History of American Consumer Fireworks

[FinnAmerican1979]

Here's a question for those pyro history buffs: In what years did the first consumer fireworks begin marketing to the American public?

[jamisonlm3]

Many, many years ago.

[FinnAmerican1979]

Here's a page from the an old fireworks catalog dated 1868
4738

[MontanaMike]

I've been curious how long it's been that "aerials" were legal here in Montana. For years, anything that said "shoots flaming balls" on it was illegal but now (and for the past 25 years at least), everything is cool except sky rockets, roman candles and bottle rockets. I guess I don't know if the whole flaming balls thing was true, or if our local stands just didn't want to carry the more expensive items.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

I was just in Montana last August. I can't think of ANY reason why they would ban fireworks or nuclear weapons for that matter. The chances of killing anything is close to 0. I've never seen such a desolate place in my life. Absolutely beautiful, but desolate.

[wingman]

I was just in Montana last August. I can't think of ANY reason why they would ban fireworks or nuclear weapons for that matter. The chances of killing anything is close to 0. I've never seen such a desolate place in my life. Absolutely beautiful, but desolate.

Desolate? Plenty of space, yes, but you could have visited western Montana and said the exact opposite, LOL!

[wingman]

Of course there's plenty of nukes out here. But what I don't get is, why do they ban stick rockets & Roman candles when everything else under the sun is allowed? Many missiles seem to have an erratic take off or flight path versus stick rockets, and Roman candles are pretty much a multi-shot in a tube. It's as if the state wanted to give the anti-fireworks groups a consolation for losing their fight out here.

[Birdman]

Of course there's plenty of nukes out here. But what I don't get is, why do they ban stick rockets & Roman candles when everything else under the sun is allowed? Many missiles seem to have an erratic take off or flight path versus stick rockets, and Roman candles are pretty much a multi-shot in a tube. It's as if the state wanted to give the anti-fireworks groups a consolation for losing their fight out here.

My guess is that because both stick rockets and roman candles require some sort of additional hardware to use it as intended. Similar to why AP is not available openly to consumers. I know in my hood the anti-fireworks crowd seems to get most upset over rockets and roman candles. Rockets (and aerial spinners) because of the litter they make in peoples yards and roman candles because some idiots like to shoot them at things. The other big agitators are anything small you can buy cheap in large numbers like bottle rockets and firecrackers because these can be heard coming from some yard virtually nonstop in the summer.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Desolate? Plenty of space, yes, but you could have visited western Montana and said the exact opposite, LOL!

One of our Safety Team guys lives in Missoula. That's in the Western part, right? I've seen parts of Missoula on Live PD lol.. other than that, you're right. I was in Eastern Montana checking out Little Big Horn. So I missed all the people. At least the living people.