[kid009]

I am doing a project for school...to make greek fire and it has a certain ingrediant/chemical that my teacher doesn't even know of... its called "Burning Pitch"...please help what is it
the other ingredints are pretty volitile like...calcium oxide, liquid petolium, naptha, sulpher, resin, bitumen and calcium phosphate.

[limpet chicken]

I thought greek fire was a secret lost with those who used it, it would have to be either actually ignited as it was pumped from ships, which is likely, or perhaps, containing some sort of pyrophoric compound, perhaps phosphorus.

[inyasha_fan]

im looking for the secret to greek fire as well i think it might have to do with a substance called quicklime which rises in temperature when exposed to water

[hmx9123]

Limpet is correct; the actual formula is lost.  Tenney Davis has an excellent section on greek fire, its history, uses, and probable composition in his book.  I also somehow doubt that you are actually to 'make' greek fire for your school project.  Research it maybe, but no school in its right mind would take on the liability of making Greek Fire now a days.

[just curious111]

scientists have been trying to find the recipe for greek fire for years and so far it has not been found. tell your teacher he gave out an impossible task ( although it is possible to create substances similer to greek fire).

[Moonshyne]

Pardon the extraneous question, but what exactly is the difference between greek fire and regular fire?

[Borek]

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

[mrdeadman]

I am doing a project for school...to make greek fire and it has a certain ingrediant/chemical that my teacher doesn't even know of... its called "Burning Pitch"...please help what is it
the other ingredints are pretty volitile like...calcium oxide, liquid petolium, naptha, sulpher, resin, bitumen and calcium phosphate.

sounds like an early form of napalm, only more effective from what the wikipedia stated.

[Donaldson Tan]

Could ancient text has exaggerated its prowness?

I remembered reading about the giant catapults used by the Roman armies.

The ancient Roman text recorded its range as 400 feet, but the greeks who were attacked by the Romans using these catapults recorded the range was 120 feet. Later, someone (in modern times) actually reconstructed the catapult according to the ancient Roman text, and found its range coincided with the Greeks'.