Re: alchemists ballista bolt

I'm not sure on why they store phosphorous underneath water (and kerosine is
an oil, by the way), I must have been sleeping during that part of my
chemistry classes. :)   I know it reacts with the water in your body and
continues to burn when a Willy Pete (White Phosphorous) grenade hits you.
Also burns right though the engine of a jeep and into the ground, I've seen
that, too.

It's nasty, I think they made white phosphorous illegal to use as a weapon
by geneva convention rules or some crap like that after I got out of the
military, because it was so nasty.  That might just be wishful thinking,
though.

It also keeps burning when it hits the water, and just sinks to the bottom,
burning.  Maybe putting it under water keeps it from going off in the first
place, but once it's going water's not going to stop it, or put it out.
You'd die before you could get it to stop burning, no matter what you used.

Trust me, I know.

As for the sodium, I've seen that burn in water in my chemistry classes,
too.  So does it's relative alkaline metal, lithium.  Look lithium and
sodium up in the elcyclopedias you sent links for.  I'm sure it will talk
about how explosive thier pure elemental forms are.  They use water as fuel
to burn.

- Coyote, the Desert Dog





>From: "Sam C." <sxoa@?????.com>
>Reply-To: Discussion list for the Spelljammer campaign setting
><SPELLJAMMER-L@??????.???????.com>
>To: SPELLJAMMER-L@??????.???????.com
>Subject: Re: [SPELLJAMMER] alchemists ballista bolt
>Date: Sat, 13 Mar 2004 02:01:31 -0800
>
>Static asked before where I got the quotes from.
>http://www.greece.org/Romiosini/greek_fire.html
>I just typed greek fire into google and that was the first link.  I'm not
>sure if both my quotes are from that, sorry I forgot to cite. Bad Smu, bad!
>
>Coyote said <BTW, that link does say they put white phosphorous in water,
>but I think that is a typo.>
>I've found two other sites (and these were the only two I've looked at so
>far)
>http://pearl1.lanl.gov/periodic/elements/15.html
>http://www.scescape.net/~woods/elements/phosphorus.html
>that both say white phosphorous should be stored underwater.  So it seems
>pretty wide spread for a typo.  THe first one is cool cause they have
>alchemical symbol for phosphorous at the top of the page, so thats nifty
>spifty, for anyone who cares.
>
>< I know for a fact they store Sodium in oil, because it is really
>reactive, too.>
>I've always seen it stored in kerosine, because its less viscous.  It is a
>petrol product though so the reason is the same, its just more pleasant
>than crude oil or the stuff you stick in your car.
>
>So far I haven't been able to find a site that says specifically and flat
>out White phosphorous does/does not burn underwater.  I did find this,
>which seems pretty close, but I'm unsure.
>"White phosphorus burns on contact with air. When deprived of air (such as
>underwater, or buried in mud) it remains unchanged and toxic. "
>http://www.hq.usace.army.mil/cepa/pubs/may01/story14.htm
>
>I find this all very facinating and am intensely curious; however, I don't
>think phosphorous is believed to be an ingredient in Greek fire so I'm
>unsure as to why we are talking about it.  But now that we are please
>continue!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Proverb:  Give a man a fire and he will be warm for a day.  Light a man on
>fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life.
>
>
>Do you Yahoo!?
>Yahoo! Mail - More reliable, more storage, less spam
>
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