Going Old School

The ancients had ways that were just as effective today as they were then.   Plus they were simple to make.

I saw this on History Channel's "Ancient Discoveries" yesterday.

Just look at what happens when you burn feathers with charcoal and a little sulfur.  Nasty shit for something you can whip up from the BBQ pit and a pillow.

The content of the smoke was high in ammonia, sulfur dioxide & nitrogen dioxide.  The guy that did the analysis said that the ammonia content was so high that it would kill you with in 10 seconds of breathing.

Not to mention that the amount of smoke produced was comparable to a mil smoke grenade.

All kinds of nice info in the below link.

Bio & Chem Warfare in Ancient Times

Smoke Them Romans Out (187 BC) - The inhabitants of the town of Ambracia in Epirus dealt a setback to Roman soldiers seeking to tunnel under their walls: "Filling a huge jar with feathers, they put fire in it and attached a bronze cover perforated with numerous holes. After carrying the jar into the mine and turning its mouth toward the enemy, they inserted a bellows in the bottom, and by pumping the bellows vigorously they caused a tremendous amount of disagreeable smoke, such as feathers would naturally create, to pour forth, so that none of the Romans could endure it. As a result the Romans, despairing of success, made a truce and raised the siege." (Cassius Dio, Roman History, Book XIX)

transcript of episode

00:55:52	>> narrator: NOW THE READINGS Must be analyzed to discover whether polybius' original descriptions of lethal compounds are correct.
00:56:00	>> The concentrations we measured with the gasmet today certainly surprised me.
00:56:05	I would have expected co and co2 as being normal products of combustion, but the high ammonia concentration is something that I wasn't expecting.
00:56:14	We're recording levels that would render somebody incapable of breathing within seconds.
00:56:19	>> narrator: THE LETHAL AMMONIA Was created out of protein strands in the chicken feathers.
00:56:24	High concentrations can lead to encephalopathy, disease of the brain, followed by death.
00:56:32	Ambracia fell three months later.
00:56:35	But so impressed were the romans with the greeks' inventions that everyone in the city was spared.