Do u think a fire sling would be possible?  In modern day if we got some fire proof cloth we could probably make one.  hehehehe... i'm getting fun ideas!!!!!!!!!  Then we make a "Fireball" by rolling up some cloth around a rock, dipping it in oil and lighting it.  (BETTER SLING FAST)  If anyone tries it, don't get hurt, and sling somewhere safe.  That would be a good seige weapon.  It would be easy to sling it over a castle wall and the ammo is cheap.  Just bring oil and cloth and find rocks.  It could be a good "Anti-Seige engine" weapon too.  Or "Anti-Tank" but in medieval standards.  In the game "empire earth" they should have made the slingers able to shoot fireballs!

Molotov cocktail.

Yes you can fire these with a sling.  Ancient grenades were very similar to this.  Essentially, it is a vessel full of flammable or explosive liquid or powder, with a wick or cloth set alight.  On impact, the vessel shatters, and the flame ignites the contents.

Chris

man I hate this sign in thing...I posted weeks ago after lurking for weeks, then couldn't post again cause it said someone else was already using my name!,,,

Anyhow, strange you should bring this topic up...a few weeks back there was an item on the news about Iraq, and just off in the background was a kid, maybe 13, holding a sling, with what was obviously a hand grenade sitting in the pouch, lever down.

And...I've been trying a variety of bottles over the last few days...those small 250 ml french stubby beer bottles can be hurled a good distance, filled with water. Petrol, I suppose, will be only a few grams lighter...

Historically, I wonder if anything was flamable enough (high octane rating) to survive being hurled a few hundred feet or yards...I suppose a mini-amphora (sp?) might be a aerodynamic shape.

Jstin

I'd agree with the vegetable and animal fat oils, and alcohol found in beer, wine and other fermented drinks, but I'm pretty sure they didn't know about distillation (boiling off the alcohol cooling it and collecting it till much later eg 1500, otherwise we'd have had Romans discussing whiskey)

hmm, a very interesting idea. However it would be very dangerous and pretty pointless practising this as seiges would be short with the use of air raids. I wonder if this technique was used in bygone times, but i have never heard/read of this tactic being implemented. Does anyone know if it has been used?

I have heard of arrows and fire , but do you think the flame could stand the spiral from a sling?? I sling concrete chunks and now and then the spiral dissintigrates the concrete into many pieces. The concrete obviously had some unseen c ra ck s   in it but still--there is a lot of spin on the projectile! Someone needs to find--but I suggest that it NOT be anyone from California with their wind and grass fires

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Arrows spin too, you know.  Especially if you twist the flights around the shaft, which is now common practise for me at least.  I think that the fire would need quite a lot of fuel in order to keep going, but because of the movement through the air, there would be a continuous supply of oxygen.  I think it could last.

I think we are thinking along the wrong lines, and the evidence we need is really in front of us...

We know molotov cocktails work, we've all seen grainy news footage of French students in the late 60's, and N Ireland in the 80's. A Molotov cocktail "works" because it transports a combustible substance or liquid, is sufficient volumes, to the destination, as well the ignition method. There would seem to be little point in dousing a tennis ball in petrol, and sending it off to the target, because it carries only a small amount of fuel.

What we need is a volume of fuel in a sufficient quatity that it will ignite the target, and not be used up on the way there, hence the idea about small, stubby French type beer bottles.

Another way, from high school days, is to take an empty co2 cartridge, drill a .22 hole in the round end, plug the base with a dob of solder, then fill with black powder, shot gun cartridge cordite etc, and then press a rim fire .22 blank into the .22 hole. It WILL land bulbous end down, ignite the blank, and the charge inside. Watch for shrapnel.  Bonus for slingers, they are small and  aerodynamic. This information is for reading entertainment only.