Of the offensive type the earliest use of pyrotechny was the incendiary. Greek fire, wild fire, and similar compositions have been used from time immemorial to set fire to enemies’ works or ships or to injure his personnel. And just as incendiary compositions antedated the propellant, so the incendiary shell appears to have preceded the explosive.
Incendiary projectiles of the past were known as carcasses; the earliest form appears to have been a canvas bag or container pitched over on the outside and bound with iron hoops, which, from their likeness to the ribs of a corpse—according to “Chambers’ Encyclopædia” (1741)—suggested the name.
The fireball was similarly constructed and designed for hand projection, bearing the same relation to the carcass as does the grenade to the bomb.
The composition in most incendiary missiles consisted of a mixture of saltpetre, sulphur, and pitch, with or without the addition of mealed gunpowder.
The most recent form of carcass was a spherical shell of iron, having three vents, and filled with incendiary composition. This projectile became obsolete in the Service at the end of the last century.
Another form of pyrotechnic projectile was that designed to give out smoke, either with the idea of rendering the atmosphere of works or casemates unbearable to the defenders (a principle revived in the late war by the use of poison gas), or to hinder them by obscuring their vision either by firing a smoke cloud in their (the enemy’s) works, or so placed as to hide one’s own troops.
It is open to discussion if the use of smoke is not indeed of greater antiquity than that of incendiary missiles, but it is probable that its origin was its production by the combustion of grass or similar material, and not with pyrotechnic composition.
Read’s “Weekly Journal” of October 25th, 1760, in an account of a review in Hyde Park, mentions as the concluding item of the manœuvres, that “pieces of a new construction, of a globular form, were set on fire, which occasioned such a smoke as to render all persons within a considerable distance entirely invisible, and thereby the better in time of action to secure a retreat.” There can be little doubt that this is one of the first demonstrations, at any rate in this country, of the use of smoke balls.
The Chinese made use of both projectiles many centuries ago, and the smoke—or stink-pot—was in use by them until comparatively recently.
Smoke balls from 4⅖th inches up to 13 inches calibre were included in the official list of projectiles for smooth-bore guns until about 1873, when with ground light balls they became obsolete. The latter, as their name suggests, were intended to be burnt on the ground and light up enemy working parties, etc. This also was the object of the parachute light-ball, which was fitted with a time fuse and an opening charge; upon opening, a light was ignited suspended from a parachute. This method appears to have been invented in Denmark in 1820, and they were used in Austria the following year.