Napalm
gelling agent for use in incendiary devices / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Napalm is a mixture of a gelling agent and a volatile petrochemical. It is a flammable liquid (liquid that is easy to burn) that has been used in war. When it is mixed with gasoline, the thickener makes a sticky gel that is easy to burn, and burns for a long time. A team of Harvard chemists in U.S. made napalm during World War II. The team leader was Louis Fieser. The name napalm comes from the ingredients that were first used to make it: coprecipitated aluminum salts of naphthenic and palmitic acids.[1]
One of the major problems of the first fluids used for lighting fires (such as those used in flamethrowers) was that they splashed and drained too easily. Flamethrowers that use a gasoline gel can shoot farther and are more useful. Gasoline gel was hard to make because it used natural rubber, which was in high demand and expensive. Napalm was much cheaper. It solved the problems involved with rubber-based things made to cause fire.[1]
Nowadays, napalm is mostly made of benzene and polystyrene, and is known as napalm-B.[1]
Napalm was used in flamethrowers and firebombs by the U.S. and allied forces. Napalm is made to burn at a specific rate and stick to materials. This is done by mixing different amounts of napalm and other materials. Another useful (and dangerous) effect, mostly in its use in bombs, was that napalm takes the oxygen out of the air and makes large amounts of carbon monoxide that suffocates people. Napalm bombs were used in the Vietnam War to clear landing zones for helicopters.[1]
Napalm was a 20th-century invention. However, it is a part of a long history of incendiary devices in warfare. Historically, it was mostly liquids that were used (see Greek fire). A flammable liquid fuel weapon which can be held by people, the flamethrower was created in World War I by the Germans. Many other flamethrowers were soon made by other sides in the conflict.[1]