Image source @ Visual China
Text | Brain polar body
The Spring Festival has just ended, and the Winter Olympics have been renewed, wandering in the fierce competition, and then a week is the Lantern Festival, how can these beautiful festivals and celebrations lack the embellishment of fireworks? Counting the history of fireworks and firecrackers, it has gone through two thousand years of baptism, and behind the ultimate splendor contains our beautiful blessings and wishes: forbidden obscurity, prevention, and peace.
Ancient poems also left a lot of traces of fireworks, "the east wind at night flowers and thousands of trees, more blowing down, the stars like rain", "fire trees and silver flowers, star bridge iron lock open" "smallpox blooms in countless months, colorful auspicious clouds around the platform"...
The vast starry sky, fireworks always bring people wonderful illusions. At festivals and events, firecrackers are always set off. Counting the most beautiful fireworks in the past year, the most impressive thing is the fireworks display celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. Of course, the most romantic nucleic acid test at Shanghai Disneyland is also deeply rooted in people's hearts, and nucleic acid testing under fireworks will also become the most unforgettable experience of many people's lives. Under the splendid fireworks feast, people's confidence and strength are transmitted: orderly and strict epidemic prevention and a better life can be combined. The special effect fireworks "Welcome Pine" at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games, with clear needles and pine needles, covered the sky over the bird's nest, conveying the prosperity and joy of this moment.
The beauty of fireworks and the memories that linger in our hearts are the reasons why we like them, and another important reason is that under the restrictions of fire prevention and environmental protection, fireworks are now taboo and luxury in many cities. Because of policy restrictions, most cities only set off fireworks during major celebrations. Watching a gorgeous fireworks show has become the expectation of many people. However, fireworks have also undergone some new changes in the policy constraints of these years.
Millisecond precision behind stunning beauty
Although the thousand-year-old fireworks custom, in the face of frequent safety accidents, prohibition and restriction of release and environmental pollution and other problems, the reserved "repertoire" in this traditional folklore has gradually moved away from the people. But at some important celebrations, we can still get a glimpse of it.
In June last year, in the grand ceremony celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Cpc, above the "Bird's Nest", brilliant fireworks rose to the "100" annual symbol, a 288-second fireworks display, solemn and grand, majestic, 100,000 fireworks, accurate launch, no dud. Behind this, there are not only the day and night experiments and polishing of fireworks masters who are fighting in the front line, but also the power of technology. Precise time and measurement are inseparable from the simulation and testing of computer software, and the person in charge of this work is also known as a fireworks programmer.
A wonderful fireworks show, the blooming time and order of each firework, behind the need to be subdivided and disassembled, especially in the hundreds of thousands of ceremonial ceremonies, manpower can not be as accurate as the machine, the need to use digital technology to empower the celebration. A fireworks show begins in a virtual digital world.
The technician will 3D model the fireworks scene, in this model, what kind of fireworks bombs are selected, what are the imported music nodes, and finally the bloom time will be arranged according to different music nodes. The arrangement and production takes the time node of the music playback as the axis, the order and position of the fireworks bombs, the time interval of different fireworks bombs, etc. will be subdivided, the number, duration, installation and deployment method, etc., according to the final modeling effect to decide the production and customization of fireworks bombs, and test firing.
After the successful test firing, in the fireworks show, these canisters and fireworks bombs will be assembled according to the design modeling position near the site, and the computer will also be based on the parameters of the previously designed fireworks list, and as long as the switch is started, the fireworks bombs will be lit in turn to give everyone the most colorful performance.
It is reported that in the 100th anniversary of the party celebration, 100,000 fireworks were fired on the spot, each of which was independently coded, and the accuracy of the fireworks launch was calculated in milliseconds.
The figure of technology does not only appear when it blooms, but also in the production process of fireworks, you can also feel the breath of technology. With the evolution of intelligent technology, automated production has become a standard configuration for fireworks companies. If we enter the production line, we will see this scene: the fireworks empty inner cylinder is placed on the tooling board from this end of the production line, sealed, loaded with gunpowder, assembled, and after 15 minutes, the "fireworks combination finished product" is off the line from the other side, and the whole process is automated.
In terms of production supervision, relying on high-definition lenses, all production links are photographed by cameras all over the workshop, and on the large screen of the safety supervision center, all the pictures of the production line will be captured, and the safety supervisor can supervise the production of the whole process in the office. Fireworks production is a high-risk type of work, the greater the number of people, the greater the uncontrollable factors brought about, the original hundred people of a production line through the transformation of automation equipment, more than a dozen people can complete the production. Both safety and efficiency have been greatly improved.
For fireworks, the safety of production and the quality of products are the most critical, and fireworks have not lagged behind in the upgrading of environmental protection.
Traces of disappearing fireworks
In recent years, in addition to becoming more and more powerful, fireworks shows have also improved their environmental performance.
Environmentally friendly fireworks mainly use low-sulfur and sulfur-free environmentally friendly materials to reduce smoke. In the past, the common way of filling the base was with mud, but now it is poured with a new material, and there will be no large amount of dust after fireworks are fired. And black powder is also replaced by smokeless gunpowder, and the amount of smoke generated by environmentally friendly fireworks can be reduced by about 70% to 80% compared with traditional fireworks.
The Liuyang municipal government has worked with relevant departments to test the impact of environmental fireworks on PM2.5. According to the results of the on-site fireworks, the concentration of PM2.5 in the air before the fireworks was 33 micrograms per cubic meter, and the PM2.5 in the air at the three test points returned to the pre-fireworks level after 45 minutes.
Of course, in addition to reducing the pollution of the air, the current new fireworks have also achieved paperlessness, and will not produce any confetti garbage after firing, with little pollution and low noise. This technique was used in the fireworks display celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. The key to paperlessness is a change in material, using a new material to replace the previous paper, burning in the air at the same time as fireworks.
In order to better ensure that no sparks and no residue are dropped during the launch process, in the process, the technicians have adopted the way of changing the structure "inner ring" sleeve "outer ring". In the end, the "paperless flakes" of fireworks products were realized, and the pieces were clean and free of any garbage after the fireworks were discharged.
Although environmentally friendly fireworks do not mean zero pollution, as long as there is a burning process, it will have an impact on the air. But these upgrades to the environmental protection and technology of fireworks have brought us richer scenes and experiences. Although fireworks are still banned in most cities, these advances in safety and environmental protection will also be the key to opening the "ban" in the future.
The "smokeless" fireworks of the future
In the context of the "carbon peak and carbon neutrality" constraint, it will take a long wait to achieve fireworks freedom. But there are also some new types of fireworks that are starting to rise.
Electronic fireworks began to take off in small videos. These electronic fireworks use air to squeeze colored gold bars and combine them with LED reflected light to achieve the effect of fireworks. Electronic fireworks are environmentally friendly fireworks, which do not produce toxic and harmful gases and do not pollute the environment, so they are widely used in some store celebrations and wedding celebrations.
Personal fireworks handheld fireworks and ground spraying have also appeared in some cities, and these new products focus on safety and environmental friendliness, and have become the choice of consumers.
Of course, in addition to the above-mentioned musical fireworks, three-dimensional dynamic special effect fireworks and other new types of ceremonial flowers, there are also drones involved in the celebration.
Drone light shows are also gradually becoming a new form of alternative to fireworks displays. Hundreds or even thousands of small drones are equipped with lights and can be performed in the air according to a pre-designed program.
From numbers, symbols, signs to any shape, drones can be harnessed. At the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, more than a thousand light drones were used to showcase the shapes of skis, pigeons and Olympic rings. For drone performances, as long as there is a software program programming design, no matter what form of performance can be completed, the only flaw is that the drone will be limited due to battery life, standby time and climatic conditions will be limited.
For some people who like to be lively, if the climate conditions do not allow, you can also choose to experience the fun of "watching the lights and watching the flames" in some indoor digital creative museums.
Some emerging digital creative halls, through the ground screen, projection wall and mirror and other facilities, the digital fireworks through the projection, and even can do gesture interaction, etc., the entire indoor environment is digital equipment to create an immersive fireworks space, is also a relatively novel experience. In the future, this kind of digital venue will also become a place for family gatherings, where you can feel the various pyrotechnic charms of digital technology with your family.
Whether it is physical fireworks, digital fireworks, or even alternatives to fireworks, the situation of "no firecrackers, no Chinese New Year's Eve" is increasingly chosen and rich in forms.
Looking back at the classic fireworks feast, from the 2008 Olympic Games, 29 fireworks footprints along the central axis of Beijing stepped into the Olympic Sports Center; and then to the 2014 Beijing APEC Night, where fireworks in the shape of flowers in the four seasons such as daffodils, junzi orchids, begonias and chrysanthemums lit up the night sky. The 70th Anniversary National Day Ceremony in 2019, the blue fireworks of the dynamic evergreen trees and fireworks - peacock opening screen, the world's first 300-meter high-altitude double-decker "70" symbol, the 2021 100th anniversary party celebration fireworks ceremony, Disney's nucleic acid testing romantic fireworks, the Winter Olympics welcome pine fireworks, etc. The layers of fireworks along the way have been upgraded, and we can experience the changes in these technologies in a visual feast.
The ascension of fireworks has gone through the baptism of time, which confirms eternity with moments and reflects the evolution of wisdom and technology over the years.
The black curtain in the night will continue to be depicted by the rich colors of fireworks, blooming year after year, constantly interpreting festivities, blessing wishes, and continuing the brilliance of mankind.