Historically Speaking

Burning Questions Solved

Sept. 6, 2013 9:38 p.m. ET

In 1864, a Confederate terrorist cell quietly infiltrated 19 hotels in and around New York's busiest streets and planted 12 dozen incendiary devices. The bottles contained "Greek Fire," a Civil War concoction named after a weapon invented by the Byzantines that allegedly burned on water. The Confederate incarnation was primed to ignite when exposed to air.

Luckily for unsuspecting Manhattanites, the agents carrying out the bomb plot were completely ignorant about the science of fire. They opened the bottles and...

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