Warning: Possession of explosives homemade or otherwise, are illegal in the United States unless you have a license.
Note: This was emailed to be sometime back for posting.
WARNING:
Ensure that a safe distance is maintained when throwing the Molotov cocktail. Caution others, such as troops, against dropping the device. Throw it in the opposite direction of personnel and flammable materials. Do not smoke while making this device.
Do not toss over your head as the fuel make leak out.
What is a Molotov Cocktail?
The Molotov cocktail, also known as the petrol bomb, gasoline bomb, or Molotov bomb, or simply Molotov, is a generic name used for a variety of improvised incendiary weapons. They are frequently used by rioters due to the relative ease of production.
The bombs were named after the then Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union, Vyacheslav Molotov.
The Incendiary Device or Bomb:
In its simplest form, a Molotov cocktail is a glass bottle containing gasoline (petrol) fuel usually with a source of ignition such as a burning cloth wick held in place by the bottle's stopper. The wick is usually soaked in alcohol or paraffin, rather than petrol.
In action the wick is lit and the bottle hurled at a target such as a vehicle or fortification. When the bottle smashes on impact, the ensuing cloud of petrol droplets and vapor are ignited, causing an immediate fireball followed by a raging fire as the remainder of the fuel is consumed.
Other flammable liquids such as wood alcohol and turpentine have been used in place of petrol. Thickening agents such as tar, strips of tire tubing, sugar, animal blood, XPS foam, egg whites, motor oil, rubber cement, and dish soap have been added to help the burning liquid adhere to the target and create clouds of thick choking smoke.
Thus there are variations to this device but the what makes it work is any flammable liquid and a glass bottle.
Development and Use:
On 30 November 1939, the Soviet Union launched a war against Finland after a futile year and a half campaign to persuade the Finnish government to cede territory to the Soviet Union and give up some sovereignty by conceding specific military and political favors. The Finnish Army, facing Red Army tanks in what came to be known as the Winter War, borrowed the design of an improvised incendiary device that had been used in the just concluded Spanish Civil War (July 1936—February 1939). In that conflict, General Francisco Franco ordered Spanish Nationalists to use the weapon against Soviet T-26 tanks supporting the Spanish Republicans in a failed 1936 assault near Toledo, 80 km south from Madrid.
The United States Marine Corps developed a version during World War II that used a tube of nitric acid and a lump of metallic sodium to ignite a mixture of petrol and diesel fuel.
Important Note: While Molotov cocktails may be a psychologically effective method of disabling tanks and armored vehicles by forcing the crew out or damaging external components, most modern tanks cannot be physically destroyed or rendered completely inoperable by Molotov cocktails.
I will be on Twitter later today, I hope.
I am getting quite a few responses and followers to my new Facebook Page, I thank you all.
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