20 Supposed to be of Greek origin.

21 Journal Asiatique, Oct. 1849, p. 283.

22 Reinaud and Favé, p. 142. On the next page, 143, sarcosti is spelled (by the same writer) salcosti.

23 “Tunc aquam illam (salt water) coque in vase vitreo.”—Albert Groot in Zetzner’s Theatrum Chemicum, 1613, ii. 433.

24 The Greeks had a corresponding distinction between natural and artificial salt. Herodotus calls the salt crystallised by the sun at the mouth of the Borysthenes ἅλες αὐτόματοι, automatic, or spontaneous salt, as distinguished from ἅλς ὀρυκτός, dug-out, or rock salt; iv. 53 and 185.

25 Berthelot, iii. 153.

26 Ib., i. 239. The forgeries in question may have been the work of several writers, but this does not affect the date given above.

27 The Arabic works of the real Jabir are given by Berthelot in iii. 126 ff.; the Latin works of the false Jabir (or Geber) in i. 336 ff.

28 Ib., i. 199, recipe 60.

29 Ib., i. 308.

30 Owing to the great number of Arabic words borrowed by the Persians it is extremely difficult to judge from a translation whether a lost original was Arabic or Persian, the more so as the Arabs borrowed largely from the Persian. Far more honour for scientific work has been paid to the Arabs, far less to the Persians, Syrians, and Hindus, than was their proper due. Renan says that Al-Kindi was the only Moslem philosopher of pure Arab blood.—Discours et Conférences, p. 391.

31 Udoy Chand Dutt, “Materia Medica of the Hindus,” pp. 89-90. I presume that sora (being of foreign origin) was a corruption of the Persian شوره (shora) = saltpetre.

32 “Hindu Chemistry,” by Praphulla Chandra Rāy, Professor of Chemistry, Presidency College, Calcutta, 1902, pp. 99-100.

33 Yavakshara was apparently the “barley” used in a saltpetre mixture of the Arabic treatise (in Syriac characters) given by Berthelot, ii. 198.

34 Romocki, i. 51.

35 هو زهر حجر اسيوس ... هو ثلج الصين عند القدماء من اطباء مصر ويعرفونه عامة المغرب والطباوها بالبارود Reinaud and Favé, p. 14. The phrase, “flower of the stone of Assos,” was a thousand years old when Abd Allah used it, for we find it in Lucian’s Tragodopodagra (ἄνθος Ἀσίου λίθου, l. 162), a work written A.D. 180-200. But, like so many other words, it completely changed its meaning in the lapse of years. Abd Allah used it to designate saltpetre: Pliny the elder (“Nat. Hist.,” xxxvi. 17) tells us it had the property of utterly consuming dead bodies, except the teeth, in forty days—a property saltpetre does not possess.

36 Majus Opus, London, 1733, p. 474.

37 See chapter iv.

38 This process was carried out in the East, or wherever the natural saltpetre was collected; not at Waltham Abbey. The facts are taken from the “Handbook of the Manufacture of Gunpowder,” by Capt. F. M. Smith, R.A., London, 1871.

39 F´, &c., means a repetition of F, &c.

40 See chapter iv., recipe 14.

41 Taken from Reinaud and Favé, p. 237.

42 i.e. the lapis assius = saltpetre.

43 The way in which this process has been obtained will be explained in chapter viii. The phrases within brackets there are simply written consecutively here, word for word, except a few conjunctions rendered unnecessary by the punctuation.

44 Thucydides, vii. 43.

45 Diodorus Siculus, xx. 88.

46 Vergil, Æn., ix. 705; Lucan, Phars., vi. 199.

47 Tacitus, Hist., iv. 23.

48 De Re Militari, chap. viii. See Table II.

49 xxiii. 4.

50 Thucydides, ii. 77.

51 Ib., iv. 100.

52 Ib., vii. 53.

53 In Bibliotheca Script. Græc. et Rom. Teubneriana. Leipsig, 1874. Chap. xxxv. p. 79. See Table II.

54 Poliorketikon, xxxv. 79.

55 De Re Militari, iv. 8.

56 Recipe 26 (see Chap. iv.).

57 “Bellifortis,” in Romocki, i. 154.

58 Whitehorne, Chap. xxix. fol. 40.

59 Official “Treatise on Ammunition.”

60 i.e. Pine-wood charcoal.

61 A gum.

62 Salt recovered from salt-water by natural or artificial heat.

63 Cream of tartar = bitartrate of potash.

64 Kallinikos was probably a Syrian-Greek; Hertzberg, Gesch. der Byzantiner, &c., p. 58.

65 Τότε Καλλίνικος ἀρχιτέκτων ἀπὸ Ἡλιουπόλεως Συρίας, προσφυγὼν τοῖς Ῥωμαίοις, πῦρ θαλάσσιον κατασκευάσας, τὰ τῶν Ἀράβων σκάφη ἐνέπρησεν καὶ σύμψυχα κατέκαυσεν. Καὶ οἱ Ῥωμαῖοι μετὰ νίκης ὑπέστρεψαν καὶ τὸ θαλάσσιον πῦρ εὗρον. Corp. Script. Hist. Byzant., ed. Niebuhr: “Theophanes,” A.M. 6165, A.C. 665; i. 542.

66 Ἰστέον ὅτι ἐπὶ Κωνσταντίνου Πωγωνάτου ... Καλλίνικός τις ἀπὸ Ἡλιουπόλεως, Ῥωμαίοις προσφυγὼν, τὸ διὰ τῶν σιφώνων ἐκφερόμενον πῦρ ὑγρὸν κατεσκεύασε, δι’ οὗ καὶ τὸν τῶν Σαρακηνῶν στόλον ἐν Κυζίκῳ Ῥωμαῖοι καταφλέξαντες τὴν νίκην ἤραντο.

67 K. K. Müller, in his Eine griechische Schrift über Seekrieg, 1882, p. 44, pertinently remarks that Jähns, who accepts this early date, can give no example of the use of sea-fire before the seventh century.

68 “Traitors are often to be suspected even about your person” (ὑποπτεύονταί τινες προδόται καὶ παρά σοι πολλάκις ὄντες). Leo’s “Tactics,” xxi. 35.

69 Revue des Deux Mondes, 15th Aug. 1891, p. 805.

70 Μετὰ βροντῆς καὶ καπνοῦ “Tactics,” xix. 51.

71 By Friar Bacon. See Chapter viii.

72

73 Siphons, of whatever kind, were known before sea-fire. On hearing of the Moslem preparations to attack him in 671, Constantine Pogonatus ordered the siphon-bearing warships (δρόμωνας σιφωνοφόρους) to be put in commission.—Theophanes’ “Chronography,” i. 542.

74 “Alexander,” c. 35; tr. by Stewart and Long.

75 “Natural History,” xxxvi. 53.

76 See Boivin’s notes on the “Kestoi” in Vet. Mathematicorum ... Op., ed. Thévenot, 1693, p. 357; and Gelzer’s S. J. Africanus, 1880, i. 13.

77 In the Deipnosophists of Athenæus a juggler is represented as producing automatic fire, c. 16, e.

78 Πίσσα καὶ δᾷδες καὶ ἄσβεστος Corp. Script. Hist. Byzant., Pt. xxii. p. 537.

79 Χύτρας τε ἀλλ’ οὗς ἀσβέστου πλήρης κ.τ.λ. “Tactics,” xix., § 54, in Meursii Op., vi.

80 Recipe 24 (see Chapter iv.).

81 Nürnberg MS., in Romocki, i. 125, recipe, “ignis qui in pluvia.”

82 Generally ascribed to Albert Groot, but much more probably by one of his pupils. Berthelot, i. 91.

83 Romocki, i. 154.

84 Ib., 130.

85 Cedrenus seems to convey that the manufacture of incendiaries was the privilege of the Lampros family, but it was presumably carried on in some Government establishment (ἐκ τούτου κατάγεται ἡ γενεὰ τοῦ Λαμπροῦ, τοῦ νυνὶ τὸ πῦρ ἐντέχνως κατασκευάζοντος); ed. Bekker, Bonn, 1838, i. 765.

86 Herr von Romocki was, I believe, the first to offer this explanation.

87 See p. 13, and Table II., col. Liber Ignium.

88 Dr. Bury in Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall,” &c., vii. 540.

89 Πῦρ τε διὰ τῶν σιφώνων τῷ ἀέρι φυσήσαντες, p. 536.

90 Ἐμφυσᾶται ... λάβρῳ καὶ συνεχεῖ πνεύματι κἆθ’ οὕτως ὁμιλεῖ τῷ πρὸς ἄκραν πυρί. “Alex.,” xiii. 3.

91 “From the fir and such like evergreen trees may be prepared a fiercely-burning mixture” (ἀπὸ τῆς πεύκης καὶ ἄλλων τινῶν τοιούτων δένδρων ἀειθαλῶν συνάγεται δάκρυον εὔκαυστον). Ib. See Æneas’ mixture in Table II. Anna’s recipe is intentionally incomplete.

92 Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐθάδες ἦσαν τοιούτων σκευῶν ἢ πυρὸς, ἄνω μὲν φύσει τὴν φορὰν ἔχοντος, πεμπομένου δ’ ἐφ’ ἃ βούλεται ὁ πέμπων κατά τε τὸ πρανὲς πολλάκις καὶ ἐφ’ ἑκάτερα. “Alex.,” l. xi., c. 10.

93 The earliest notice of steam, as a motive power, is found in the Pneumatica of Heron of Alexandria, cir. 130 B.C. No further progress seems to have been made until the publication of the Pneumatica of Giambattista della Porta in 1601. Perkins’ steam-gun was exhibited in 1824.

94 Ἐχέτω δὲ πάντως τὸν σίφωνα κατὰ τὴν πρώραν ἔμπροσθεν χαλκῷ ἠμφιεσμένον. “Tactics,” xix. § 6. There is no ambiguity about the word ἠμφιεσμένον, which is commonly applied to clothing, e.g. ἄνθρωπον ἐν μαλακοῖς ἱματίοις ἠμφιεσμένον = “a man clothed in soft raiment,” Luke vii. 25. I mention this because it has been stated and restated that the siphons were made of bronze, instead of being “clothed” or “cased” with bronze.

95 Ἐσκευασμένον πῦρ ... διὰ τῶν σιφώνων πεμπόμενον. Ib., § 51.

96 See p. 34 n.

97 Ὁι δὲ σίφωνες οἷς χρῶνται εἰς τοῖς εμπρησμοῖς κατασκευάζονται οὕτως. “Spiritalia,” in Vet. Mathemat. Op., ed. Thévenot, p. 180.

98 “Nullus usquam in publico sipho, nulla hama, nullum denique instrumentum ad incendia;” l. x., c. 48, ed. Titze, p. 252.

99 Ὄργανον ἐις πρόεσιν ὑδάτων ἐν τοῖς ἐμπρησμοῖς.

100 Πρὸς δὲ τοὺς προσφερομένους πύργους εἰς τὸ τεῖχος, ἵνα ὦσι στρεπτὰ μετὰ λαμπροῦ καὶ συφώνια καὶ χειροσύφωνα καὶ μαγγανικά. In Meursii, Op. VI., 1349. In his “Lex. of Byzantine Greek” Sophocles gives λαμπρόν = φῶς, πῦρ.

101 Ἡ δὲ τζάγγρα τόξον μέν ἐστι βαρβαρικὸν καὶ Ἕλλησι παντελῶς ἀγνοούμενον. “Alex.,” ii. c. 8.

102 Ἐν ἑκάστῃ πρώρᾳ τῶν πλοίων διὰ χαλκῶν καὶ σιδήρων λεόντων καὶ αλλοίων χερσαίων ζῴων κεφαλὰς, μετὰ στομάτων ἀνεῳγμένων, κατασκευάσας, χρυσῷ τε περιστείλας αὐτά, ὡς ἐκ μόνης θέας φοβερὸν φαίνεσθαι, τὸ διὰ τῶν στρεπτῶν κατὰ τῶν πολεμίων μέλλον ἀφίεσθαι πῦρ, διὰ τῶν στομάτων αὐτῶν παρεσκεύασε διιέναι. “Alex.,” xi. 10. The obscurity in style of both the Royal writers was no doubt intentional.

103 Berthelot, Revue des Deux Mondes, Aug. 15, 1891, p. 800.

104 American official “Hist. of the War of Rebellion,” ser. 1, vol. xxviii. pt. 1, p. 33.

105 “Greek Fire,” in “Ency. Brit.,” ninth ed.

106 Revue des Deux Mondes, Aug. 15, 1891, p. 792.

107 Webber’s “Metrical Romances.”

108 Liber Gardrobæ of Ed. I., in Tytler’s “Hist. of Scotland,” i. 181.

109 Barbour’s “The Bruce,” bk. xvii., quoted by General R. Maclagan in Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal, xlv. 30 ff.

110 Froissart, vol. i. pt. 2, c. 21, p. 332; c. 26, p. 337.

111 Diedo, “Hist. of the Republic of Venise,” ii. 228 ff.; Paruta, Storia della Guerra di Cipro, 88 ff.

112 In Coleridge’s “Dict. of the Oldest Words in the English Language.”

113 State Papers, Dom. Series, iii. 353.

114 See Table II.

115 E. Pears, “Fall of Constantinople,” 1885, p. 211.

116 “Hist of Greece,” iii. 492.

117 “Voyages,” &c. Trans. par Baratier, 1734, c. 6, p. 50.

118 “Struphnos ... turned into money not only the bolts and anchors of the ships but their sails and rigging, and left the navy without a single large ship” (ὁ Στρυφνός ... δεινότατος ὢν μὴ μόνον γόμφους καὶ ἀγκύραις χρυσίου ἀλλάξασθαι ἀλλὰ καὶ λαίφεσιν ἐπιθέσθαι καὶ ἐξαργυρίσαι πρότονα, ἀπαξάπαντος πλοίου μικροῦ τὰ νεώρια Ῥωμαίων ἐκένωσε). Nicetæ Hist., “De Alex. Isaac. Ang. Fr.,” l. iii. p. 716. Sea-fire is not actually mentioned, but the man who made away with the fittings of the ships was not likely to spare the ammunition, if saleable.

119 Ville-Hardouin, La Conquête de Constantinople, ed. Bouchon, 1891, p. 111.

120 See p. 14.

121 Οἴονται δέ τινες καὶ τηλεβόλους καὶ τηλεβολίσκους ὑπὸ Γερμανῶν ἀρχὴν αποδεδειγμένους κ.τ.λ. Chalcocondyles, Corp. Script. Hist. Byzant., ed. Niehbuhr, Bonn, 1843, l. ii. p. 72.

The tradition was widespread. Ariosto (1474-1533) says:—

122 Δεινὸν γάρ τοι ὁ τηλεβολίσκος καὶ οὐδὲν τῶν ὅπλων ἀντέχει ὥστε μὴ διαχωρεῖν διὰ πάντων καθικνούμενος. Ib., l. vii. p. 346.

123 Herodotus, viii. 52, in his description of the taking of Athens during the invasion of Xerxes, 480 B.C.

124 Μετὰ βροντῆς καὶ καπνοῦ. Leo’s “Tactics,” xix. 51. See p. 38, and Jähns, 515.

125 “Dans notre opinion, les diverses compositions incendiares employées par les Arabes et par les Grecs, antérieurement à l’année 1225, ne contiennent pas de salpêtre.”—Reinaud and Favé, Journal Asiatique, Oct. 1849, p. 282.

126 Paris MSS. 7156 and 7158, which may be dated 1300.

127 These lines are attached by Berthelot to No. 6.

128 I have inserted these two words from the Nürnberg MS. (Romocki, i. 124), instead of the unmeaning “horatactinæ.”

129 Berthelot reads “primo.”

130 “Take” is here “accipe” instead of the “recipe” used in the nine preceding recipes.

131 Berthelot reads, “lauri.”

132 Better, “in scrophulis contra lapides,” Berthelot’s reading.

133 This is the reading of the Paris MS. 7156. Ptolemy is here spelt as Chaucer spells it, Tholome; “Boece,” ii. 7.

134 Probably a scribe’s blunder for cynoglossi.

135 There seems to have been some lacuna in a previous recipe.

136 There is no Index to the original. The above has been made for the convenience of the reader.

137 i. c. 4. There is a marked similarity between certain numerals to be found in Kyeser’s “Bellifortis,” 1405, and those used in the Nürnberg MS. Romocki, i. 124, 150.

138 See p. 16. He was born near Malaga.

139 Berthelot, iii. 2.

140 “Golden Prairies,” Paris ed., viii. 177.

141 i. 128-132.

142 Not a genuine Greek word, although used by Herodotus.

143 Gibbon, vi. 103, Bury’s ed.

144 Romocki, i. 7 n.

145 Reinaud and Favé, p. 49.

146 Jähns, 512 n.

147 “Hist. Hierosol.,” l. vii. c. 33.

148 Hist. Rerum Anglicarum, l. iv. c. 19. A work carried up to the year 1198.

149 In his summary of Masudi’s “Book of Indication and Admonition,” appended to the “Golden Prairies,” Paris ed., ix. 311.

150 Ib., i 198.

151 “Tale of the Tailor,” i. 280, 285, Burton’s ed., 1894.

152 “Archæologia,” xxxiv. 261.

153 “Assyrian Discoveries,” p. 407.

154 R. Grant, “Hist. of Physical Astronomy,” p. 435.