Trivia #13 Concoction (10/13/2014)

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"Greet fire" which was supposed to ignite when jars contains it was opened and the substance came into contact with the air.

Edit - I'll assume this was a typo and you meant to type "Greek fire."

Hoosier
 
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'Greek Fire,' a mixture of sulfur, naphtha, and quicklime. Some contemporary reports, like this from the NY Times on 11/27/1864, also called it 'Phosphorus'.

Edit - I thought it was interesting that the Times article credited Mr. "BOOTH," who was on the stage at the time, with calming the crowd at the Winter Garden Theatre after fire was reported at the adjacent Lafarge Hotel.

Wonder which one of the Booths it was?

Hoosier
 
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It was an ancient concoction called "Greek Fire", a mixture of sulfur, naphtha and quick lime, put in a jar which when opened and exposed to air/oxygen, would ignite. There were about 20 of these fires and were quickly put out.

Edit - Correct, JohnnyClair. Welcome to the trivia game and to CivilWarTalk.

Hope you'll come back and play again. If you haven't done so already, you're invited to stop by the New Recruits Meet and Greet forum and introduce yourself to some more CivilWarTalkers.

Hoosier
 
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