Evening star., 1950-09-10
Wind-Borne Fire Bombs as Weapon?

For almost 1000 years q
mysterious Are" its exact ma
ture unknown to this day. stood
between Western civilization
and the Oriental hordes which
tried to smash through Its chief
bastion. Constantinople. ''Pur
Thalassion," sea fire. or Greek
fire, they called it. 1t was easily
the greatest psychological and
perhaps the greatest physical
weapon prior to gunpowder. In
deed. under its spell the Greek
word "pur" changed its mean
ing and came into Western
speech as "peur," which Is
French for "fear."
1t was the A-bomb Of its time.
and was often resorted to-wind
permitting! There Is the strange
tie-up between the mightiest
weapon of the Eastern Roman
Empire and what may prove to
be a strong factor for peace or
for successful war for the West
ern world Of today.
Whatever Greek fire may
have been, it had a petroleum
base. Also one had to have ones
enemy downwind to really work
on him with it. Thanks to the
study of air currents by two
German scientists. fire-not sea
fire or Greek fire this time but
wind-borne fire in some simple
form-may again terrify and
arrest the East. For, If these
mems findings hold up. we have
the advantage of being "up the
wind" on Russia's oil fields and
on a substantial part of her
grain lands. Not all the year
around and not equally from all
sides, but nevertheless the ad-
vantage is there. particularly
from the South and during the
late summer and early autumn
months. when fires are easiest
to start. ..
Last weeks news dispatches
had two minor items. which
might be regarded as straws in
the wind in this regard. Actu-
ally, they were balloons In the
air currents-but the point is
that they got somewhere. The
first of these dealt with the
small propaganda balloons re-
leased in Allied territory, which
carried United Nations propa-
ganda behind the iron curtain.
These messages invited replies.
which were received, according
to the report, in surprisingly
large numbers. The next item
dealt with a human load, an
air racer whose large balloon
drifted on beyond his goal and
into Russia.
Possible Weapon?
1t is well known that in gen.
eral air currents move from the
Atlantic toward the Eurasian
desert. This was reafirmed In
the Smithsonian Institutions
winds of the World" in 1875.
However, the editor of that
classic himself points out its
chief deficiency. the small num-
Der Of stations reporting for
Russia, so that the data there
is definitely inadequate.
The two Germans mentioned
above were not even meteorol-
ogists. but hydrologists and
biologists. But, by accident or
design, they finally came around
to a far-reaching study of the
air currents going into Russia.
Won Seidlitz began the work at
the end of the last century.
knipowich, with Interruptions,
carried it on into the late 192Os
and his successors took it down
almost to World War II. The
successors were the ones who
seem to have had the notion
OF turning what was at most q
spying expedition into the basis
for forging a new military
weapon. That weapon. possibly,
is still a real one. Like Ger
many's more spectacular vi
and W. weapons, this one came
too late. Indeed, it never really
got into action on the scale
planned.
Not the least fantastic fea-
ture of this whole bizarre
episode is the simple and
unshakable fact that for 40
years, under Gar and Commu-
mist, a group of German scien-
lists were permitted to work in
the heart OF RusSia's oil and
wheat lands. and to hold back
far more information than they
revealed. 1t was the old story.
The easiest way to the heart is
through the stomach. These
men knew their caviar. That is
they knew more about the stur-
geon, which yields caviar, than
any Russian knew and they
cashed in on it-or almost did.
Won Seidlitz, though only
secondarily interested in
sturgeon. saw that it suff,
most from ruthless killings ~
fishermen when the Volga was
low. The Volga flows into the,
dead-end, below-sea- level Cas-
plan Sea. worlds largest and
trickiest lake. The fluctuations
in its level have been large, with
resulting havoc for fisheries. The
- l. 49,