Editing Napalm (section)

{{Short description|Gelled incendiary mixture}}
{{About|flammable liquids used for flame-type weaponry |other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Use American English|date=April 2022}}
[[File:F100 Napalm.gif|thumb|upright=1.35|[[North American F-100 Super Sabre]] dropping napalm in a training exercise]]

'''Napalm''' is an [[Incendiary device|incendiary]] mixture of a [[Thickening agent|gelling agent]] and a volatile petrochemical (usually [[gasoline]] or [[diesel fuel]]). The name is a [[portmanteau]] of two of the constituents of the original thickening and gelling agents: [[coprecipitated]] [[aluminium]] [[Salt (chemistry)|salt]]s of [[naphthenic acid|''na''phthenic acid]] and [[palmitic acid|''palm''itic acid]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/napalm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130826104320/http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/napalm|url-status=dead|archive-date=26 August 2013|title=Oxford Dictionaries – napalm: definition of napalm|access-date=2 October 2014}}</ref> A team led by chemist [[Louis Fieser]] originally developed napalm for the [[US Chemical Warfare Service]] in 1942 in a secret laboratory at [[Harvard University]].<ref name=neer1>{{cite journal |doi=10.1038/496029a |title=Books in brief. Napalm: An American Biography Robert M. Neer Harvard University Press 352 pp. |journal=Nature |volume=496 |issue=7443 |page=29 |year=2013 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Of immediate first interest was its viability as an [[incendiary device]] to be used in American [[fire bombing]] campaigns during [[World War II]]; its potential to be coherently projected into a solid stream that would carry for distance (instead of the bloomy fireball of pure [[gasoline]]) resulted in widespread adoption in infantry and tank/boat mounted [[flamethrower]]s as well.

Napalm burns at temperatures ranging from {{convert|800|to|1200|C}}.<ref>{{cite web |last=Szczepanski |first=Kallie |date=2017-02-10 |title=Napalm and Agent Orange in the Vietnam War |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/napalm-and-agent-orange-in-vietnam-war-195797 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170920030323/https://www.thoughtco.com/napalm-and-agent-orange-in-vietnam-war-195797 |archive-date=2017-09-20 |access-date=2024-11-27 |website=ThoughtCo}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dolan |first=Michael J. |date=September 1953 |title=Napalm |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7aJFAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA5-P9 |journal=Military Review |volume=13 |issue=6 |pages=9–18}}</ref> It burns longer than gasoline, is more easily dispersed, and adheres to its targets. These traits make it both effective and controversial. It has been widely used from the air and from the ground, the largest use having been via airdropped bombs in [[World War II]] in the [[Air raids on Japan|incendiary attacks on Japanese cities]] in 1945. It was used also for [[close air support]] roles by the U.S military in the [[Korean War]], the [[Vietnam War]], and various others. Napalm has also fueled most of the [[flamethrowers]] (tank-, ship-, and infantry-based) used since World War II, giving them much greater range.