"Most if not all the compositions used in fireworks, including military fireworks, were more the result of the labours of the artisan who was neither controlled by fixed principles nor by a knowledge of the effects and properties of bodies and of the systematic experiments of the chemist, and yet in consequence of some fortuitous and repeated trials we find that he has been successful, and moreover has amassed a body of facts which we may reasonably infer may either be rendered more perfect by knowledge or improved upon by the exact aid of chemical science."
Here is every proof of his purpose to apply his understanding of chemical principles and his own experience to the solution of pyrotechnic problems, for he continues:
"Pyrotechnics is at present considered under two heads, namely, fireworks for exhibition and military fireworks. The latter is undoubtedly the most useful, as it embraces a variety of propositions calculated for attack and defence both for naval and land service."
Almost simultaneously there appeared in the same Journal of Arts and Science another contribution by Cutbush, entitled
REMARKS CONCERNING THE COMPOSITION AND PROPERTIES OF THE GREEK FIRE
In the light of recent events and the use of all sorts of chemical bodies for warfare and destruction it will not be uninteresting to introduce here a few paragraphs from this remarkable contribution. He says:
"The Greek fire was invented by Callinicus of Heliopolis, a town in Syria, who used it with so much skill and effect during a naval engagement that he destroyed a whole fleet of the enemy, in which were embarked 30,000 men.
"It appears that in the reign of Louis XV, a chemist of Grenoble, Dupre de Mayen, discovered a composition similar in effect to the Greek fire of Callinicus, which was exhibited at Brest, and proved successful, but the preparation was kept secret. The original Greek fire was used in 1291, and also in 1679.... Writers have defined it to be a sort of artificial fire, which burns with increased violence when it mixes with water.... That it was a liquid composition, we may infer from the modes of using it, which were several. It was employed chiefly on board of ships, and thrown on the vessels of the enemy by large engines. It was sometimes kindled in particular vessels, which might be called fire ships, and which were introduced among a hostile fleet. Sometimes it was put into jars and other vessels, and thrown at the enemy by means of projectile machines, and sometimes it was squirted by soldiers from hand engines, or blown through pipes. This fire was also discharged from the foreparts of ships by a machine constructed of copper and iron, the extremity of which is said to have resembled the open mouth and jaws of a lion or other animal. They were painted, and even gilded, and were capable of projecting the liquid fire to a great distance.
"... John Cameniata, speaking of his native city, Thessalonica, which was taken by the Saracens in the year 904, says that the enemy threw fire into the wooden works of the besieged, which was blown into them by means of tubes, and thrown from other vessels.... This proves that the Greeks, in the beginning of the Tenth Century, were no longer the only people acquainted with the art of preparing this fire, the precursor of our gunpowder. The Emperor Leo, who about the same period wrote his Art of War, recommends such engines, with a metal covering, to be constructed in the foreparts of ships, and he twice afterwards mentions engines for throwing out Greek fire.... For many centuries the method of making this dreadful article of destruction was lost; but it has just been discovered by the librarian of the elector of Bavaria, who has found a very old Latin manuscript which contains directions for preparing it.
"... On the subject of incendiary and other military fireworks, the French have certainly laid the foundation for the very preparations now used by the British, for the formulæ for such preparations may be traced to the French service....