I Recreated the Lost Recipe for Greek Fire!

[@DarthBorehd]

My high school chemistry teacher (he was kind of a mad scientist) said that he had figured out that Greek Fire had Lithium as the igniting source. He said that his hypothesis is that the ancient Greeks found a source of lithium carbonate and then couldn't make it again when their source was played out. They wrapped it in tar and sheep wool soaked in natural oil. Then they lit that and launched it out. If it hit the ship and the enemy crew tried to extinguish it with water, it would explode. If it hit the water, it would explode. To demonstrate, he blew up the duck pond next to the school with a football-shaped grenade he made of this concoction. I remember it hitting the pond, nothing happening for a second, then nearly all the water exploded out of the pond and there was water/feathers/fish falling all around us. I don't think anything legally bad happened to him, but he said the principal warned him not to do it ever again (it was a different time).

[@1thedanfan949]

He made a bomb

[@tyleruphues4674]

^ he made a comment

[@AngiraBlu96]

Problem is that alkali metals weren’t discovered until long after the usage of Greek Fire.

[@Adventeuan]

​@@AngiraBlu96 They weren't recorded.

[@AngiraBlu96]

@@Adventeuan That we know of. 🫵🏻

[@Neal_White_III]

I remember reading somewhere that Greek Fire was preheated before battle, which might affect the results. Also, it seems to me that adding small bits of sodium, lithium, etc. to the mix might be a good way to ignite the mixture in water. Sodium is often stored in mineral oil, so it's safe-ish to transport. Then during a sea battle, as the oil spreads on water it seems plausible that the sodium would eventually touch the water and ignite.

[@SuperEmmetMan]

I don't think the Greeks had access to sodium and lithium

[@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648]

How'd you get that with the chemistry of the time? Normally this is done with electrolysis of molten salts (no water).

[@Neal_White_III]

@@SuperEmmetMan I don't know if they did or did not, but they did work with other metals. I think there's at least a possibility that some sort of highly reactive metal might have been part of the secret formula. Besides, I'd like to see a video of that concoction, even if it's not all that plausible.

[@goodmaro]

@@Neal_White_III Highly reactive metals are that way because they're made that way. Unless you have the technology to reduce alkali to metals, or to make something like pyrophoric aluminum, you don't have such highly reactive metals.

[@Neal_White_III]

@@goodmaro Agreed. The question in my mind is: Could they have discovered a method to make such a material in antiquity? Considering that it was so secret, unfortunately, it's likely no evidence would remain.

[@lordcatface2378]

Quick tip from a chemistry student: please clean the ground glass joints in your distillation setup. Anything in the joints will probably cause leakage. You probably don't want that for your safety and yield. And for safety purposes please ventillate well during distillation or do it outside.

[@KnightsWithoutATable]

Yes. The fumes can easily cause a fire, asphyxiation, or an explosion.

[@adamkluckner3429]

Distillation*

[@Ith4qua]

​@@adamkluckner3429your comment added nothing to the original comment. 🤓

[@adamkluckner3429]

@@Ith4qua You're welcome to believe that but you'd be wrong. It added correct spelling to an otherwise incorrect sentence.

[@lordcatface2378]

@@adamkluckner3429 Nitpicking a bit but true, I make that mistake too often. Since I am a fellow perfectionist I'll edit the comment.

[@henrymach]

It absolutely has to have oil in it because it needs to be: 1. less dense than water so it remains on the surface 2. not water soluble 3. stick to things

[@atpsynthase7990]

Lost his whole workshop to fire, and yet look at him now.

[@elouisebarnardt9126]

Fight fire with fire

[@elouisebarnardt9126]

Fight fire with fire

[@kingghoul2324]

Fight fire with fire

[@HarrysDogmalaysia]

@@stevexracer4309 just like you

[@watermelon5521]

Firebender

[@YingwuUsagiri]

Greek Fire nowadays, mostly as a nickname, is what Greeks use for BBQ/Grilling. You use the ashes from the current grill and mix it with something like lamp oil or candle wax and you get a deep grey paste that you can use for the next time and it burns super easily and extremely long compared to a regular fire starter.

[@CalvinBarrett-ss1bs]

I wanted to make a comment but for some reason I'm unable to but I can make a comment to someone else's comment. So my formula I would take sodium nitrate pine oil crude oil and sulphur. And I'm tempted to throw some potassium nitrate in there as well.

[@DRofYouTube]

That’s a different type of Greek fire

[@jono3952]

The addition of pine tar was most likely to facilitate pumping and spraying. The U.S. Navy had the same thought among others when they were developing what we now know as Napalm. The name Napalm comes from Naphtha and Palm oil, which was their first successful recipe, before they moved on to a fully petroleum mix, which quickly became the standard. The reason it needs a thickener is that straight gasoline actually burns too quickly, and disperses in the air, resulting in a dramatic loss of potential and effective range when projected under pressure.

[@johnbennett1465]

Also, if it actually makes the mixture stick to surfaces better, it would make it more effective.

[@paavobergmann4920]

Soap. napalm uses a special soap as thickener. Pine tar was used in the finnish "Molotov cocktail", and it really enhances its effectiveness

[@jono3952]

@@paavobergmann4920 Soap? News to me, the way I heard it was a petroleum based gel material.

[@HomoInsanus]

Thicker solution also tends to flow in more laminar manner which is good if you want to make a flamethrower.

[@paavobergmann4920]

@@jono3952 Napalm A used aluminum soap, Napalm B used something similar to dissolved styrofoam in kerosine

[@OleDirtyMacSanchez]

Glycerin from Animal Hooves and also Beeswax was used in ton of things by Human Cultures all over the World for 5,000 Years or more so you could've tried that. I mixed Glycerin, Gasoline, 195 Proof Alcohol, Pine Resin, Straight Animal Fat, and Beeswax, and got an interesting result. Took 3 Fire Extinguishers to put it out.

[@firstmkb]

Why did you want to put it out?

[@peteredwards2318]

I wonder if the "burning on water" thing is aided in anyway by the presence of salt in the water? This stuff was used primarily at sea, not in fresh water locations.

[@daveamies5031]

Fortunately the salinity of sea water is well known (I know it varies by location and temperature, but the battles the Greeks were fighting were most likely in the Mediterranean sea so that'll limit the variation)

[@dominiklehn2866]

Not usually. But it just sounds like the stuff lost and creates an oil spill that keeps burning

[@hibbs1712]

Wow, what an amazing interview. Thanks for all that information, John Halden!!

[@Luskaiwa]

This is all experimental I am only going on the facts that were reported

[@rishia8908]

Maybe this might help: Naphtha (refined crude oil, boiled to extract compounds that evaporate at lower temperatures just like what you did), quicklime (as a fine powder), calcium phosphide (produced by boiling crushed bones in urine in a sealed earthen or copper container), turpentine (extracted from pine resin), sulfur (as a fine powder), and niter (potassium nitrate). The working principle involves the reactive ingredients, calcium phosphide and calcium oxide (quicklime). The key question will be the proportions-whether the mixture should have a paste-like viscosity or be more oil-like. I think the solution will require testing and adjusting the oxidizer.

[@Oystercaulk]

That sounds like a very effective recipe! It's definitely something I'd wear a respirator around, but ignoring the obvious hazard of phosphine, I don't dont see why it wouldn't work. Is there a source to this recipe or did you come up with it?

[@rishia8908]

@@Oystercaulk based on a lot of research, I looked at the tech and what they were using and trading as well as using for medcine. All these things were at their diposal so its stands to reason with a bit of experimenting they would figure it out.. Another thing they had was alcohol but didnt find any evidence of distilling it to a pure form.

[@Oystercaulk]

@rishia8908 id imagine given its secrecy any literature that may have been produced by someone with high testicular density regarding the production of Greek fire, its constituents, or its precursors would have been found and consequently destroyed since there likely weren't too many people to keep tabs on that knew the recipe. Anyways, this recipe seems quite plausible, and regardless of its potential differences in composition to the original recipe, it sounds like it would produce all the effects that define Greek fire in literature and have been possible for them to produce at the time. Good job, man! Hopefully, someone will come along and test this recipe because god knows im not going to chuck anything containing calcium phosphide into water in my backyard to find out. Then again... Idk. Maybe one of my neighbors has a pool they don't use /s 🤔😂

[@artemis-arrow-3579]

this looks very promising tbh, imma get the ingredients and give it a shot once I have some free time

[@rishia8908]

@@Oystercaulk just be careful !

[@voodooloukerensky3884]

The coolest thing about this video is the collection of raw oil.

[@foresthillwolf7998]

Please drop betterhelp

[@dangerousfables]

Makes me miss Raid shadow legends.

[@sayethwe8683]

Unless he sees a reduction in viewership as a result, or they see that they get no clicks from it, there's no direct measurable incentive to do so.

[@Suillibhain]

Why?

[@PrebleStreetRecords]

Agreed, they are a really scummy company.

[@boticland4342]

Bruh

[@cheshiremalkavian]

Mix your "straight petroleum" at a 1:1:½ or 2:1:½ ratio with crude oil and pine tar. Play with those 3 ingredients ratio, I bet you can make a fairly sticky fire.

[@northmanlogging2769]

If you've already got pine resin, its a short jump to get turpentine, which is super flammable... and is basically just distilled from pine wood, easier to get then pine tar, possibly just mix it with the raw crude, you have the sticky icky, and the easily ignitable? a simple easy to replicate with Byzantine tech recipe. Maybe add some phosphate as a thickening agent?

[@ashe1.070]

Terpentine is a low viscosity fluid, so it’s not sticky. Phosphate is ionic, and as such is very polar. That means it’s not soluble in non-polar organic compounds like those in petroleum. It would just sink to the bottom of the mix, and not do anything

[@therealquade]

@@ashe1.070 egg is an emulsifier. so is blood. they're both albumen. So is lecithin which is in most plants. terpentine + phosphate + eggs or blood. sounds like alchemy to me.

[@northmanlogging2769]

@@ashe1.070 did you read the entire comment? "possibly just mix it with the raw crude"... clearly not.

[@Rizzob17]

How do you add the magnifying glass and create a searchable url in the comments? Tried looking online but could only find copy and paste url.

[@Pixelarter]

@@Rizzob17 I think it's automatically generated with AI or something. Not a command by the commenter. I noticed that they appear and disappear in different comments as I refresh the page.

[@fadiachkar1076]

Try adding phosphorus to the pine tar+oil+sulphur mixture

[@houseofcross3445]

Today in htme. While trying to crack the code on greek fire, we accidentally made a philosopher's stone and so have discovered immortality.

[@Mike-the-Jedi]

Immortality would certainly give him the time to recreate everything.

[@Oúltimopríncipe]

As bob ross once said, there's no mistake, only happy accidents

[@AgentLokVokun]

I think he didn't make greek fire?

[@jercos]

Alt: while trying to crack the code on Greek fire, spent hundreds of dollars on a cheap, common commodity, and demonstrated a lack of understanding of basic chemistry.

[@-.-..._...-.-]

The Byzantine museum in Greece has the recipe for Greek fire that you can see. Interesting how the historian you used did not use one source written in Greek, he even called them Byzantines instead of Romans lol

[@yamiyomizuki]

could you give us the recipe or post a link or something

[@Peter-jo3wt]

The use of the term Byzantines, instead of Romans, differentiates East from West and old capital from new capital.

[@cherrydragon3120]

Ah yes, the museum appears to have the recipe to greek fire. The 1 thing thats been lost for centuries. 😂😂 you truly believe that shit to be real?

[@Peter-jo3wt]

@@yamiyomizuki Kinda did.

[@yamiyomizuki]

@@Peter-jo3wt if all you say is that a certain museum has something, that's not very helpful, especially if the website of said museum isn't in English.

[@kittyprydekissme]

That wading pool is now an EPA Superfund site.

[@therealquade]

that can be safely dumped into another EPA superfund site.

[@MultiSteveB]

@@therealquade To make a super-DUPER EPA superfund site. ;)

[@halfdead4566]

This is why we don't have nice shit.

[@imrecsikany6349]

This was my first thought.

[@ChipmunkRapidsMadMan1869]

Try Birch Tar. There are plenty of primers on distilling birch tar or you can buy it online as a natural skin treatment.

[@kimjunkmoon2298]

Betterhelp rears it's head once again. Please stop their sponsorship

[@bigbird4481]

I doubt he'll stop with them, I haven't seen them sponsored with anyone else in a long time so he's probably one of the few that kept them on. and because of that he probably paid well and to be honest he doesn't get the views he used to so he probably needs the money. I'm not condoning it just what I think

[@SianaGearz]

@@bigbird4481 They are making a big push, of integrated ads i have seen these past 2 weeks were, a third of them were BH. It makes sense. We're in an economic downturn, people get fired, start getting dark thoughts, it's their big opportunity. If only they weren't a scammy company.

[@Uncle_Red]

Why? Did something happen with them?

[@SianaGearz]

@@Uncle_Red a huge FTC fine, 3 class action lawsuits due to them mishandling health and other deeply personal data continuously for 8 years, while attempting to look more trustworthy than they are.

[@Jon-yv4iu]

Normally the sharing of this type of information would be illegal under HIPAA. But Better Help doesnt actually do the therapy so HIPAA doesnt apply to them. They just connect you and actual therapists. When I'm looking for a Therapist having a Therapy company say "Everything we're doing is legal because we aren't actually therapists" doesnt inspire great confidence that what they are doing is ethical.

[@vince8723]

i think you need something mixed in that combusts when exposed to air. something like Phosphorus which can be made from urine. maybe combined with the lime or light oil might help too.

[@timcoombe7880]

Now that's a clean-up I wouldn't want to have to do!

[@elessartelcontar9415]

The ancient Greeks knew about naphtha, which is a type of very volatile petroleum and almost certainly the main ingredient in Greek Fire. Think of it as like a pre-napalm-like napalm. Other ingredients may have included sulfur, pitch, and evergreen resins like turpentine. Greek fire was used in catapulted bombs and sprayed under pressure to attack ships and fortifications. It was also used defensively. Quicklime was likely used to ignite Greek fire at the last possible moment. It probably also contained lampblack soot as it sparkles energetically and allow it to spread if it landed on something non-flammable it's sparks would reach out at least 10 feet in every direction and would likely reach something flammable. It probably contained tar or pitch so it would stick to whatever it hit. Once lit, Greek fire was difficult to extinguish and could not be extinguished with water, it would actually burn underwater and required sand or vinegar to be put out. Picture yourself in a wooden warship on the sea. It's ancient times. You don't understand why your enemy is sailing straight at you. All of a sudden the firepower on an enemy boat sprays liquid fire at you and your ship, the water, the air and you are on fire! Sir Francis Drake had studied Greek Fire and used something similar on his "fire ships" only, he would have a 2 man crew set it on fire and steer right at the huge ponderous Spanish galleons that could not deftly turn away in time and burst into flames. His English crews would jump off the "fire ships" at the last moment. The Spanish fleet was nearly totally burnt.

[@HeatherLandon227]

Skip 4:42 - 5:39 to avoid Scammy Better Help

[@electrojag1]

Tysm

[@Boddah.]

Appreciated. Thank you.

[@kindlin]

@@minhuang8848 Does it reliably work? I feel like it wouldn't be spot on, and sometimes I want to watch, or w/e. Idk, don't need control taken from me. I'm really good at skipping the ads.

[@gaimnbro9337]

5:33 for me but still thank u

[@Abihef]

And a horrible Horrible recording ruining your ears

[@johnmccallum9106]

You could try dissolving the pinetar in the alcohol before adding to the distilled oil. As for the power , could be a separately prepared mix used to make the fire on the enemy ship worse after it was scorched and oilly. Just imagine your sails are on fire and the decks an oilly mess when a clay pot lands on the deck, igniting the whole mess and making it hard to put out. One suggestion from the past was that it could be put out with urine but not water. Perhaps this could hint at the mix.

[@Solais1019]

My first question on this would be whether or not some of the later results were contaminated by not using a fresh pool with every single different test. Is it possible that some of the later tests did not ignite or may have interacted differently with the water because of the contamination of the crude oil and prior failed tests?

[@songsilove9669]

I thought the same thing I think he should clean the pool each time it will take longer but it will be more conclusive

[@Borsuk3344]

This is your first question? The professor says it's crude oil based and the first thing the dude does is distilation. Anyone can make anything flammable by mixing it with gassoline/diesel and call his video "I recreated lost recipe for greek fire".

[@grischad20]

@@Borsuk3344 distilled crude oil is "crude oil" based. and his first test was with crude oil.

[@bloodyrage82]

I've seen a modern recipe for napalm type stuff that used diesel, lighter oil and shaved soap. Loved it though!

[@GuyFromNextDoor]

Lost his workshop to fire, now fire is about to lose everything to him.

[@aerindinescarro47]

@@stevexracer4309upside down American flag, opinion discarded.

[@aerindinescarro47]

@@stevexracer4309 Yeah, he made a vaguely destructive device the way one tapes a lighter to an aerosol can. So should I expect to see you with hicks in 4 months when you lose the election?

[@TheWasatchCrown]

@@aerindinescarro47 You're arguing with a bot: "Most comments are satire and sacastic unless stated otherwise. Other questions and comments made by thisnaccount are designed to test logic. This is a role play account designed to test the psychology of others through comments and questions. In no way does this account represent a real human. Any interaction with this account should not be taken seriously."

[@aerindinescarro47]

@@TheWasatchCrown I don’t check the bios of every person I reply to, but thanks for informing, I’ll keep more of an eye out.

[@TheWasatchCrown]

@@aerindinescarro47 You'd be surprised how many "Average Americans" are actually office workers in Russia. I always check the account creation date and the bio on rabble rousers and troll comments.

[@chrisgriffith9252]

Mineral oil Bear fat (pig fat or lard works, and increases the temperature) Pine pitch Sulfur Potassium nitrate And yes quick lime... Mix is kept in a heated vat and pumped out of a nozzle... Several different shows came up with a recipe similar to this...

[@mabeSc]

That fly got the buzz of his life, to death and back.

[@williamfry5486]

I am glad someone is brave enough to figure out what can go wrong!

[@V3RTIGO222]

So I recently saw the video about the mechanism behind the proto-flamethrower - the recipie itself is not particularly novel, but the mechanism is extremely cool. Using bronze piping to boil a small vesssl of the fluid, building pressure to project it at range is so, so cool.

[@jamesmonschke747]

The reaction of quicklime and water produces acetylene. I think if quicklime was used, it would be primarily for this effect, and also could be an aspect of it being difficult to put out with water since the water would cause the release of very flammable acetylene gas which could easily reach an ignition temperature because it would not be in contact with the water that would keep a liquid or solid cooled below an ignition temperature.

[@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648]

No place to get carbon for that proposed reaction. I think you're thinking of calcium carbide.

[@remcovanvliet3018]

If you want to experiment further with fire bottles (molotov cocktails, essentially) I highly suggest you contact the guys from Ordnance Lab KZbin channel, so you can you do your research under their supervision, as they are officially certified by the ATF for doing such work. For example, each individual fire bottle needs to be officially registered as a Destructive Device with the ATF, to avoid the chance at a ten year stay in a federal prison. Not trying to piss on your parade. Just trying to keep you out of prison. Also, please drop Better Help as a channel sponsor. They are an extremely shady company, that not only offers terrible quality service, grossly under pays their therapists, but they also sell their clients' personal information to scummy data brokers for profit. I understand that you need to eat, but I really don't think you want your name associated with these people.

[@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648]

Maybe when it gets to the homemade flamethrower stage; that might alarm the neighbors. But there has to be a point before which this is just silly. What was being destroyed, a pool of water with a rock in it and oil on top? Or a model boat not even as big as a piece of firewood?

[@Notdave29]

@@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648The ATF doesn’t have a sense of humor. Doesn’t matter what common sense says. And you can buy a flamethrower off the shelf with no background check anyway.

[@Skinflaps_Meatslapper]

Please don't ruin this channel with Shawn. The only thing he knows how to do is copy memes and inside jokes found on the NFA facebook group. He's the person that annoyingly ruins the joke every time he catches on to one. His serialized one time use shiner bottle molotovs were the result of finding out I serialized a cage that you could put a beer bottle in and reuse as many times as you wanted, on any surface, including sand or meat popsicles.

[@Mountainmonths]

stop snitchin

[@20chocsaday]

I know nothing about the Better Help organisation, but I would have expected it to use AI bots as counsellors.

[@blackdog6969]

I imagine whether intended or not that sodium may have played a large role in ignition on water. Sea salt itself wouldn't have necessarily done the job but when heated to vapourise, I'm pretty sure some of the sodium seperates from the chlorine. That would also explain the "thunder" that accompanied the fire. Not a chemist though, I've just heard the sodium and chorine seperating during desalination is what makes it hard to do at a large scale

[@among-us-99999]

God damn please stop the betterhelp sponsorships!

[@cherrydragon3120]

Why. Whats so bad about them

[@chickenmonger123]

What happens if you add rough particulate charcoal? It likely would settle or float inside the slurry. Then when projected with whatever pump, would scatter across the surface. Adding an endurance and heat to the flame. Possibly sticking unlit or about to be lit coals to things impossible to catch in flame with coals. Which ordinarily are scattered across a surface.

[@alexdrockhound9497]

Doesn’t burn as well as youd expect.

[@nekdonikde5317]

Drachinifel has a great video about Greek Fire and has done a promissing series of tests himself.

[@tods_workshop]

Had a great chat with Drach last week about Greek Fire - exciting stuff

[@ThatGuySyndrome]

Bird fat oil was used to make it "sticky" with the right consistency of crude oil and bird fat oil combined its going to mix. This floats on water, but the key is not just floating on water, its having it stay on fire, and not dilute and dissipate while ontop of sea water specifically. The weapon was used more so to corral other sea ships. This "greek fire" would sit on top of the water and it would easily be able to be lit on fire, or remain ontop of the water while enemy ships sail or row through it and it sticks to the wood of the ship and the ore's of the ship. This greek fire on the ships can then be set on fire later on when the actual battle might happen. It should stick very well to itself on top of water. Sodium metal should be mixed in as powder in the bird fat/distilled crude oil mixture. The lack of water in that mixture is non reactive to Sodium metals, which is highly reactive when exposed to water, specifically sea water. This reaction causes massive heat and hydrogen gas, this heat ignites the bird fat/oil mixture the instant it touches the water.

[@GertrudeTheCar]

Bro this is the first time I've actually been notified by KZbin when you uploaded.

[@undeadtemp6855]

same

[@RyanBarnes]

Same

[@CM-yz3ze]

Ditto.

[@Expansionization]

Not me, and ive got that lil bell😢

[@SianaGearz]

@@stevexracer4309 It's not going to do that.

[@brianhoag8812]

I don't know how you would get it but I remember reading that some North Slope Crude was so pure that they took it out of the ground and ran their diesel vehicles on it. Take a vacation up to Alaska and see if you can lay your hands on it.

[@briantrovilion909]

How the hell did you dispose of that water properly?

[@juslitor]

prolly threw saw dust into the pool, gathered it up after letting it soak for a while, rinse and repeat until desired result is reached.

[@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648]

@@juslitor The water beneath the oil would be virtually harmless too, and could be siphoned off or pumped away.

[@crestdazoltral7705]

Let it dry out and burn the rest?

[@nickm9102]

@@crestdazoltral7705 Seems like the easiest way to me but it might take awhile to boil off that much water.

[@therockinboxer]

who cares?

[@ShadowTheLion]

A good test would be to create a device capable of launching a stream of the fire at a target, this would effect the viscosity possible. I also agree that the use of saltpeter seems unlikely as theey were trying to burn the ships and the people on them not the water around them

[@AlyxForest]

Please stop advertising better help. They were recently investigated for selling private user information- information they explicitly promised to never distribute. They also prioritize efficiency and speed over actually getting people help, and they make it very hard to cancel subscriptions, meaningt hey essentially take your money while stalling. They are awful and it's not difficult to look up why.

[@cherrydragon3120]

Ey finaly someone who elaborates on why they're shit. Thats so much more helpfull

[@tysonessenmacher2091]

Maybe try linseed oil. In a fine spray it could self ignite.

[@phillupson8561]

I love that a historian said damp squid, the expression is damp squib, which was a type of firework, when one wouldn't go off the disappointed kids would say it was a damp squib.

[@kittyprydekissme]

Yeah. Squids are supposed to be damp.

[@andreaswolff5263]

A substance that is very sticky and catches fire easily is cashew shell oil, which is produced when cashew nuts are roasted. If you touch it, it is difficult to get it off your fingers and it is highly flammable. Possibly an ingredient for the crude oil base.

[@sephkurai]

3:05 he said the thing! "damp squid"

[@SanchoPanza-wg5xf]

The Professor from the land that invented English had ought to know the expression is "damp squib".

[@marktyler3381]

Projectionability is also somewhat jarring.

[@readtruth6670]

Olive oil? Not so much for its flammability but for the low density and viscosity. Mixed with pine pitch, your distilled crude, and maybe a medium like shredded wool, you might have a nice combo if the ratios are right.

[@no_rubbernecking]

Isn't the use of the grenade a problem? With a flamethrowing device, much more oxygen can be mixed in during transit.

[@plvmbvm513]

True, but I'm pretty sure the grenade was also a historical method of delivery

[@no_rubbernecking]

@@plvmbvm513 I see, well then was that probably meant to hit a dry deck rather than the hull near the waterline?

[@therealquade]

the greeks had no conception of oxygen, they're operating on the principals of the classical elements. they couldn't have even done that on accident. How would the greeks even generate pure oxygen.

[@Mochi14376]

Great video. Did you use dawn to clean it?

[@RoadHead62]

Pine tar/pitch, gasoline and crude oil. Sulfur as well. All of which were available naturally. Getting natural gasoline without all the added chemicals could be a challenge though. The mix has to be thin enough to flow freely and thick and sticky enough to cling to any surface it contacts. The pump mechanism is simple enough, they had bladder bellows for various things like moving air for forges and water for agriculture, no reason one could not be used to create a venturi effect and draw the liquid out f a barrel into a fast moving airstream and ignited in the air. One of the things that I was told as a kid when I first heard of it was that it could not be extinguished by water and only spread faster when that was tried. Sounds exactly like a grease fire to me. (Maybe it was called Greek Fire because it was first called Grease Fire and just evolved the way words do over time.)

[@calebsutton6798]

Hooray more reduscovered lost technology Also another reason for ck3 naval warfare update

[@GaiusCaligula234]

No

[@jasonssavitt5297]

Ck3 absolutely needs to have naval warfare and navies in general.

[@michaelperrone3867]

It may have also been pine sap dissolved in toluene or a similar solvent extracted from pine trees - but yeah the black color sounds like crude oil. Cool!

[@AustinGoto]

3:04 A damp squid? We all have gaps, but from a greek fire expert?

[@matt1580]

😂

[@Moodymongul]

For the sticky element, maybe add a sugar (like molasis) to the thin crude oil (fully disolve it with some heat).

[@heathbecker420]

Greek fire was said to be self igniting upon contact with air (not water). So something needs to be added to the mix, and then immediately sealed in the glass ball so that there is very little air in side. When the ball breaks the mix reacts with air and ignites, it also needs to float on water and be a little sticky so it doesn't run off the sides of ships but clings and burns. Making something sticky and also lighter than water and flammable is pretty easy, the mystery is how to get it to self ignite (and its up for debate if it ever really worked that way). Also you don't want to aerosolize the mix, napalm in flamethrowers is NOT delivered as a mist, rather its a dense stream ideally made with the minimum of atomization. Therefore a better choice would be to develop a device that delivers a laminar flow of the fuel out of the nozzle .

[@20chocsaday]

Sodium metal shavings are safe under mineral oil but burn when exposed to air. That might ignite some fractions of the oil, they would ignite the rest. But making Sodium metal, or White Phosphorus, that's a problem.

[@heathbecker420]

@@20chocsaday sodium generally does not ignite in air, not unless its really shaved thin and exposed to humid air and HOT like over 200F hot. Its reactive to water. Maybe you meant white phosphorous that you mention later in your comment (which is wicked dangerous and probably not something the ancient Greeks had access to) but is very reactive to air.

[@20chocsaday]

@@heathbecker420 Thanks. Trouble is, you can't keep the metal except under oil. The same goes for Potassium. But as for a way of reducing these metals to purity or making White Phosphorus in those days, that is a problem.

[@vladboy1]

Sugar

[@firstmkb]

Igniting doesn’t necessarily have to be on contact with air. It could happen on impact from a glass container shattering or hot glass hitting the water. For that matter some burning charcoal in the package could do the trick"

[@Thomasmoustakas-sy2mf]

For water contact ignition you can use sodium and potassium

[@stabnore]

Fire experiments in a kiddie pool? Oh yeah... that can't go wrong. lol

[@vanillagorrilla]

Wow first ten seconds i realised I’m going to love this guy

[@BobChancer]

19:32 ok you have continued to use recipe after recipe, one on top of the other..... how on earth can you tell what is reacting with what? You have contaminated every experiment beyond the first!

[@BryanDraffen]

I always enjoy this channel.. it's like an irl historical videogame .

[@drunkredninja]

what i wanna know is how you guys cleaned up all that oil

[@therockinboxer]

are you asking for a woman you know?

[@ThomasWilson-yc7ht]

I', curious how you handled the cleanup and disposal of the pool water after your experiments. I've often been curious about such post-experiment processes and never took the time to ask before. Great video!

[@leaguemastergg3647]

Please don't use better help. With better help you are responsible for vetting any "therapists" they give you, to make sure that they are actually therapists. I believe Better Help is a scam, do not use them.

[@mozeskertesz6398]

What if they mixed in some Nessus Blood? This is a mixture of potassium permanganate and sulphuric acid. Some mixtrures can ignite at 20 degrees, but most ignite spontaneously in 40 degrees. Potassium permanganate was easily available in Magnesia (northern greece i think) and sulphuric acid could be sourced from any suitable volcano. So in theory, a mixture of crude oil, tar seep, quicklime, potassium permanganate and sulphuric acid might work.

[@dlscorp]

3:04 he definitely says "damp squid" dear oh dear

[@MD-gk2un]

Thank you I thought I was the only one who caught that ..and he's from PRINCETON.

[@kumabjorn7992]

Try a higher distillation temperature to get the higher octane fuels. Maybe even try stacked distillation since each grade boils off at different temperatures. Mix in some fresh crude to the diesel/jet fuel. Add some liquefied pine sap to thicken it. Then spray it through a crude, lit, nozzle with a hand pump. That should give you decent effects, burn easily, and stick to targets even in water. I doubt the hand flask grenades are much more than oil in a corked beaker. Pretty much fancy medieval molotovs. It's the dragon breath at the front of the ship that's really awesome.

[@Taylor-od]

Lmao BetterHelp? I'd hope you would be BetterThanThat.

[@fishstix4209]

Just fast forward through the ad read if it triggers you....there is a timer top right. Also, learn to read terms of service instead of being annoying

[@mr-x7689]

@@fishstix4209 What does terms of service have anything to do with the service being horrible on multiple etical levels, and someone pointing it out? If any one is annoying then it would be you, for feeling the need to bitch and moan about people pointing out that this sponsor have a terrible trackrecord. + the wast majority of people do skip past it. They just feel the need to make the content creator aware of that he is aiding a scummy organisation, that have caused more harm than good. And being asosiated with them can hurt him in the long run. I for one would not want to be assosiated with a bad company, If i were trying to create somthing good.

[@fishstix4209]

@@mr-x7689 yall are annoying af

[@fishstix4209]

@mr-x7689 no one is forcing you to sign up....read the terms of service, see what they have the right to do if you accept, don't click accept, and move on with your life. Betterhelp isn't the only company that does it btw

[@fishstix4209]

@mr-x7689 No one is forcing you to sign up....read the terms of service, see what they have the right to do if you accept, don't click accept, and move on with your life. Betterhelp isn't the only company that does it, btw Screenshots on this one because it keeps getting deleted

[@VikOlliver]

The Finns settled on 20%-30% pine tar to thicken petroleum spirit in their molotovs. 5%-15% beeswax or parafin wax also works. Bear in mind it can get bloody cold in Finland! In a flamethrower you want to throw FUEL, not fire. The additives are to stop it spreading out into a fireball and thus squirt further. In absence of napalm WW2 soldiers would mix gasoline, diesel, and fuel oil until the had a usable consistency and flammability.

[@MagnumInnominandum]

Now, If we could learn to build WWII era Battle Ships and Aircraft Carriers.

[@satakrionkryptomortis]

lets not go there. its risky to touch boats.

[@hunnybunnysheavymetalmusic6542]

For self ignition in water, you need sodium, potassium, or even calcium in its metallic form. If you happen across red phosphorous, though, it can be mixed with petroleum distillates or other organics and ignited at relatively low temperatures with alkali metal oxides or even hydroxides.

[@Vexeton]

get a better sponsor

[@kevinmencer3782]

It spread significantly less, but the pine resin could account for its infamous ability to stick to and coat things. Also, by limiting the amount of fire spread, you can use it without endangering yourself.

[@davidandrewcope]

I'm just here wondering how he cleaned up the kiddie pool after the video.

[@TFUTM]

The thickening agent in napalm is an aluminium salt of palmitic acid (a long chain fatty acid). It is a form of soap. If you add lime to animal fat (and maybe water- slaked like would be safer) you get a sodium salt of a fatty acid. This is a sodium based soap like the stuff everyone uses. Fatty acid + alkali a standard soap making thing. So maybe quicklime is used to make soap that is then used to thicken the mixture and make it sticky.

[@crowznest438]

Some naval deaths in WWII were men who had to abandon ship and jump into diesel that had spilled into the ocean and caught on fire. Diesel as I understand it, is distilled crude and the Romans knew about distillation. It's all very interesting and disturbing.

[@therealquade]

so the greeks made diesel fuel and metal tanks with tubes, one full of diesel, one full of regular compressed air that they pumped manually, and the air pressure goes into the diesel to force it out of a different tube with a nozzle. The greeks invented the Flammenwerfer (it werfs flammen).

[@792slayer]

The ships in WW2, and in some cases today, actually run on bunker fuel, usually bunker B. It's consistency is closer to Vaseline than a fuel as we would recognize it. The ships used piping that ran through tanks carrying live steam to heat the bunker fuel up enough for it to be pumped to the boilers. It's really nasty stuff.

[@therealquade]

@@792slayer that's genuinely interesting. unfortunately, all it does is give me horrid ideas for things to do with vaseline, like using the heating of it with an emulsifier to make the worlds nastiest milkshake as a prank.

[@crowznest438]

@@792slayer Interesting! Thanks for sharing!

[@792slayer]

@@therealquade hey, what you do with knowledge is up to you, lol.

[@jeffhetherington5448]

When I add PH+ in my pool, I mix it in a small bucket before I dump it in. It makes the water in the bucket significantly more hot.

[@BillAngelos]

Would love to see what the EPA has to say about the pool in his back yard.

[@johnbuchman4854]

"Protected wetlands"?

[@BillAngelos]

@@johnbuchman4854 I'd think that pouring all that oil and other chemicals into the pool is going to create some kind of disaster. How do you even dispose of it?

[@kubakielbasa5987]

@@BillAngelos burn it. Once a supercontaminated river ignited.

[@andytheturtle87]

I'd be much more concerned about what the ATF says since he made dozens of unregistered destructive devices, each which can carry a sentence of 10 years in federal prison.

[@alexdrockhound9497]

@@andytheturtle87yep

[@seangere9698]

The thing is that with greek fire, it's always accompanied by a flamethrower apparatus, so using glass pots will give different results than with a dusperser. But i agree that a light crude oil/pine tar mix is probably the best thing to come to what was actually used.

[@LugborG]

Your final mixture may still work, depending on the conditions you're testing under. Try hitting some wet wood (the hull above the waterline) with the mix. There won't be as much water to cool the mixture, which could lead to ignition.

[@Dan0rioN]

#8 was actually cool because the fire was there but hard to see!! Add the ether & some wax shavings & you got some crazy stuff man

[@shakeelali20]

Ugh another BetterHelp sponsorship ruining one of my favourite channels. I guess it goes to show that even with such a loyal audience, creators are still bold enough to ask for money through patreon AND take money from sham conpanies.

[@Skinflaps_Meatslapper]

Crude oil varies wildly in its composition. It ranges from a jet black, nearly asphalt/tar in consistency and difficult to ignite, to a lighter color than 0W synthetic engine oil, about as viscous as water, and more flammable than gasoline. It all depends on what formation it came out of and how long the oil has been cooking down there. The crude oil you got was likely of the former, and was a little more "undercooked", if you will. If you want some of the better stuff, reach out to a lease operator in West Texas, they can probably get you a jug of it for free to test. Interesting side note, in the old days when they hit a pocket of that gooey trash and it ended up being too thick to pump out, they would make a loop of rope that went down to a pulley at the bottom of the hole and then back up into a tank, where the rope was threaded through a rubber hole that wiped off the oil that got stuck to the rope as it ran through in the well. Most of them used steam power that came from burning the very oil they were extracting, so with a little maintenance and a water supply, they'd run free of charge until there was no more oil to extract out of the ground.

[@timconklin3093]

Please drop betterhelp unless you're into exposing people's personal information

[@SlyNation]

He probably can't stop. Sponsorships usually work by contracts which say how many videos you need to make, how long the advertisement is, how many posts you have to make, etc. Or it could be a campaign style where its 1, 2-minute advert for every video created between a start and end date. It's always different per company and usually you cannot simply drop a sponsor once you agreed and signed to it. Not at least until the contract is fulfilled or youve reached the end date.

[@cherrydragon3120]

​@@SlyNationyeah breach of contract will deffinetly cost you more then you earn

[@edeciotheghost1637]

Greek fire was also described as green... copper produces a green flame, was readily available at the time, and was used often in alchemical explosives, as copper powder when spread through the air can combust in the same way that sawdust or flour can. Copper has a melting point of nearly 2000⁰f, so it could retain heat well during an alchemical reaction, also. Maybe pairing copper powder with the quicklime could work, as the quicklime could heat the metal powder rather than just itself and the water, potentially achieving a higher potential temperature. Having copper powder in the oil could potentially produce a green flame, which isnt particularly useful but would have been an incredibly intimidating thing to see as a soldier on a midevil battlefield, so maybe the green color was less practical and more of a shock tactic

[@mohamedamaan6157]

If this guy doesn't drop the betterhelp sponsorships I'm boycotting these videos, who's with me!

[@michaelmcchesney6645]

Did you consider using sodium or another alkali metal to ignite your mixture when it contacts water? Would purifying the sodium be too difficult? Would sodium have made the mixture too explosive and, therefore, too dangerous? Or would that just not have worked?

[@Flying0Dismount]

Congratulations on turning your back yard into an EPA superfund site..

[@Khalrua]

He also made incendiary devices, 10 year prison sentence and a felony in the USA.

[@jackk4332]

Looking at the water level in the friggin thing.....one side was partially caved in.......BRO you dont clean that SH*T up with paper towels! That property is likely permanently contaminated.

[@ckl9390]

Something to consider was that the Byzantines were also quite adept at distillation. It is quite possible that they were distilling heavier tar-seep petroleum. If so, the secret ingredient would have been somewhat refined petroleum, or petroleum distillates.

[@christopherrenn8137]

Crude oil, Pine resin, Ethanol all mixed in solution with pure sodium dust. As the spray hits the water, sodium will react and create a spark, thus lighting the fire. :D

[@charlesurrea1451]

The question now becomes where did they get the sodium?Sodium was discovered in 1807 by the English chemist Humphry Davy from electrolysis of caustic soda (NaOH). Although sodium is the sixth most abundant element on earth and comprises about 2.6% of the earth's crust, it is a very reactive element and is never found free in nature.

[@Jenisonc]

​@charlesurrea1451 it was only first documented in the 1800s. I would imagine the properties were discovered but not really understood or described due to lack of chemical understanding.

[@christopherrenn8137]

@@Jenisonc Took the words right out of my mouth. They may not of known what it was truly and since it wasn't recorded we cannot know if it was actually discovered much earlier. I only suggested it because the sodium would sit in that solution well. It's well known that oil and water dont mix so the sodium would be mostly stable in the solution. Only time it would be risky is when mixing the other chemicals into the solution. The Ethanol or pine resin may add some small amounts of water. But you cannot deny, sodium would cause ignition in that situation. Anyone else believe it's worth testing at least?

[@hxllside]

I think it would be a fun experiment to add sodium but you guys don't appreciate how unlikely it is for the ancient greeks to ever encounter elemental sodium

[@RiehlScience]

The sodium metal would react with the ethanol to form sodium ethoxide. Just omit the ethanol and it should work.

[@theepicgerman6153]

Two slight things I see an issue with. The sea battles were fought in the seas which incorporated salt water. Also, the farther you went, the more contaminated the “water” got. At the end, it was a mix of everything that didn’t burn and the water. For the best results, change out the water between experiments

[@simoncleret]

It would be possible to create small amounts of metallic sodium (Making a small amount of electric current with chemical batteries would be a reasonable amount of effort for a secret superweapon of the day). Try mixing some of THAT in the oil.

[@charlesurrea1451]

Sodium was discovered in 1807 by the English chemist Humphry Davy from electrolysis of caustic soda (NaOH). Although sodium is the sixth most abundant element on earth and comprises about 2.6% of the earth's crust, it is a very reactive element and is never found free in nature.

[@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648]

It would have to be done with molten salt -- not a salt solution.

[@johnslugger]

*They did mix the "fine light crude" with yellow sulfur which keeps relighting when mixed with fine cut fibers like cotton. Then they made NITRATE OF POTASH "potnit' by adding Urine into a campfire to make an oxidizer.*

[@swankierSpy2658]

Please drop Better Help. They’re a really scummy company who sell people’s ‘secure’ data that they collect from devices and meetings and also aren’t even that good with meetings things with therapists who are not good at all

[@konradsmith173]

I’ve done a lot of research into these basic ingredients in the past and not specifically for this reason, however I believe that the crude oil plays the largest factor here. The second being the quick lime for sure both were readily available and use often for holding boats together and this fact alone may have been a reason as to why and how they figured out to make Greek fire. Not the density is my main concern when looking back at documents I’ve found it seems that they may have also sprayed this concoction as well an launched it. The glass beakers I will say is a large enough problem being borosilicate glass and tends to have troughs breaking apart thing simplistic hollow tune made of metal with holes in it or even cloth soaked rags inside of these devices. Something that could carry a flame far and continue to burn roll and spread the flame,even a log split into two half’s and hollowed out and tied and thrown so when it hit the ground or ship it would explode the liquid from inside! Now on the largest problem I see with old alchemy there was a lot of time and thought out into exactly what to do I foresee the cooking process taking way longer and getting way more pure quality samples happening there times the would run a distillation over and over until they were sure that the chemicals were as pure and as thin or as thick as they needed to be something like a modern day diesel fuel or gasoline would make a good comparison for experiments until you are positive of a launching system a sprayer and a way to deliver the device by a trebuchet because why not go big well bigger at least. I would definitely say try very thin liquid oil diesel fuel and a very high quality quick lime that will definitely ignite when in contact with water and your more likely to have your self something more realistic simple and works like a charm!

[@TheScott10012]

You know he tipped that water in the storm drain 😂

[@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648]

Narsty. Better that it be evaporated and burned, or disposed of as HHW.

[@Warhawk198]

Who needs Greek fire when we have the entire US military😂

[@PabloEdvardo]

18:40 another example of how your tests are at best, creative demonstrations, and not in any way scientific or useful. Allowing the other ingredients to accumulate in your water means you're not testing flammability of any individual component, save for maybe the first one you did. Control and elimination of variables are essential to performing an experiment that one can draw conclusions from.