The Congreve rocket was a type of rocket artillery designed by British inventor Sir William Congreve in 1808.
The design was based upon the rockets deployed by the Kingdom of Mysore against the East India Company during the Second, Third, and Fourth Anglo-Mysore Wars. Lieutenant general Thomas Desaguliers, colonel commandant of the Royal Artillery at Woolwich, was impressed by reports of their effectiveness, and undertook several unsuccessful experiments to produce his own rocket weapons. Several captured Mysorean rockets were sent to Great Britain following the annexation of the Mysorean kingdom into British India following the death of Tipu Sultan in the siege of Seringapatam.
Battle of Grochów 1831, painting of Bogdan Willewalde ca. 1850. Over the fighters can be seen exploding Polish Congreve rockets
Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan organized rocket artillery brigades, or "cushoons", against the East India Company during the Anglo-Mysore Wars.
32-pounder rocket c.1813
Tip of an early Congreve rocket of the Napoleonic Wars, on display at Paris Naval Museum
Rocket artillery is artillery that uses rockets as the projectile. The use of rocket artillery dates back to medieval China where devices such as fire arrows were used. Fire arrows were also used in multiple launch systems and transported via carts. The first true rocket artillery was developed in South Asia by the Tipu Sultan the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore. In the late nineteenth century, due to improvements in the power and range of conventional artillery, the use of early military rockets declined; they were finally used on a small scale by both sides during the American Civil War. Modern rocket artillery was first employed during World War II, in the form of the German Nebelwerfer family of rocket ordnance designs, Soviet Katyusha-series and numerous other systems employed on a smaller scale by the Western allies and Japan. In modern use, the rockets are often guided by an internal guiding system or GPS in order to maintain accuracy.
M270 MLRS
Illustration of a Korean rocket launcher of the 1500s
Rocket being lighted by Mysorean soldier (Illustration by Robert Home)
A painting showing the British forces confronted with Mysorean rockets