Incendiary weapons,
incendiary devices or
incendiary bombs are weapons designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using fire (and sometimes used as
anti-personnel weaponry), that use materials such as
napalm,
thermite,
magnesium powder,
chlorine trifluoride, or
white phosphorus. Though colloquially often known as
bombs, they are not
explosives but in fact are designed to slow the process of chemical reactions and use
ignition rather than
detonation to start and or maintain the reaction.
Napalm for example, is petroleum especially thickened with certain chemicals into a 'gel' to slow, but not stop, combustion, releasing energy over a longer time frame than an explosive device. In the case of napalm, the gel adheres to surfaces and resists suppression.