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and invented a small shell for an ordinary rifle, which would 
carry sufficient liquid fire to do immense mischief. The shell 
burst, or rather broke, on striking, and set free the fluid. With' 
one of these shells, and with his own rifle. Captain Norton, at 
six hundred yards, could fire a piece of ordinary sailcloth, 
stretched out like a sail, with absolute precision. I calculated 
that eighty men, armed with Captain Norton*s piece, could 
plant in a wooden ship, at six hundred yards* distance, one 
gallon of liquid fire fluid every four minutes. Taking all 
failures fully into account, it were impossible for a ship so 
treated to endure long. She must soon be on fire in several 
hundred points, and, what is more, she never could be safe 
again : for though the fire were effectually suppressed at the 
moment, the chances are that it would break out at a 
subsequent period. 
Foreseeing the application of liquid fire in warfare, and 
being 1 aware that the Russian government was actively 
extending inquiries on the application of chemistry in warfare, 
I communicated to the Times a letter on the whole subject, 
which letter was published in 1855. I explained there what 
Mr. Scott had done, and what might yet be done. The 
communication, copied largely into English and continental 
journals, passed to America,, and was made the subject of 
considerable comment there. 
With the close of the Russian war the question of liquid fire 
dropped, and we hear no more of it until this year, when we 
find that General Gilmore, on the second Thursday in August, 
threw shells charged with Greek fire into Charleston. That 
the effect, however partial, was sufficiently terrible, is proved 
by the fact that the Confederate general (Beauregard) sent 
back a denunciation of the missile forwarded to him by the 
cannon* s mouth ; declaring it to be the most villanous com- 
pound ever used in war. 
Since then, Gilmore has from time to time used “ Greek 
fire.** Why he has not used it more, is due to the fact 
that his shells for projecting it were not perfect. Some of 
them were intended to burst by percussion, but failed ; in 
others, the fusee employed did not answer ; the shell either 
burst at short distance, or fell without bursting, and was obtained 
by the enemy, and put out before doing harm. At Springfield, 
a new fusee and shell, for the special purpose of “ Greek fire 
shells,** are being, I believe, prepared at this time, so that we 
are sure to hear more on the subject if the war in America 
continues. 
From these facts we may pass to the consideration of 
the composition, properties, and mode of action of modern 
Greek fire. The first thing worthy of note is that the prim 
