Congreve Rocket

This Congreve rocket is one of several in our collection, representing a key development in early 19th-century artillery. Designed in 1801 by British inventor Sir William Congreve, these rockets were inspired by those used by the Kingdom of Mysore against the East India Company during the Anglo-Mysore Wars (1780–1799). Captured examples were sent to Britain, where Congreve — then Comptroller of the Royal Laboratories and Superintendent of Military Machines at Woolwich — developed his own designs.

Congreve rockets came in various sizes. This example features a soft hammered iron cylinder around 200 mm (8 inches) long and 38 mm to 76 mm (1.5 to 3 inches) in diameter, usually strapped to a bamboo shaft roughly 1,219 mm (4 feet) in length. The cylinder served as a combustion chamber, packed with compressed gunpowder as propellant and containing about half a kilogram (1 lb) of gunpowder as the explosive charge.

By 1813, the British military had adopted a full range of Congreve rockets, from light 2.7 kg to 8.2 kg (6-pounder to 18-pounder) versions, to medium 11 kg and 19.5 kg (24- and 42-pounder), and heavy 45 kg and 136 kg (100- and 300-pounder) models, capable of reaching up to 2,286 m (2,500 yards).