Pyrotechnics: The History and Art of Firework MakingBrock, Alan St. H. (Alan St. Hill)
History
Pyrotechnics: The History and Art of Firework Making
Brock, Alan St. H. (Alan St. Hill)
Fireworks
In 1809 Admiral Cochrane used rockets upon the town of Callao, in
1810 they were used against Cadiz, and in 1813 in the battle of
Leipsic, where the commanding officer, Captain Bogeu, was killed, and
at the siege of Dantzic. It is interesting to note that during that
year they were used for propaganda purposes. At the siege of Glogau
proclamations, etc., were printed on thin paper and fastened to the
sticks with light thread. Rockets were used with effect at Waterloo,
the rocket detachment being directed by Sergeant Dunnet.
In 1813 Colonel Augustin, of the Austrian army, saw the English rocket
batteries in action and trials of Congreve rockets in London, and the
following year visited Copenhagen, where by arrangement between the
two Powers he was instructed by Schuhmacher in his method of rocket
construction.
The Austrian Government as a result established shortly afterwards an
extensive factory at Weinerisch-Neustadt for the manufacture of war
rockets.
Much work and ingenuity was expended about this time in seeking to
eliminate the necessity of the rocket stick. Congreve is credited with
introducing fins similar in action to the feathers on an arrow; this,
however, had been done nearly one hundred years previously, and Frézier
illustrates the method in his treatise.
A Mr. Heath, of Boston, is credited with having reached a range of two
and a half-miles with a five-pound rocket of this type.
Garnier in 1813 proposed to avoid the alteration in position of the
centre of gravity by using a wire or chain with a weight at the end
fastened to the centre of the rocket and hanging vertically. From
Ruggieri’s book it would appear that this idea had often been tried
previously.
However, the most successful series of inventions were those based on
the principle of the rifle, that to give the rocket a rotary motion in
its passage through the air.
In 1815 successful trials were made in America with rockets of the
rotary type, rotation being imparted by means of holes bored through
the case into the composition in an oblique direction.
Congreve established a factory at Bow for the manufacture of rockets
for the East India Company, and Captain Parlby, of the Bengal
Artillery, manufactured similar rockets, both being made to rotate,
probably on similar lines to the American model. The “Calcutta Journal”
of the period contains a discussion of the rival merits of Congreve’s
and Parlby’s rockets.
Hale patented a rocket constructed on similar lines as late as 1844,
the holes at the side of the case being nearly tangential. He also
gave his name to a service rocket—Hale’s 24 pr. and 9 pr. These were
constructed of iron with a wooden head, fitted metal plug at the base
with three vents, a tail piece or flange continuing from the base so as
to enclose half the periphery of each jet. This arrangement imparts a
rotary motion to the rocket.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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