Main things that seem to distinguish and define Greek
fire from other incendiaries are it burned on water possibly
being ignited by water it was a liquid substance not a
projectile it was sticky and would stick to you it was hard
to extinguish and possibly it was accompanied by thunder and
much smoke it's a little fluent test and see if this is
flammable now that is flamble another ingredient that many
have theorized as being included is quick line but
there are a lot of theories of what Greek fire could be and
one more prominent ones is that it was self igniting when put
on water. So the chief ingredients for making actual
self igniting is quick lime which is made from limestone
that's been roasted. This stuff is famous for reacting
violently with water and a very exothermic reaction where it
can produce a lot of heat.
6050, Karina 70 here 80, so that's not very helpful I think
I think the water is almost instantly cooling it back down
I'm not sure how it can make this work there are a few
chemicals that do ignite at that temperature least in my
estimate the most theoretically achievable at that time period
is ether can be made by reacting and distilling two
chemicals in theory available to biothinting Greeks ethanol
and sulfuric acid a roughly 2-1 ratio of ethanol cyber acid
just needs to be mixed together and then to around 140 to 150
degrees Celsius it will auto ignite at a temperature around
160 degrees Celsius which is in within the range of the maximum
temperature quick line will react with water this leaves us
with a decent list of ingredients that may have
theoretically been used now to mix up some concoctions and
actually put them to the test first up we went for a straight
crew petroleum Surprisingly, this stuff did not want to burn
even with a direct flame applied. So, the type of stuff
was slightly flammable. That's like not as flammable as you
would expect. Soy oil does not work. Second, another control
is distilled ethanol alone. We know this works in your classic
molten cocktail but with the elements of water, it clearly
became a lot less effective and very far from the descriptions
of Greek fire. Whoa, Then next is the California petroleum
that I distilled out of a lighter oil. This is in theory
what is closest to the oil fields the Byzantine would have
collected from historically and based on a discussion with John
Heldon probably going to be the most effective result. The
second attempt is very effective. The only other
ingredient John Heldon suggested that could have been
added was pine resin. So we'll try that mix next. Ooh. The end
result was pretty similar with the resin potentially
diminishing just how much it could actually spread. Then
lastly, the attempt at a self-igniting recipe using
quick lime and ether. On impact, you can hear the
cracking as a quick lime reacts with water to produce heat but
it never achieved enough heat to self ignite. For the most
part, I think we can confirm what John Heldon told me,
lighter petroleum oil was likely the main ingredient of
Greek fire, if not the only ingredient. I