Congreve Rocket

The Congreve rocket was a British military weapon designed and developed by Sir William Congreve in 1804, based directly on Mysorean rockets.

The Kingdom of Mysore in India used Mysorean rockets as a weapon against the British in the wars that they fought against the British East India Company. Lieutenant General Thomas Desaguliers, Colonel Commandant of the Royal Artillery in Woolwich, was influenced by the reports about their effectiveness, and he undertook several unsuccessful experiments. Several Mysore rockets were sent to Woolwich for studying and reverse-engineering following the Second, Third, and Fourth Mysore wars. (Congreve's father was now the comptroller of the Royal Arsenal.) Even so, Congreve had to start his project in 1804 with his own funds. The first demonstration of his solid fuel rockets was in September 1805. The rockets were used effectively during the Napoleonic Wars, the War of 1812, and the First Anglo-Burmese War of 1824–1826.

Tipu Sultan and his father Hyder Ali developed the military tactic of using mass attacks with rocket artillery brigades on infantry formations. In 1792, Tipu Sultan wrote a military manual called Fathul Mujahidin in which 200 rocket men were prescribed to each Mysorean rocket artillery brigade known as "cushoons". Mysore had 16 to 24 cushoons of infantry. The areas of town where rockets and fireworks were manufactured were known as "taramandal pet" ("galaxy market").

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