Mysorean rockets

Mysorean rocket
A Mysorean soldier, using his rocket as a flagstaff (Robert Home, 1793/4).
TypeRocket
Place of originKingdom of Mysore
Service history
Used byKing Hyder Ali and King Tipu Sultan
WarsAnglo-Mysore Wars
Specifications
Length200 mm (7.9 in)
 length1,000 mm (39 in)
Diameter38–76 mm (1.5–3.0 in)
Crew1

PropellantBlack powder
References

Mysorean rockets were an Indian military weapon. The iron-cased rockets were successfully deployed for military use. They were the first successful iron-cased rockets, developed in the late 18th century in the Kingdom of Mysore (part of present-day India) under the rule of King Hyder Ali.[1] The Mysorean army, under King Hyder Ali and his son King Tipu Sultan, used the rockets effectively against the British East India Company during the 1780s and 1790s. According to James Forbes Marathas also used iron-encased rockets in their battles.[2] Their conflicts with the company exposed the British to this technology further, which was then used to advance European rocketry with the development of the Congreve rocket in 1805.[3][4]

  1. ^ "rocket and missile system | weapons system". Encyclopædia Britannica (Online ed.). Archived from the original on 31 October 2017. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  2. ^ Forbes, James; Rosée comtesse de Montalembert, Eliza (1834). Oriental Memoirs - A Narrative of Seventeen Years Residence in India, Part 68, Volume 1. p. 359. Retrieved 26 April 2022. The war rocket used by the Mahrattas which very often annoyed us, is composed of an iron tube eight or ten inches long and nearly two inches in diameter. This destructive weapon is sometimes fixed to a rod iron, sometimes to a straight two-edged sword, but most commonly to a strong bamboo cane four or five feet long with an iron spike projecting beyond the tube to this rod or staff, the tube filled with combustible materials
  3. ^ A. Bowdoin Van Riper (29 October 2007). Rockets and Missiles: The Life Story of a Technology. JHU Press. pp. 14–. ISBN 978-0-8018-8792-5.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Roddam was invoked but never defined (see the help page).