Napalm is the name for a number of flammable liquids that have been used in warfare. Often it is jellied gasoline. Napalm is actually the thickener in such liquids. When it is mixed with gasoline, the thickener makes a sticky incendiary gel. It was developed by the U.S. in World War II by a team of Harvard chemists. The team leader was Louis Fieser. The name "napalm" has comes from the ingredients that were first used to make it: coprecipitated aluminum salts of naphthenic and palmitic acids. These were added to the flammable substance to cause it to gel.