314 Dr. Cuthush on the Greek Fire. 
If phosphuret of lime be used, would it not add to the 
combustion when water is thrown on, or the inflamed sub- 
stance put into water, by decomposing that fluid ; thus pro- 
ducing phosphureted hydrogen gas ? 
ot having a sufficient quantity of naptha, prevents our 
making such experiments with that substance. As a sub- 
stitute, we would recommend highly rectified oil of turpen- 
tine, which might be employed, in many respects like nap- 
tha, and be susceptible of great inflammability. We knowit 
to have been used in incendiary fire works, especially in 
the experiment we mentioned to have been made in Phila- 
delphia during the late war. Nearly of the same charac- 
ter is the fire-flask or fire-bottle, which is nothing more 
than a bottle charged with grain-powder mixed with a com- 
position called fire-stone. The bottle is covered with a 
cloth and sewed, and then coated with pitch. The mouth 
is secured with parchment, and when used, a match is in- 
serted, and inflamed. Itis then thrown by the band. ~ 
Having mentioned an incendiary preparation invented, 
or recommended by Casimer Siemicnowich, which appears 
to have been predicated on the effects of a Greek fire, and - 
which is mentioned by him in his work, entitled 4rtis Mag- 
ne Artilleria ; it may not be improper to add, Stemzeno- 
wich’s Fire-rain, as the preparation is called, is calculated 
for firing the houses of a besieged place or city, which are 
covered with shingles, laths, stubble or reeds. It was na- 
med fire-rain from its resemblance to a shower of rain. 
Several formule are given for this preparation; but the 
original appears to have been the following: Take 24 parts 
of sulphur, and melt it in a copper or iron pot, over live 
coals without flame, and then throw in 16 parts of nitrate 
of potash, and mix it with an iron spatula. Remove the 
vessel from the fire, and when the composition has become 
rather cold, stir into it 8 parts of grained gun powder. 
Pour the mixture on a slab, and allow it to cool. Before 
using it, it is broken into pieces of the size of a walnut, 
and put into shells along with quick match and gun powder. 
he shells are discharged from mortars in the usual man- 
ner, which burst, and thus the composition is dispersed in 
the state of inflammation. This composition it will be suffi- 
cient to add, is now disused ; but it gave rise to prepara- 
