The British biochemist and historian
Joseph Needham believes that if the flamethrower used in 919 AD was of the same design as the one described in the later
Wujing Zongyao in 1044, then it is also by implication the earliest known use of the
slow match. Therefore, also one of the first military applications of
gunpowder. The following is a description of the flamethrower as provided by the
Wujing Zongyao: Flamethrowers were also recorded to have been used in 976 AD when
Song naval forces confronted the
Southern Tang fleet on the
Changjiang. Southern Tang forces attempted to use flamethrowers against the Song navy, but were accidentally consumed by their own fire when violent winds swept in their direction. The flamethrower was a well known device by the 11th century when it was joked that Confucian scholars knew it better than the classics. Both gunpowder and the fierce fire oil were produced under the Arsenals Administration of the Song dynasty. In the early 12th century AD, Kang Yuzhi recorded his memories of military commanders testing out fierce oil fire on a small lakelet. They would spray it about on the opposite bank that represented the enemy camp. The flames would ignite into a sheet of flame, destroying the wooden fortifications, and even killing the water plants, fishes and turtles. In 1126 AD, the Song dynasty used flamethrowers in an attempt to prevent the
Jurchen Jin dynasty army from crossing the
Yellow River. Illustrations and descriptions of mobile flamethrowers on four-wheel push carts were documented in the
Wujing Zongyao, written in 1044 AD (its illustration redrawn in 1601 as well). ==References==