Brothers in (fiery) Arms?
The editors of the Richmond Daily Dispatch were proud of the CSS Virginia as it held off the Union’s Monitor at Hampton Roads. The South was seemingly competitive with the North in ironclad technology. Here the newspaper reports that Yankees are working on another destructive technology.
From the Richmond Daily Dispatch March 15, 1862:
Greenough’s Liquid fire.
Some thirteen years ago, A. Lincoln, then a member of the House of Representatives, and H. Hamlin; then a Senator, brought before those bodies a discovery of “liquid fire” as a means of attack and defence; Mr. B. F. Greenough of Boston, is now experimenting, before officers detailed for the purpose, with a “liquid fire” which he throws through a small force-pump, through twenty-five feet of rubber hose, in a fluid state. At the nozals of the hose it passes through wire-gauze, on leaving which it is ignited and thrown in a stream of flame, setting fire to what it strikes. Perhaps, before very long, he may try it in setting fire to the Navy-Yard at Norfolk.
Gustavus Fox witnessed Professor Greenough's destructive experiment
I’m not sure where the Dispatch got its information about Lincoln and Hamlin supporting liquid fire during their time in Congress, but apparently the Richmond editors read Scientific American. The January 11, 1862 issue contained an article on “Destructive Fire Shells.” Dr. B. F. Greenough demonstrated his apparatus before a group that included Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus Fox. The liquid fire left the hose, and the fluid ignited several feet from the nozzle. It grew to about two feet in diameter. It totally destroyed a target between thirty and fifty yards away. The fumes and smoke would have suffocated any human being in the vicinity of the target. “The experiment was quite successful.”
You can read about Incendiary Weapons at GlobalSecurity.org. Liquid fire has been used since ancient times, but was not used as much between the invention of gunpowder and World War I. The United States military has not used flamethrowers since Vietnam.
Greek fire used in 9th century
Germans in 1917***
***Image licensed under Creative Commons, Attribution: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R22888 / CC-BY-SA
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