With respect to poisoned balls, we are informed, that, although they have not been used by European nations, the Africans and the Indians have always been very ingenious at poisoning several kinds of fire compositions. At the commencement of the French revolution, poisoned balls were exhibited to the people, pretended to have been fired by the Austrians, particularly at the seige of Lisle. They contained glass, small pieces of iron, &c. and were said to be mixed with a greasy composition, which was impregnated with poisonous matter. In 1792, they were deposited in the archives of Paris.
Poisoned balls, according to authors, are composed of meal powder four parts, pitch six, rosin three, sulphur five, assafœtida eight, extract of toads' poison twelve, other poisonous substances twelve, made into balls in the manner we have mentioned. See [Poisoned Arrow.]
Sec. VIII. Of Red-hot Balls.
It will be sufficient to observe, that red-hot shot, as an incendiary, are considered fully adequate to perform the effect which they are designed to produce. The balls are ignited in a coal fire on an iron grate, in a furnace constructed for the purpose; and, when thus heated, are thrown from guns, the space between the powder and ball being filled up with a piece of wood of the exact diameter of the gun, or with wet hay or grass, to prevent the ball from setting fire to the powder.
With respect to chain balls, composed of two balls linked together by a chain from twelve inches to four feet in length, and designed to destroy palisadoes, wooden bridges, and chevaux-de-frize of a fortification; stang-balls, or bar-shot, called by some, balls of two heads, made by uniting, by means of a bar, half shot; and anchor balls, filled with the same composition as light-balls, with some trifling variation in the ball itself, &c.—they are all used as destructive weapons, which belong more particularly to the service of artillery.
Sec. IX. Of Pitched Tourteaux and Fascines.
Tourteaux are employed to illuminate the passages of rivers and defiles. They are placed in portable lanterns or in fire-grates. They are used chiefly to light up the works of the beseiger, when he approaches the covert way, and to burn the gabions and fascines, with which he constructs his passage to the ditch. Tarred links are nothing more than old junk or matches, dipped into a composition of pitch, suet, linseed oil and turpentine; the junk being cut into lengths of about five feet, which is called a link. The Tourteaux goudronnés of the French are the same, and formed of old rope, which is untwisted, immersed in pitch or tar, and afterwards left to dry. The French make the Tourteaux goudronnés in the following manner: Take twelve pounds of tar or pitch, six pounds of tallow, and three pints of linseed oil; melt them together and dip twisted pieces of rope of any length into the boiling mixture. If they are required to burn slow, six pounds of rosin and two pounds of turpentine are added. Sometimes to the composition of pitch, tallow, and linseed oil, are added two parts of saltpetre, one part of sulphur, and half a part of antimony. Tourteaux, according to Bigot, are made in the following manner: Old cords or pieces of match are beaten with mallets to take out the dirt, and prepare them to receive the composition. They are untwisted a little for the same purpose. They are then cut into pieces about five feet in length, and each is intertwined to form a circle of five or six inches of external diameter, making a hole at the same time in the middle for the passage of the point of the lantern.
The rope, being thus prepared, is next boiled in the composition given below, for the space of ten or fifteen minutes, and then laid upon a wet plank. They are a second time dipped into the composition, and thrown into cold water, to give them again, by hand, the circular figure they may have lost. Flower of sulphur is now put over them, and they are dried in the shade.
Composition for Tourteaux.
| Pitch, | 24 | parts. |
| Turpentine, | 12 | —— |
| Rosin, | 6 | —— |
| Mutton tallow, | 4 | —— |
| Linseed oil, | 1 | —— |
| Venice turpentine, | 1 | —— |