CHAPTER IX
MILITARY PYROTECHNY
The use of pyrotechnic mixtures for military purposes
is the basis of artillery, and one might almost say the
foundation of chemistry. Before the age of the alchemist
men were at work endeavouring to produce some
weapon which would give them an advantage over their
enemies. Of the natural phenomena none made so strong an
appeal as fire, which from earliest times had been a mysterious
and therefore terrible element.
The early use of fire or pyrotechnic mixtures gave the users so decided an advantage over their enemies that their use was chronicled by historians of the day either on the side of the victors as a pæan of praise for their invincible weapon, or as an excuse for defeat on the side of the vanquished.
Such reports are necessarily vague and exaggerated, vague because the writer had no technical knowledge of the subject, and the users naturally wished for secrecy and exaggerated because exaggeration increased the value of the weapon.
It is from such reports that we obtain our information about Greek fire and similar compositions, and when one considers that the translations were generally biased, in most cases unintentionally but still biased, in favour of reading into passages referring to fire or projectiles an early reference to gunpowder, guns or some unknown pyrotechnic effect, it is obvious that all information so gained must be accepted with a considerable amount of reserve.
The translators, too, in many cases were men of no technical knowledge, which made them even more prone to fall into errors which would be avoided by the expert.
