Fireworks Style 1: Peony
Most observers of July 4th are contently ignorant of the finer points of pyrotechnics. But careful oglers will notice that there are distinct categories of fireworks, even if they don’t know what to call them. “[Most] people don’t know the terminology, but they can describe the effects in layman’s terms,” explains pyrotechnician Mike Tockstein. This Fourth of July, use Slate’s fireworks guide to jettison your crude fireworks vocabulary in favor of the official terminology.
If you only remember one firework this summer, make it this one: Traditional radial fireworks like this one are known as peonies, after the flower.
