts About Firecrackers That Will Blow You Away

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The earliest Fourth of July celebrations involved using explosives to send anvils into the air.
According to Firecrackers, “A blacksmith’s anvil was place on the ground and a bag of gunpowder with a fuse was placed on top of it. Finally, another anvil was place upside down on top of the bag, the fuse was lit, and everybody scattered. This was to avoid being crushed like a cartoon character, because the top anvil was propelled into the air before returning heavily to the ground. It was said you could hear the sound of a good anvil shoot for miles in all directions.”
| Collectors Weekly

Posted by gerardvanderleun at July 3, 2014 1:22 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

Your Say

It’s possible that plantation owners were reluctant to encourage the celebration of Independence Day, which lauds overthrowing the people in power. And they definitely wanted to encourage their enslaved populations to put their faith in Jesus, who would free them only in the afterlife. This is probably why, in a vintage firecracker-label collection, you’ll see images of Santa Claus, as well as racist caricatures of African Americans and even slurs about poor white people, like “Geo’gia Crackers.”

Riiight. To this day the tales are told of Marxist English majors forming consensus, through endless dialogue, to deconstruct the possible implications to the illiterate of the names applied to firecrackers by their Chinese manufacturers.

Posted by: Rob De Witt [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 3, 2014 7:24 PM

Sheeeet! All this time I thought Gore or maybe Obama invented firecrackers. Or maybe it was that Obama thought Gore was a cracka.

Posted by: Vermont Woodchuck [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 4, 2014 7:06 AM

Substitute a 5 gal bucket of 16d nails instead of an anvil and you'll get the whole audience involved, lot's more fun!

At night time you can pour a gallon of gas into the nail filled bucket for a splendid stratospheric halo effect.

Posted by: ghostsniper [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 4, 2014 9:18 AM

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