42 R. Maclagan— On Marly Asiatic Fire Weapons. [^ 0> j 



Numerous modern petroleum explosions* have made us familiar with the 

 reports it is capable of producing. Such big demonstrations, of course can 

 hardly be taken to illustrate what happens with a naphtha shell, but those 

 who have had an opportunity of seeing and hearing a Kerosine lamp explode 

 in their room can understand what it means. The naphtha vapour, like 

 other gases of the same class, when combined with atmospheric air, explodes 

 with a report which, even on a moderate scale, is sufficient, with fiery ac- 

 companiment, to alarm an elephant. Explosions are produced, as illustrated 

 by frequent experiences, when the gas, issuing from the ground, or accumu- 

 lating over the petroleum in wells, is suddenly ignited. f The use of tubes 

 for the discharge of fire missiles, and the accompanying report, might, taken 

 together, easily give occasion, in after times, to the idea that guns and gun- 

 powder were used, though the combustible material was really naphtha or 

 Greek Fire. There is, however, not much to indicate that the noises men- 

 tioned were of the nature of what we call a report, and nothing to support 

 the idea that in Mahmud's time, the beginning of the eleventh century, guns 

 and gunpowder were known. 



The use of hollow canes for giving a direction to darts and other mis- 

 siles is, no doubt, a practice of great antiquity, followed in the present day 

 also by inhabitants of uncivilised islands, and others, and represented among 

 ourselves by our juvenile pea-shooters. In India, bamboos have been used 



* The dangerous nature of which called for the English Petroleum Act of 1862, 

 and the Ordonnance du Prefet de Police (relative a l'emploi des huiles de Petrole) in 

 July, 1864. 



f Thus, for instance, at the great ahode of naphtha on the Caspian :— " Outside the 

 temple at Baku is a well. I tasted the water, which is strongly impregnated with naph- 

 tha. A pilgrim covered this well over with two or three nummuds for five minutes. He 

 then warned every one to go to a distance, and threw in a lighted straw ; immediately 

 a large flame issued forth, the noise and appearance of which resembled the explosion of 

 a tumbril." (Captain the Hon. Or. Keppel's Journey from India to England, II, 221.) 

 The French missionary Imbert, quoted by Hue {Chinese Empire, Ch. VII), describes an 

 occurrence of the same kind at the mouth of one of the Chinese fire-wells. " As soon as 

 the fire touched the surface of the well, there arose a terrific explosion, and a shock as of 

 an earthquake ; and at the same moment the whole surface of the court appeared in 

 flames." " I believe", he says, " that it is a gas or spirit of bitumen," To pass to an 

 illustration on a very small scale, probably many people who have visited the fire tem- 

 ple of Jwala Mukhi in the Kangra District, of the Panjab, will remember the smart pop 

 with which one of the tiny jets of gas issuing from the rock is re-lighted, when it has 

 been accidentally blown out (as they are sometimes by sparrows flying quickly past 

 them). It is the too well-known property of one of the most familiar of the hydro- 

 carbons, the grison or fire-damp, to explode with serious results. " II brule tranquille- 

 ment avec une flame jaunatre, taut qu'il n'est pas mele avec l'air atmospherique ; mais 

 dans le cas contraire, il detone avec violence". " Quelquefois il se degage seul, mais 

 souvent il est melange de petrole plus ou moins epais et de bitume." (Beudant, Mine'ra- 

 logie, 232). 



