GREEK FIRE EXPERIMENTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXI, Issue 1189, 28 January 1864, Page 3

GREEK FIRE EXPERIMENTS.

A number of experiments with Greek fire , lav e been recently made by Mi'- Short, the 'nventor, in presence of several officers of rank > with the view of contradicting the ""pi'Cßsion that the shells containing the fire f x ploded prematurely. The gun was placed m position on the beach, and pointed seacard. Ten tin tubes, each of which is three in length, and three-fourths of an ] nch m diameter, and filled with the material fomposing the Greek fire, were then dropped ln a conical shell and filled round with power - The first shell thrown exploded pi-eraa-e7>in consequence, it is said, of a defect

m he fuse The shells subsequently fired had white lead placed round the fuse can and, with perhaps one or two exception,; fully accomplished al that had been claimed for them. A dozen shells were fired, nine 0 f winch exploded at a distance of 1,200 virds To show the powerful effect of the Greek fire, a number of tubes were lighted and submerged m water, where they were allowed to remain until nearly burned, and then taken out, but the bright blue flame was not extinguished. Other tubes were lighted and completely buried in moist sand, which was closely packed, but this also failed to quench the fire. The tubes burn for about a minute and a half. When first ignited, the fire rushes from one end of the tube with a fierce rushing sound, not unlike that which accompanies the flight of a rocket, and extends the distance of' a yard ; but it soon sinks down to a dazzling blue flame, of about two inches in length, closing its peculiarity of sound, and thus continues to burn to the end. An ignited tube in a basin of water gives the latter the appearance of boiling; It emits a heavy sulphurous smoke in large quantities. I —Charleston correspondence of the ' New York Times'

[ The ' Boston Journal' gives the following l explanation of the discontinuance of the . shelling of Charleston city" A gentleman : of much intelligence, recently from Morris ' Island, where he had unusual facilities for i observation and gathering information, has t communicated to us a variety of interesting facts connected with the siege of Charleston, which throw much light on the state of affairs there. He informs us that the reason why General Gilmore did not continue his bombardment of Charleston with the Greek fire shells was because the shells sent were on the percussion principle, and being discharged from a gun elevated at an angle of 38 degrees, took their flight at the same angle, with a longitudinal rotary motion, base downward, instead of upon the percussion end, and did not explode. Only two are known to have exploded—one which fell into a warehouse, another in a street. The peculiar motion and descent of the shell was a new discovery in artillery practice, then for the first time made, and the Ordnance Department was not furnished with a remedy for the unlooked-for contingency. To this fact alone, Charleston owes the delay of the hour of its doom. Time fuses, which will set matters all right, were at once sent for, and have doubtless arrived at Morris Island before this, and very likely Charleston is at this moment experiencing the dreadful effects of a shower of Greek fire shells, 1500 of which have been ordered for the bombardment of that nest of treason, fr'he gun from which the shells were fired was a 200-pounder Parrott, which can throw a no less than seven miles when aimed at an angle of 45 degrees. The first shells went aver Charleston, the gun being aimed at too sharp an angle. Our readers will be pleased to learn that General Gilmore has no less than 30 Parrott guns mounted that will throw shells into Charleston. The use of Greek fire shells to bombard that rebel stronghold was personally ordered by President Lincoln. The Greek fire burns for twenty minutes. It will burn on the water as well as on land, and each shell covers a surface of 100 square feet with flame. The shell bursts into about 120 pieces, or ten times as many as the ordinary shell. Of course, the. effect ot these shells will be to set Charleston in flames, which nothing can subdue. In addition to the Greek fire shells a large quantity of improved shrapnell shells, made by the inventor of the Greek fire shell and containing from 500 to 1000 bullets each, have been sent to Morris Island, to be transferred thence into the rebellious city in a manner not very pleasing to the enemy. These shells are fired with time fuses and very destructive of life. The celebrated 300-pounder Parrott gun which General Gilmore has weighs 27,0001b5. It took two thousand men nine nights to get the monster into position, the drag teams breaking down seven nights in succession, the enemy shelling the party all the while and men being killed nightly. Nothing was done with it by day, the gun being covered with bushes to conceal it from the enemy's fire. The diameter of the bore is ten inches, the charge of powder 251b5., and the shell that goes out of it is as high as a flour barrel, weighs 3001b5., and contains l7lbs. of mortar powder. The execution of one of these shells on Sumter is considered equal to three 2001b. shells. But two of these immense rifled guns have been made, although twenty more have been ordered. These guns have been fired with 401bs. of powder, and sent a ball through nine inches of wrought iron plates and two feet of oak timber by which the iron was backed. They have also sent a ball through twenty-six feet of earth. Mr. 11. P. Parrott, the inventor, is at present engaged on a 500rpounder, and, if successful, will try a 2000-pounder. The term " Greek fire," as applied to the substance which the Federals are pouring into Charleston, is strictly a misnomer. The secret of the manufacture of the original Greek fire has been lost for nearly 950 years, and it is probable that it will not again be found, seeing that modern chemistry suggests agents quite as dangerous, and perhaps simpler than the original. As a matter of historical interest, we may, nevertheless, spend a moment in considering the nature and qualities of the combustible which bore the name of Greek fire. The tradition has come down to us that the substance employed was composed of sulphur, naptha, pitch, gum, and bitumen ; or, according to the recipe of the Princess Anna Commena, of sulphur, resin, and oil. It does not appear that the compound was enclosed in anything like a shell; and as it is clear that it was hurled from the catapult, we must infer that it left the hand of the engineer in the solid form. In its course through the air it took fire with a great noise, and presented a large nucleus with a train ; falling on combustible matter, it set fire to it furiously, and some of the historians add that water did not extinguish the burning. It is said to have been used by the Turks with great effect the French, under St. Louis, at the siege of Damietta; but that by and by they learned a method of extinguishing it as it fell. Marcus Gracchus is the commonly acknowledged inventor of Greek fire, but_ its use was revived later by an engineer of Heliopolis, of the name of Callinicus. Callinicus, acting under the command of Constantine Pogonates, used this fire in a sea fight against the Saracens, near Cy/icus, in the Hellespont, and destroyed all the ships of his enemy. So much for ancient Greek fire; its modern representative, although intended for the same purposes, is different in character, more portable, more certain, more terrible. It is a fluid substance, is cheaply made, keeps for years, and is produced so quickly that the ingredients of which it is composed may be ) put together at the moment when the compound is required. In using the liquid it has

I to be enclosed in a shell which shall burst at , a given point of destination and allow the , fluid to be distributed. The construction of [ modern liquid fire is based on simple scienF tific principles, and more methods than one , may be discovered for producing it. I think : —aud I know its inventor, to whom I shall • refer in a moment, thinks so too—that it I. might be so formed that it would actually : burn under water. But however much it ; might be modified in detail, the principle would be the same, and the principle is this : a rapidly oxydisable substance—which means a substance that in combining greedily with oxygen whenever it can be got, gives rise to the evolntion of heat and flame— : is suspended for a time through a liquid, in which it is held innocuous, so long as the two are confined together, but from which it is separated spontaneously when both are free in the open air. The modern chemist who first brought liquid fire into notice, was Mr. Wentworth Scott. I have been told that the method suggested by the late Lord Dun don - ald was of the same nature ; but for special scientific reasons, this view is not probable. Mr Scott suggested the principle about eleven years ago, and during the Russian war he was untiring in his efforts to get it practically into use in our army and navy. There is an official board which received Mr. Scott, heard his plans, promised him means for experiment, nibbled at his idea, and then repudiated it, and did many very foolish things which it is not worth while to rake up; suffice it, that after tantalising Mr. Scott for a long season, and after supplying him with " lots of forms," our circumlocutionists became acquainted with another gentleman who proposed a liquid fire, but who, I believe, in the end was gently dropped also—l mean Captain Disney. At last, that which the English nation, or rather Government, refused to study as a means of warfare, has been turned to practical account in America. Liquid fire has found its way into Charleston, and the question to be asked is, will its application stop there ? It is folly to rest content with the saying that the practice is barbarous. Barbarity pertains to the use of the bayonets, the swords, and grenades, and all else ; the points to be recognised are the facts—that the Americans are using this liquid fire: that they will soon find means of improving their first attempts; that the ! successful employment of one liquid will suggest others, and that suddenly we may be roused to the unpleasant consciousness that all our armaments, all our forces, all our ships, all our men, are at the mercy of a foe who has learned a new art in war, in which science has sapped courage, and in which brute force stands but second in the contest. Let us have no mincing of a matter so essential to British interests as the application of liquid fire in warfare. The worst cannot be spoken too early; if shells charged with liquid fire were to be used by America in a war with England, there is not a wooden ship in the whole of our marine service, royal or mercantile, that would ever be absolutely safe after a single shell, even from a rifle, had thrown the treacherous and terrible combustible on to the sails, decks, or quarters, while there is not a town or fortress within range of American cannon that might not be destroyed by fire from a few welldirected shots. It behoves us therefore to be up and doing ; we must learn to " meet fire with fire" and to " threaten the threatener, or we must acquire the gentler art of effectually neutralising an agent of destruction which we may scorn to employ as beneath our civilisation.—Dr. Richardson in the Social Science Review.