How Napalm Works

The answer came from a team of scientists led by Dr. Louis F. Fieser. How Napalm Works They created an aluminum soap mixed with naphthenic acid from crude oil and palmitic acid from coconut oil. (Take the "na" from by Jacob Silverman naphthenic and "palm" from palmitic and you have "napalm"). The new agent, when combined with gasoline, made for a cheap, brutally effective weapon. It also could be shot long distances and was safer for Depending on whom you ask, it's a noun, a the soldiers using it. verb, a chemical weapon, a tool to destroy crabgrass, a symbol of war's brutality Many militaries have used napalm in its various incarnations, but its or just a classic movie line. Napalm, use, especially in civilian areas, remains controversial. The 1980 with its varying forms and long United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons history in warfare, is at once iconic outlawed the use of napalm on civilians. Protocol III of the convention and misunderstood. In this article, forbade the use of incendiary weapons like napalm on civilians. The we'll take a look at napalm, from its United States ratified the convention but isn't party to Protocol III and origins to its contemporary use, and has used napalm in many conflicts since the substance's invention. find out why it's known for its Napalm's Effects on Health and the Environment distinctive smell. Egyptian soldier burned by napalm during Arab-Israeli war, being The security information Web site cared for at Helmia Military GlobalSecurity.org describes napalm Hospital as "a tactical weapon used to remove Charles Bonnay//Time Life vegetative cover and instill fear." It Pictures/Getty Images comes from a powder that's mixed with gasoline (in some forms). Napalm, also called a firebomb fuel Napalm is an enormously destructive gel mixture, has a gel-like consistency, allowing it to stick to targets. weapon. It's very sticky and can Napalm is often used in combination with gasoline or jet fuel to make adhere to the skin even after ignition, causing a bomb with a thin outer shell that easily explodes and ignites upon terrible burns. Because napalm burns so impact with a target. Once ignited, napalm can burn at more than hot, slight contact with the substance 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius). can result in second-degree burns, eventually causing scars called keloids. Military experts consider napalm particularly effective against fortified The burns caused by incendiary weapons like positions, like bunkers, caves and tunnels, as well as vehicles, napalm are tough for doctors to treat, convoys, small bases and structures. It clings to whatever it touches, according to Physicians for Social creating a large, hotly burning area around the target. This feature also Responsibility [source: Crawley]. decreases the need for accuracy when dropping napalm bombs. Napalm can cause death by burns or U.S. and German forces used a precursor to napalm in flamethrowers asphyxiation. Napalm bombs generate carbon monoxide while during World War I. These weapons weren't considered effective simultaneously removing oxygen from the air. The air in the bombing because the flamethrowers' gasoline acted like a liquid, dripping off area can be 20 percent or more carbon monoxide [source: targets. Military leaders decided that they needed something to make GlobalSecurity.org]. This effect occurs because napalm partially fuels thicker. combusts the oxygen in the air, turning CO2 (carbon dioxide) into CO Napalm in Vietnam (carbon monoxide). In some cases, people have been boiled to death in rivers made hot by the heat of napalm bombs. Kim Phuc, seen here with then-Sen. Joe Biden, stands in front of the famous The raw ingredients of napalm can also be harmful, though certainly photograph of herself as a child, being burned by napalm. less so than when a napalm mixture is ignited as part of a bomb. If you've ever felt a little dizzy after breathing in fumes at a gas station, you can understand. But when polystyrene, another common ingredient in napalm, burns at high temperatures, it becomes styrene, which is toxic [source: GlobalSecurity.org]. Although one of napalm's early uses was agricultural -- Dr. Fieser found that it destroyed crabgrass by burning the invasive species' seeds while preserving other, necessary grasses -- it has largely proved destructive toward the environment. Fires caused by napalm can cause widespread damage. In Vietnam, the U.S. military took advantage of this fact by deploying napalm to destroy forests that North Vietnamese Scott J. soldiers relied on for cover. The extensive use of napalm in Vietnam, along with Agent Orange, herbicides and a variety of unexploded Ferrell/Congressional landmines and munitions, are now believed to have contributed to that Quarterly/Getty Images country's ongoing environmental and public health problems [source: The King]. In the United States, the storage of unused napalm has proven a contentious issue. In 1998, protesters turned back trainloads of napalm on their way to recycling plants, perhaps fearful of napalm canisters leaking, as happened at the Weapons Support Facility, Fallbrook U.S. military used Napalm-B extensively during the Vietnam War -- Detachment, in Southern California. This stockpile, supposedly the up to 400,000 tons (362,874 metric tons) [source: GlobalSecurity.org]. last batch of napalm in the U.S. arsenal, was dismantled and recycled In movies or newsreels from the era, you may have seen shots of in 2001. planes diving low, then suddenly rising as enormous fireballs explode below. That's probably napalm in action. One retired U.S. Air Force On the next page, we'll take a look at the further development of Lieutenant Colonel, speaking to the San Francisco Chronicle, napalm and its use in World War II and Korea. described the effect as "like a fiery blanket burns everything that it What Were They Thinking? hits" [source: Taylor]. U.K. authorities once considered using napalm to burn the corpses of Although the Vietnam War produced numerous images of bombs thousands of animals, who were culled because they had foot-and- exploding and their aftermath, none is as indelible and well-known as mouth disease. The proposal was shot down out of concern over "very that of Phan Thi Kim Phuc, taken by Associated Press photographer toxic compounds" produced by burning napalm [source: U.K. Nick Ut. Kim Phuc was 9 years old when her village was napalmed by Parliament]. American forces. In the famous picture, Kim Phuc and a group of children are running, fleeing their village. Phuc is naked, screaming gallons of herbicides over 4.5 million acres of land in Vietnam from because napalm is burning her body. 1961 to 1972. Agent Orange, which contained the chemical dioxin, Upon realizing how hurt she was, Ut took Kim Phuc to a hospital. She was the most commonly used of the herbicide mixtures, and the most survived but after enduring extensive third-degree burns and 17 effective. It was later revealed to cause serious health issues–including operations. In her late teens and early 20s, the Vietnamese government tumors, birth defects, rashes, psychological symptoms and cancer– used Kim Phuc as a propaganda tool, forcing her to speak to reporters among returning U.S. servicemen and their families as well as among from abroad. Eventually, she and her husband fled to Canada. She now the Vietnamese population. lives in a suburb of Toronto, and although she still deals with pain In addition to the massive environmental impact of the U.S. defoliation from her injuries, she speaks publicly about the horrors of napalm program in Vietnam, that nation has reported that some 400,000 [source: Omara-Otunnu]. She's also a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador. people were killed or maimed as a result of exposure to herbicides like The photograph taken by Ut has become, along with images of burning Agent Orange. In addition, Vietnam claims half a million children monks, one of the most widely seen photos from the war. have been born with serious birth defects, while as many 2 million The use of napalm in Vietnam helped to galvanize the antiwar people are suffering from cancer or other illness caused by Agent movement in the United States. One target was Dow Chemical Orange. Company, which manufactured napalm for the U.S. government from 1965 to 1969. Protests against Dow and boycotts of its products occurred across the country. Company recruiters faced virulent protests on college campuses, in some cases finding themselves barricaded in buildings. In response to criticism, Dow said that it had a responsibility to the U.S. government to fulfill its requests for napalm. The company also claimed that napalm only represented a small fraction -- 0.5 percent -- of overall sales [source: BusinessWeek]. After Dow's contract expired, American Electric Inc. won the next government contract for napalm production. Some other companies that produced napalm for the government faced protests (and some did not submit bids for future napalm contracts), but no other company remains as linked with napalm as Dow.

Agent Orange Agent Orange was a powerful mixture of chemical defoliants used by U.S. military forces during the Vietnam War to eliminate forest cover for North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops, as well as crops that might be used to feed them. The U.S. program of defoliation, codenamed Operation Ranch Hand, sprayed more than 19 million