Knob Creek '13: Get your red hot Thermite here!

God knows what you'd ever use it for, but it makes a hell of a conversation piece.

Are we all forgetting the original utility of Thermite bombs and similar devices? They were designed as, and still are, in many ways, the ultimate portable incendiary device. Thermite generates the sort of temperatures that even in this age of advanced explosives and pyrotechnic technology, are considered the penultimate level of incendiary power. The power of a Thermite device lies in its basic function --- the extremely rapid exothermic oxidation and reduction process. The "fuel" component of a Thermite device might include typical metals such as aluminum, magnesium, boron, silicon, titanium and zinc. The "oxidizer" component, which engenders the reaction train ( once initiated ) usually includes oxides of boron, silicon, chromium, manganese, copper, iron and/or lead. We are used to thinking of all these metals in terms of their usual stable hard forms, and most people have a difficult time understanding that if the same apparently "stable" elements are subject to a major and immediate structural alteration at the molecular level, eg., when subjected to sufficiently high heat, they can, and will, become combustible fuel sources in themselves. That is why magnesium can be both a completely innocuous, strong and lightweight metal suitable for special applications such as true "mag" wheels and racing engine components, yet can form the basis for incendiary bombs that are virtually impossible to quench.

Most of us also tend to think of something as apparently mundane as formed aluminum or steel as being a hard and stable structural entity, not as a fuel that can burn. Well, guess what? Aluminum, in particular, is well-known for its pyrophoric properties when subject to temperature ranges far beyond melting point. Aluminum will burn, under the right conditions, as will all other metals, the only difference being the ignition threshold. Even titanium, known primarily for its light weight and extreme heat resistance, will burn if the conditions are right.

Steel --- yes, good old reliable, plain-jane steel in all its various alloys --- will burn just as readily if subject to the right amount of heating and catalytic input. Case in point --- the disastrous Piper Alpha incident of 1988 in the North Sea. A gas condensate explosion in a machinery space in the Piper Alpha offshore platform gave rise to a major fire that was jointly fueled by burning crude oil and leaking high-pressure natural gas, the worst possible combination that one could possibly imagine for this sort of scenario. Crude oil does not burn easily, and it takes a lot to ignite the volatiles within the crude. However, once it starts to combust, it will continue to do so with an intensity and at a temperature level that is very difficult to overcome. Add to that the catalyst of burning HP natural gas from ruptured piping, and you have the ultimate recipe for a conflagration that beggars belief. It is a matter of record that, at the peak of the fire, temperatures met or exceeded blast-furnace levels, and that the hardened steel structure of Piper Alpha, built to withstand the long-term rigors of the North Sea and the worst maritime conditions in the world, actually melted, then burned, until only the jagged stubs of the jacket legs that once supported the upper platform remained at sea level, Of the original crew of 225, 167 ( some sources state 165 or 169 ) perished within a few hours. A majority of the remainder were injured to one extent or the other, with most suffering serious burns, fractures and combinations of skeletal and soft-tissue trauma. And all this in spite of already advanced organic fire-prevention and mitigation systems, subsequent Board Of inquiry criticisms notwithstanding ( the conduct and execution of fire prevention and control measures, and of emergency evacuation procedures and training protocols, as well as the corporate and management culture related to these, is a separate topic for discussion ).

As far as military usage is concerned, the history of Thermite devices is long and distinguished. They were used with great success and reliability by Special Forces units such as the early SAS during their now-famous airfield raids against the Luftwaffe in North Africa, by assorted Commando units, and by many other raiders, both Axis and Allied, to inflict damage and destruction out of all proportion to the numerical strength of the protagonists. They have never been the mere province of a handful of sophisticated jewel thieves and lock breakers, as some might be inclined to think.