GREEK FIRE.
Discovered by Callinicus. A. D., 617.
The Greek Fire has been highly extolled for its wonderful effects, but it owed much of its effect to the terrors and imagination of the beholders. It is said by the Oriental Greeks, to have been discovered by Callinicus, an architect of Heliopolis or Balbeck, in the reign of the Emperor Constantine Pogonatus, who, it is said, forbad the art of making it to be communicated to foreigners, but it was at length known, and in common use, among the nations confederated with the Byzantines.
Known in China, 917.
It is also said to have been known in China in 917, being 300 years after Constantine Pogonatus, under the name of “The oil of the cruelfire,” and was carried thither by the Kitan Tartars, who had it from the King of Ou.
Wild fire from the Saracens.
It was thrown by machines, by the hand, and by cross bows, fastened to the heads of arrows. The Crusaders obtained a knowledge of a sort of wild fire from the Saracens, which could only be extinguished by dust or vinegar. It was composed of the gum of resinous trees, reduced to powder with sulphur, to which was added naptha, and other bitumens, and probably nitre.
Wild fire in the Holy Wars.
It is much spoken of in all the Holy Wars, as being frequently employed by the Saracens against the Christians. Procopius, in his history of the Goths, calls it Media’s oil, considering it an infernal composition prepared by that sorceress. Geoffrey de Vinesauf’s account.Geoffrey de Vinesauf, who accompanied Richard I. to the Crusades, says that it could not be extinguished by water, but that sand thrown upon it abated its virulence, and vinegar poured upon it put it out. Father Daniel’s account.Father Daniel says this wild fire was not only used in sieges, but even in battles, and that Philip Augustus, King of France, having found a quantity of it ready prepared at Acre, brought it with him to France, Used at the siege of Dieppe.and used it at the siege of Dieppe, for burning the English vessels in that harbour.
Greek fire and gunpowder, both used at the siege of Ypres, 1383.
The Greek fire was used long after the invention of firearms; when the Bishop of Norwich besieged Ypres, 1383, the garrison is said by Walsingham to have defended itself so well, with stones, arrows, lances, and certain engines called guns, that they obliged the English to raise the siege with such precipitation, that they left behind them their great guns, which were of inestimable value.
Greek fire was probably a more recent invention than Gunpowder.
Powder used by Arabs, 14th century.
It is ascertained that Gunpowder was employed by the Arabs as an agent for throwing bolts and stones, about the commencement of the fourteenth century, and that the Moors first availed themselves of its advantages in their wars with the Spaniards. From Spain, the use of Gunpowder and Artillery gradually extended itself to France, and thence over the other States of Europe.
Some idea of the importance of Gunpowder may be formed by the estimate of the enormous quantity employed in sieges, and warfare generally.
Quantity used in sieges.
At the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, January, 1812, 74,978lbs. were consumed in 301⁄2 hours; at Badajos, March, 1812, 228,830lbs. in 104 hours, and this from the great guns only.
San Sebastian and Zaragoza.
At the two sieges of San Sebastian, 502,110lbs. At Zaragoza, the French exploded 45,000lbs. in the mines, and threw 16,000 shells.
Sebastopol.
During the siege of Sebastopol, extending over a period of eleven months, the enormous quantity of 2,775,360lbs., or 1,239 tons of gunpowder, were expended by ourselves alone; 9,076 tons of shot and shell having been launched by us on that memorable occasion, from 476 pieces of heavy ordnance; of which only 11 actually burst, though 269 were rendered unserviceable.
Quantity made.
Some of our private manufactories make from 8 to 10,000 barrels of powder a year in time of peace, and from 10 to 14,000 during war.
Quantity proved by Government.
The quantity of powder received and proved from Faversham, at the Royal Magazines, and from the several powder makers contracting with Government, amounted, during the several years from 1776 to 1782 inclusive, to 244,349 barrels of 100 lbs. each, being equal, on an average, to 3,490,700lbs. annually. Quantity in store in 1783.The quantity of powder in store in Great Britain, Guernsey, Jersey, and the Isle of Man, in 1783, was about 80,000 barrels.
Gunpowder used for works of peace.
Sir George Staunton observes, that gunpowder in India and China seems coeval with the most distant historic events, and that the Chinese have at all times applied it to useful purposes, as the blasting of rocks, and also in the preparation of fireworks, in which they greatly excel other nations.
Powder used at Woodhead tunnel.
In blasting the Woodhead tunnel, in the county of Chester, not less than three thousand five hundred barrels of gunpowder, weighing about one hundred and sixty tons, were used in its formation. The average number of men employed was about a thousand; and during the six years the works were in progress, twenty-six men were killed. There were about 400 minor accidents, many of them attended with loss of limb, and the sum total of the casualties, in proportion to the men employed, was greater, according to Mr. Edwin Chadwick, than was suffered by the British army in the battles of Talavera, Salamanca, Vittoria, and Waterloo.
Powder used on S. Eastern Railway.
In the formation of the South-Eastern Railway, the blasts of the cliffs between Dover and Folkestone have astonished even scientific men. On one occasion 18,500 pounds of gunpowder were ignited by galvanic action at the same instant, which severed from the Round-down cliff, the height of which is 375 feet above the level of the sea, more than 1,000,000 tons of chalk. The fallen mass extended 1200 feet into the ocean, and covered a space of 18 acres. By another statement, the quantity of earth moved by the explosion was 400,000 cubic yards, and was a saving to the Company of £7,000.
No. of men employed at Waltham Abbey.
There are 134 men employed in the Government works at Waltham Abbey in the manufacture of gunpowder, Quantity made.who make about 9,000 barrels a year. The premises are near two miles long, consisting of detached mills, &c., on a small stream, which runs through the whole length of the premises and communicates with the Thames, whereby there is water-carriage to the Government Powder Magazines at Purfleet. The barges conveying powder are not allowed to anchor in the river off London during the night. Where two buildings are adjacent, there are frequently heavy buttresses of masonry between them, and lightning conductors are placed in great numbers.
Saving to Government.
There is a great saving, amounting to upwards of £300,000, in the cost of powder, when compared to the price paid to the merchants in seven years of the war from 1809 to 1815, from the Government having Waltham Abbey, Faversham, and Ballincollig.
Improved Quality.
At Waltham Abbey, in a very few years after it was constructed, the powder was so improved, that the charge of powder to the weight of shot was reduced from one-half to one-third; therefore two barrels were used instead of three—an advantage in stowing on board ship as well as in the field.
Made by Contract.
A great part of the powder for H. M. Government has at present to be supplied by merchants. The contracts are made out sometimes for them to supply their own saltpetre, and at others for the Government to furnish it pure, at the rate of 77·5 lbs. per barrel of 100 lbs., they finding the other materials and manufacture, a corresponding reduction in price being made: as, however, it has to come up in nearly all respects to the sample, the requirements of which we shall state, certain proofs have to be undergone before being received for the different services.
Note.—The foregoing is mainly compiled from Robins’s New Principles of Gunnery, by Hutton; Engines of War, by Wilkinson; and Projectile Weapons of War, by J. Scoffern, M.B.