According to A. Stettbacher, the substance was used as a combustible during the Reichstag fire in 1933. Gartz shows in a recent work that only methyl nitrate with its production and explosion potential can represent the famous and mysterious "shooting water" from the German Feuerwerkbuch (fireworks book) of about 1420 (the oldest technical text in German language, handwritten in Dresden and later printed in Augsburg).