Early Incendiary Devices

Now it was originally thought that fire was a kind of substance and that this substance generated flames when it met the air. It is only within the last 200 years or so that fire was correctly interpreted as being a form of energy where the flames are defined as regions of luminous hot gas. 

The ploy must have worked because the subsequent narrative tells us that the Byzantines then capitalised on their secret weapon by the wholesale destruction of the Moslem fleet at Cyzicus and continued to win naval battles in this way for several centuries afterwards. 

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The use of oxidizing combustible mixtures in drop bombs and other relatively large incendiary devices was Jess successful than in small-arms ammunition. Such mixtures were used early in the war in incendiary artillery shell and in drop bombs, but in many cases were later discarded for the thermit -tjT>e mixtures. As a primary incendiary material w houc chief function was to ignite other materials in drop bombs, the following mixture was used ... 

Early small-scale uses of white (or yellow) phosphorus were for the manufacture of matches and fireworks. However, the debilitating occupational illness of phossy jaw among workers, and the occasional hot pockets and singed purses from spontaneous ignition led to its discontinuance for matches by the early 1900s [12]. Today, either red phosphorus or phosphorus sesquisulfide (P4S3 Eq. 10.7), both much safer, are used for matches, flares, and other incendiary devices. 

Although aircraft was introduced as an auxiliary warfare weapon by various countries as early as 1910, their actual combat use did not begin until WWI. By this time, incendiary materials were used in the following devices a) small arms ammunition b) shells c) trench mortar projectiles d) grenades and other hand weapons e) aircraft bombs f) flame projectors (described separately) and g) rockets... 

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