Anti-ship missile

[__Yossarian0815[jby]]

JonS

Flamethrower

About 905AD. The firelance was essentially a big roman candle that would be fired at the enemy for upto 5 minutes - and racks of them could be parked next to a defender on a wall. Apparently something similar is last recorded as being used at the siege of Bristol in 1643.

I would consider greek fire to be a flame thrower. Invention: sometime before 674 AD (Arab siege of Constantinople)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_fire

[John Kettler]

_Yossarian0815[jby},

Pity you're not here in the States, as Weapon Masters on the Military Channel will be doing Greek Fire at the next hour.

Here's an appetite whetter from the host's blog.

http://www.chadfab.com/2008/06/blog-post.html

And from Ancient Discoveries this little gem. Lots of Greek fire stuff on YouTube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aph-3zEacuw

For the record, Greek fire could also be hurled, not just jetted out, which actually came later. This Wiki's very good, even providing a photo of a Greek fire hand grenade. Torsion weaponry could also be used to fling it.

"In its earliest form, Greek fire was hurled onto enemy forces by firing a burning cloth-wrapped ball, perhaps containing a flask, using a form of light catapult, most probably a seaborne variant of the Roman light catapult or onager.[citation needed] These were capable of hurling light loads—around 6 to 9 kg (13 to 20 lb)—a distance of 350–450 m (383–492 yd)."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_fire

Here's a nice overview, and I highly recommend the Partington book discussed therein.

http://www.chemheritage.org/explore/milestone_greek_fire.html

Regards,

John Kettler

[dieseltaylor]

Very interesting links all of them.

I got distracted slightly by this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Komnene

! what a women - but essentially trouble