Fierce-fire Oil Cabinet

'fire spraying air') was a double-piston pump naphtha flamethrower first recorded to have been used in 919 AD in China, during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.

[1] According to Wu Renchen's Spring and Autumn Annals of the Ten Kingdoms, in 917 AD, the king of Wuyue sent fierce fire oil to the Khitans as a gift.

Tai Zu (Abaoji) was delighted, and at once got ready a cavalry force thirty thousand strong with the intention of attacking Youzhou.

Would it not be better to take three thousand horse and lie in wait on the borders, laying waste the country, so that the city will be starved out?

[3]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.

From its upper surface arise four (vertical) tubes attached to a horizontal cylinder (ju tong) above; they are all connected with the tank.

Inside the cylinder there is a (piston-)rod packed with silk floss (za si zhang), the head of which is wound round with hemp waste about ½ inches thick.

When filling, use the bowl, the spoon and the filter; for igniting there is the branding-iron; for maintaining (or renewing) the fire there is the container (guan).

If the enemy comes to attack a city, these weapons are placed on the great ramparts, or else in outworks, so that large numbers of assailants cannot get through.

[4]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.

[6] In the early 12th century AD, Kang Yuzhi recorded his memories of military commanders testing out fierce oil fire on a small lakelet.