Anna Daniels
The grenade is a relic of the Byzantine Empire that existed between the fourth and 15th centuries, with its capital at Constantinople as the center of the middle-ages Christian world. The contents of the grenades themselves — often referred to as “Greek fire” — was believed to have been invented around the seventh century, and as Padian mentioned in her interview with SpareFoot, to this day, no one is sure how the concoction was manufactured. A good modern analogy for it would be napalm — however, Greek fire was a liquid base and projected using a pressurized system, rather than jellified like modern napalm. The Byzantine Empire used it to astounding effect in naval battles with a ship-mounted, flamethrower-like tool, as well as employing it in thrown ceramic grenades that would shatter and ignite on impact.
The recipe was a closely-guarded state secret — almost all description of Greek fire comes from secondhand sources that only knew a few of the required ingredients. We know today that it likely used crude petroleum and resins, but modern attempts to recreate it can’t produce the antiquity described effects of instant ignition with or without water, nor can it produce the same level of damaging capability. Even soldiers trained to use the liquid and the machines used to propel it only knew how to operate modular portions of the system, so no one person knew how the entire machine worked, much less how to manufacture its ammunition. Greek fire is truly a chemistry miracle of its age — and the secrecy so effectively kept, that time’s erosion and the collapse of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottomans means it has been lost.
What a journey this little grenade must have seen — to have been manufactured over a thousand years ago, before Europe even knew of the New World, and end up in the hands of a modern reality TV star.
Written by: Looper
