01-06-2005, 05:21 AM
Hi,
Solid fuel is a good idea, and from various posts is seems that it had been used. Pitch, in particular, would make a pretty good fuel and would (probably) stay pretty well solid if lit and fired promptly. It does liquify if heated long enough. Another good fuel would be *tightly* wrapped cloth impregnated with tallow or oil.
A problem with fire arrows is that the flames would tend to be extinguished by the airflow. The ideal case, I would guess, is something that would hold a spark while in flight and then reignite when it hit and became stationary. The tallow or wax impregnated cloth would probably do that, since cloth tends to char and smolder (thus being the preffered material to 'catch the spark' when using flint and steel.
An interesting problem overall, with ramifications not obvious to the casual glance. Given the nature of warfare and the development that has gone into weapons since the first flint head was attached to a wooden shaft to make a 'knife' longer, I'd guess that it has had many solutions, each representing the height of the technology available at the time.
--Pete
whyBish,Jan 5 2005, 08:26 PM Wrote:Wow, interesting stuff.Heating the tip enough to do any good is pretty well impossible. Consider that all you've got is the mass at the tip and its heat capacity to carry that thermal energy. After heating it, it is going to go through the air at a pretty good clip. Just like blowing on a cup of coffee, that will cool things down. And the temperature you can heat the tip to is pretty well limited to what the shaft (usually wood) can stand. Not to mention bindings and or glue, both probably of well beaten horse origin. Nope, while I haven't run the numbers, my gut tells me that you just can't get enough heat into a tip to do much of anything.
One question though, why not use a solid fuel for the arrows; or no fuel and heat the tip hot enough to ignite whatever was flammable on the target?
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Solid fuel is a good idea, and from various posts is seems that it had been used. Pitch, in particular, would make a pretty good fuel and would (probably) stay pretty well solid if lit and fired promptly. It does liquify if heated long enough. Another good fuel would be *tightly* wrapped cloth impregnated with tallow or oil.
A problem with fire arrows is that the flames would tend to be extinguished by the airflow. The ideal case, I would guess, is something that would hold a spark while in flight and then reignite when it hit and became stationary. The tallow or wax impregnated cloth would probably do that, since cloth tends to char and smolder (thus being the preffered material to 'catch the spark' when using flint and steel.
An interesting problem overall, with ramifications not obvious to the casual glance. Given the nature of warfare and the development that has gone into weapons since the first flint head was attached to a wooden shaft to make a 'knife' longer, I'd guess that it has had many solutions, each representing the height of the technology available at the time.
--Pete
How big was the aquarium in Noah's ark?