notes.husk.org/likes images.

centuriespast:

Replica, shown with a soldier and two 32 lb carcass rockets in Hyde Park, London. The Bombarding Frame consisted of a ladder; two rocket troughs; two supporting legs for the ladder; a tie bar for supporting the legs and a gun bucket. The Frame would be tied to the mast of a rocket ship and the rockets fired, the trajectory being varied by altering by the slope of the ladder. Sir William Congreve (1772-1828) successfully demonstrated a solid fuel rocket in 1805, and the following year his rockets were used in action for the first time, fired from special boats against the French fleet off Boulogne. Congreve’s rockets had a range of up to about 2.5 km. They were effective, despite being somewhat inaccurate and prone to explode prematurely.

The Science Museum

*Hey fellow Yankees.  Whenever you sing our national anthem, do you remember that line about the “rockets’ red glare”?  Well, these are the rockets. They were rockets firing at us.  Kinda the anti-colonial cruise missiles of their day.

*Of course, they had to develop and refine those rockets first by firing them at Indians.  Not “American Indians.”  Indian Indians.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congreve_rocket