PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 453 



On motion it was decided to continue the discussion of " the Novelties 

 at the Fair," Adjourned, 



American Institute Polytechnic Association, 

 October 1st, 1863 



Chairman, S, D, Tillman, Esq.; Secretary, John W, Chambers, 



Greek Fire. 



■} 



The Chairman. — There is a general impression that many valuable arts 

 known to the ancients have been lost bej'ond recovery. Of late this idea 

 has been strengthened by the eloquent Wendell Philipps, whose lecture on 

 the "Lost Arts" has been repeated before large audiences. The people 

 seem to be more eager to hear about what has been lost than to learn what 

 has actually been achieved. Considering their facilities, we are astonished 

 at what the ancients achieved in architecture, but their absolute ignorance 

 of nearly all the chemical elements forbids the supposition that they could 

 have accomplished by alchemy what is now impossible to the modern che- 

 mist, who can make hundreds of compounds which are never found in the 

 great laboratory of nature. 



The Chinese have had the art of making gun powder for many centuries. 

 It was reinvented in Europe, and Marcus Graecus, near the close of the 8th 

 century, gives the ingredients and proportions used. These substances, 

 charcoal, sulphur and saltpetre, were given by nature herself It is pro- 

 bable that in pulverizing and mixing these combustibles, their explosive 

 property was discovered by accident. The automatic fire of the Arabian 

 alchemists was a mixture of equal weights of sulphide of antimony, sulphur 

 and saltpetre. The celebrated Greek fire was made by a secret process at 

 Constantinople, but as it was a liquid it probably contained saltpetre, sul- 

 phur and naptha, or in the place of the latter some of the liquid hydro-car- 

 bons produced by nature. Modern chemistry has, however, furnished us 

 with a long list of explosive and highly combustible compounds. 



The reported use of some of these compounds during the late attack on 

 Charleston, S. C, has excited the indignation of the English press. Yet it 

 appears that the British government began ten years ago to make experi- 

 ments in firing shells filled with inflamable materials, and it is reported 

 were successful in obtaining a substance by which they can cover their 

 foes with a quenchless fire. Phosphorus, bi-sulphide of carbon, and naptha 

 are materials far more efiectlve than anything that could have been known 

 to the ancient Greeks, 



Whether our government have used these compounds is unknown, but it 

 is known that a member of this Institute sent a few shells filled with a very 

 destructive inflamable compound, to be used at the south in certain contin- 

 gencies. They were made at his own expense, 



Mr. Geo, Bartlett, — I have heard it suggested that a substance equally 

 as good as the Greek fire can be made from coal oil, that is nitrate of ben- 

 zole, one of the products by distillation of coal oil, which has a large amount 

 of oxygen in it, and burns very freely. 



