Of the offensive type the earliest use of pyrotechny was the incendiary. Greek fire, wild fire, and similar compositions have been used from time immemorial to set fire to enemies' works or ships or to injure his personnel. And just as incendiary compositions antedated the propellant, so the incendiary shell appears to have preceded the explosive.
Incendiary projectiles of the past were known as carcasses; the earliest form appears to have been a canvas bag or container pitched over on the outside and bound with iron hoops, which, from their likeness to the ribs of a corpse—according to "Chambers' Encyclopædia" (1741)—suggested the name.
The fireball was similarly constructed and designed for hand projection, bearing the same relation to the carcass as does the grenade to the bomb.
The composition in most incendiary missiles consisted of a mixture of saltpetre, sulphur, and pitch, with or without the addition of mealed gunpowder.
The most recent form of carcass was a spherical shell of iron, having three vents, and filled with incendiary composition. This projectile became obsolete in the Service at the end of the last century.
Another form of pyrotechnic projectile was that designed to give out smoke, either with the idea of rendering the atmosphere of works or casemates unbearable to the defenders (a principle revived in the late war by the use of poison gas), or to hinder them by obscuring their vision either by firing a smoke cloud in their (the enemy's) works, or so placed as to hide one's own troops.
It is open to discussion if the use of smoke is not indeed of greater antiquity than that of incendiary missiles, but it is probable that its origin was its production by the combustion of grass or similar material, and not with pyrotechnic composition.
