- napalm
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/nay"pahm/, n.1. a highly incendiary jellylike substance used in fire bombs, flamethrowers, etc.v.t.2. to drop bombs containing napalm on (troops, a city, or the like).[1940-45, Amer.; NA(PHTHENE) + PALM(ITATE)]
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Organic compound, the aluminum soap or salt of a mixture of fatty acids, used to thicken gasoline for use as an incendiary in flamethrowers and firebombs.The thickened mixture, itself also called napalm, burns more slowly and can be propelled more accurately and over greater distances than gasoline. When it comes in contact with surfaces, including the human body, it sticks tenaciously and continues to burn. It was developed and first used by the U.S. in World War II. Its use in the Vietnam War became highly controversial.* * *
the aluminum salt or soap of a mixture of naphthenic and aliphatic carboxylic acids (organic acids of which the molecular structures contain rings and chains, respectively, of carbon atoms), used to thicken gasoline for use as an incendiary in flamethrowers and fire bombs. The thickened mixture, now also called napalm, burns more slowly and can be propelled more accurately and to greater distances than gasoline. It was developed by U.S. scientists during World War II.Napalm is also employed in a pyrotechnic gel containing gasoline and less-volatile petroleum oil, powdered magnesium, and sodium nitrate; this composition burns at a temperature of about 1,000° C (1,800° F), compared to 675° C (1,250° F) for thickened gasoline.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
