It is worthy of remark that the Saracens introduced an important improvement in the system of firing those projectiles. Instead, like the Greeks, of permitting them to take their own course in their flight, they discharged them by means of engines, which, although it added to their range, had the disadvantage of rendering them more difficult to be managed, and consequently less convenient. This change, however, was of great importance, for, on sea, for instance, the variations of the atmosphere frequently rendered them useless. Luitprand, a writer of the ninth century, after relating that a Roman Emperor, in an expedition against the Russians, after having placed, not only in the fore-part of the ships, as was the custom, but also at the stern and sides, engines for the purpose of discharging those projectiles, says: "In presence of the enemy, God, wishing to crown with victory his servants who pray to him, appeased the winds and calmed the sea; for otherwise the Greeks could not conveniently work their engines of war. Thus the firing of the engines was attended with great inconvenience, for they could only be worked in times of perfect calm.

As to the property of burning in water, a property which modern writers assert the wild fire possessed, there is no mention made of it in the works of Byzantian writers. We must also look upon, in the light of fable, the effect that vinegar was supposed to have in extinguishing, not only wild fire, but every kind of fire. The assertions which some authors have made on this subject have been thus refuted by a learned chemist, M. Chevreul, in a paper in the Journal des Savants. The ancients, says M. Chevreul, attribute to vinegar the property of extinguishing several combustible matters when in à state of ignition, and they believed that vinegar, possessing the faculty of wetting, and even dissolving several resinous ignitable matters, could also extinguish the flame. We will only make one objection to this erroneous assertion, which is, that vinegar does not dissolve resinous substances, save in a concentrated state (acide acétique radical), and that then it is itself inflammable."+

The secret of wild fire was only known to the Byzantians up to the thirteenth century, but from that period it was in the possession of the Saracens of Egypt, and as the latter made

Luitprand, lib. v. ch. 6

↑ Journal des Savants, Avril, 1847, p. 214.

no mystery of its preparation, the secret necessarily spread from place to place, both in Asia and Europe. We read that it was used, in 1257, at the siege of Niebla, in Spain.*

"The besieged," says an Arab writer, translated by J. Conde, "threw, by means of certain engines, into the camp of the Christians, stones and javelins, making a noise like thunder accompanied by fire.t

Froissart speaks of a certain fire which was used in France, in the fourteenth century, by the English, with artillery, at the siege of the Castle de Romvrantin: "They (the English) brought into the court yard cannon and waggons filled with fiery combustibles, which, when set on fire, so spread that it enveloped in flames the roofs of the tower and the citadel, spreading in all directions, and destroying everything that opposed it.

It was by the aid of those projectiles, that a Danish lord took, in 1420, the fort Sainte Gertrude, and that, in 1449, the town Pont Audmer was burned by the army of Charles VII., a circumstance to which we will return. Finally, the Greeks, who were the first to make any mention of this fire, are also the last to allude to it. Pharantza, who was present at the siege of Constantinople, by Mahomet II., relates that a certain German, very skilful in the preparation of the wild fire, and in firing the engines, caused a counter-mine to be prepared and filled with liquid artificial fire. "Then," continues Pharantza, "all being ready, he himself fired the mine and destroyed numbers of the Turks. The Turks, in their turn, kindled their liquid fire, which they had previously prepared, but which proved a failure, having succeeded in destroying only a portion of an old tower by the explosion."

He then describes a combat sustained by three Genoese ships and an imperial galley, against the entire fleet of the enemy, during which engagement the Greeks threw amongst

• It is probable that some of these tubes, used in throwing wild fire, are still to be seen in Jerusalem. "I have seen," says Chateaubriand, "in the castle of Jerusalem, an ancient chamber filled with old helmets, some of which were of the form of Egyptian capsbonnets. I also remarked some iron tubes of the length and thickness of a gun barrel, the use of which I am ignorant of. I secretly endeavoured to purchase a few of those remnants of antiquity, and I cannot now say why I did not succeed. See "Iteneraire de Paris à Jerusalem," Ed. 1844, t. ii. p. 313.

† Historia de la domination de los Arabes en Espania, t. iii, ch. 7.

P. 42.

the enemy shells filled with fire. Farther on, he alludes to an attempt of a Venetian to destroy, by means of wild-fire, a bridge of boats constructed by the Turks, the whole length of the harbour.*

Wild-fire was, therefore, used at the same time by the Greeks and Turks, and the siege, on this occasion, was conducted by two foreigners, a German and a Venetian.

Thus, in the middle of the fifteenth century, about the time when no further mention is made of it, wild-fire was known in Asia, Greece, Spain, France, in Holland, and probably in Germany and Italy. Therefore, it is not reasonable to suppose, that a projectile in use during seven hundred years, which several nations employed with artillery for a century, a circumstance which should prevent its being forgotten, would, without any assignable cause, cease everywhere to be in use in such an age of progress and civilisation, as the middle of the fifteenth century. This hypothesis is inadmissible, particularly when we consider how difficult it is to destroy amongst a people the use of a weapon to which they have been long accustomed.

Whoever occupies himself with the subject of the origin of useful inventions, knows well how very seldom they are totally forgotten; they are, in later times, only transformed and changed

in name.

It is, however, a general opinion of the present day, that the secret of wild-fire is lost. Because none of the effects produced by our pyrotechnics in any way resemble the marvellous properties so gratuitously attributed to the wild-fire of the ancients-because its name is not found in the vocabulary of our artillery, it is universally believed, on that account, that the projectile itself had suddenly disappeared from use, and has not even left a trace of its existence behind.+

Chronique de Georges Phrantza, Vienne, 1796, in fo. p.54, 55, 57 Different attempts were made during the last century to gain the knowledge of the construction of a projectile to which tradition attributed such formidble properties. In France those experiments, founded principally on the idea that the wild fire could not be extinguished by water, gave rise to a number of discoveries either true or false, but always involved in obscurity.

The following appears on this subject in the Mémoires Secrets de la République des Lettres, dated 19 November, 1772 :— A person named Dupré, has, by means of chemical processes, discovered the secret of the wild fire of the ancients, that is of a fire which increases in intensity and power by the application of water.

If we once admit that the secret of wild fire is not really lost, now that its real effects, deprived of the exaggeration and the marvellous which false reports attributed to it, have been distinctly defined, it will suffice to determine what could have been the nature of this projectile, to see what projectiles, now in use amongst us, most resemble what were called large tubes and shells filled with fiery matter used by the ancients.

If we turn to the Dictionnaire d'artillerie de l'encyclopédie methodique, published in 1822, we read as follows under the article Squibs, that is, Rockets.

"Those large and smaller fire-works, made into a cartridge, are so called, and generally of a cylindrical form. What is remarkable in squibs and rockets is, that they possess in themselves the principle of motion, are self propelling."

A more recent work on this subject completes the definition." "It is observed by all who devote themselves to the subject of war-rockets that they are very irregular in their flight; the wind has much power over a projectile of such length; as it travels but slowly at first, its direction is easily changed or influenced by the atmosphere, and the unequal density of the air it has to traverse. They may be used to great advantage in calm weather, but the slightest change in the state of the atmosphere may render them entirely useless. It would be very imprudent then, to place too much confidence in an arm, which may become useless at the very time it is most required.”*

On comparing those two descriptions of the tubes and rockets, it is impossible not to see that they are one and the same, although separated by a distance of several centuries. There is not one property to be found in the tubes alluded to

The government to which he had offered his secret very wisely declined to purchase such a dreadful means of contributing to the destruction of mankind, but gave him a pension on condition that he would not divulge or sell his secret to any other power. The modern inventor is not long dead, but it is feared that documents may have been found among his papers which may lead to the discovery of the fatal secret: every precaution has however been taken to prevent a publication which would be sure to be attended by such fearful consequences. See Art de vérifier les dates (regne de Louis XV.) p. 417. Also La dictionnaire des origines, de Noel et Carpentier, Ire. edition. t. 1, p. 456: les Lettres sur la physique et la chimie, pur A. Martin, t. 1, p. 232: Coste, Essai sur les decouvertes nouvelles.

Etat actuel de l'Artillerie de campagne in Europe, par Mazé, 1838, in 80, p. 135, 36.

that is not applicable to rockets, and vice versa. The projectile which, according to Cominius, possessed the property of raising itself in the air, is nothing but the self-propelling rocket.

Then the projectile which, according to Joinville, had a long luminous tube, emitting such light during the night that the army were enabled to see as well as in the day: is not this the rocket so often used at the present day to light up the neighbourhood of places that are being besieged, and also in certain military operations? The facility in using the wild-fire, and its harmless effects-all this is to be found in the Roman lights, blue lights and rockets.

They resemble each other even in their imperfections, since, notwithstanding the progress science has made, the uncertainty in the precision of the rocket caused by atmospheric influence, renders this projectile now, as well as in the time of Luitprand, comparatively useless. The only difference, one not of much weight, consists in the substituting a cylindrical cartridge for a cane tube.

Long tubes, then, were only flying rockets, at the extremities of which was placed combustible or ignitable matter.

Any further discussing would be useless to determine the nature of the different kinds of wild-fire should we wish to be satisfied on this point, we need only consult the authors already quoted to prove

First, That hand tules, which only differed from the large with tubes in their length, were the same as those squibs with which children now amuse themselves.

Second, That the balls filled with ignitable substance were nothing else than fire balls.

We have still two authors to confirm us in our opinion, and to prove that in the fifteenth century, according to some writers, there was not the slightest doubt as to the identity of the rocket and wild-fire.

Blondel, chaplain of Charles VII., relates that in 1449, at the siege of Pont Audmer, at which he assisted as a young man belonging to the house of St. Pol, wishing to try the effect

* We should sooner arrive at those conclusions were it not for the unreasonable obstinacy evinced up to the present day in confounding two things essentially distinct, namely, the matter constituting the principle of the rockets, as a simple flying squib, and the combustible intended to set it on fire, which, in old days, as with us, was placed at the end of the projectile.