Imagine you’re running a successful fireworks company in Japan–in the 19th century. Your product is so stunning that word of it has traveled around the globe, and you’ve got would-be buyers overseas. How would you create a catalogue? With over 100 offerings in your arsenal, you need some way to show potential buyers what each firework does, but photography technology of the era won’t cut it.
What you’d have to do is hire some illustrator, then individually demonstrate for them each and every firework you produce. They would then have to sit at an easel and attempt to recreate, using paintbrushes, the light show they’d seen in that night sky. That was the path undertaken by one Ryuta Hirayama, who founded Hirayama Fireworks Mfg. in 1877 in Takashima, and patented his fireworks in the U.S. in 1883. Japan’s Yokohama City Library got their hands on an old English-language Hirayama catalogue and made the scans available online.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
