The "soap chips" story is because the early gelling agents was a mix of "powdered aluminium soap of napthalene and palmitate" (palmitate is a medium-length fatty acid found in palm oil).
However, napalm hasn't contained napthalene or palm oil since the 1960s.
Modern napalm ("napalm B") is no secret, it's simply a mixture of gasoline (33%), benzene (21%) and (poly)styrene (46%) [other gelling agents can be used, such as celluloid - a "resistance" version of napalm is basically a big pile of ping-pong balls dissolved in petrol], typically ignited with thermite: the addition of styrene increases the ignition temperature significantly, largely by reducing the vapour pressure of the gasoline - apparently it used to be a tactic to ignite cannisters of napalm with thrown grenades to spread it more widely, but grenades do not burn hot enough for long enough to ignite napalm B.
(I'm old enough that this stuff used to be legal to teach in science class. Technically, I just committed at least two offences under UK anti-terrorism laws by typing this comment; it's evidence that I both possess and shared information of use to a terrorist, a terror group or in the execution of an act of terror.)
Interesting side for those interested in the politics of weaponry:
The US Department of Defence still define napalm as containing aluminium soap, so the modern formulation allowed the use of napalm B in Operation Iraqi Freedom, as the hot burning stuff sprayed by the marines was technically an incendiary device, not an anti-personnel weapon.
My dad was a Marine in Vietnam.......
Even though he was a CO of a helicopter squadron, his guys used to help out making home made napalm.
They would take a 55 gallon drum of gasoline / jet fuel / whatever / and mix tide soap powder in with it (he never told me ratio, so I don't know)....they would then load about 20-30 drums on the ramp of a C-130 and use it as a napalm bomber.
They used flares taped to the drums to ignite the stuff when it hit the ground.
(and no I have no idea how well it worked, nobody ever told me, and I have no interest in experimentation either).
Love,
Liz