Early Japanese history saw the use of a rudimentary form of the smoke bomb.
Explosives were common in Japan during the
Mongol invasions of the 13th century. Soft cased hand-held bombs were later designed to release smoke, poison gas, and
shrapnel made from
iron and
pottery. The modern smoke bomb was created in 1848, by the British inventor Robert Yale. He developed 17th-century Chinese-style fireworks and later modified the formula to produce more smoke for a longer period.
Colored smoke devices use a formula that consists of an
oxidizer (typically
potassium nitrate, KNO3), a fuel (generally
sugar), a moderator (such as
sodium bicarbonate) to keep the reaction from getting too hot, and a powdered
organic dye. The burning of this mixture
boils the dye and forces it out of the device, where it condenses in the atmosphere to form a smoke of finely dispersed particles. Home-made smoke bombs, even preceding Yale's 1848 invention, were and are most commonly used in pranks and street conflicts. They are typically made from materials that burn poorly and contained in vessels with a limited air intake that inhibit
combustion. ==References==