-Fireworks can be ignited by electrical impulses instead of manually applied fire.
-Colors have been improved; new resins make the stars, particularly the reds and greens, deeper and brighter.-New "pattern shells" create identifiable shapes in the night sky, like butterflies, the planet Saturn, perfect circles and five-pointed stars.
-Willow shells, which have been around for a long time, have been refined so that the tendrils from the original burst of stars now fall practically to the ground, leaving a tracery behind.
-Strobe shells are large clusters of stars, usually bright white, which pulsate, seeming to wink on and off as they slowly fall.
Across the nation this Fourth of July:
-50 million grills will fire up.
-3 million gallons of lighter fluid will be squirted, equivalent to three years' worth of rain in Seattle.
-1.5 billion charcoal briquettes will be lit, enough to fill 66 boxcars.
-200 million steaks and 154 million hamburgers will be grilled.
SOURCE: USA Today.
SCOTTY;07/04,14:23 1 Advances in firework technology: cross the nation this Fourth of July:
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