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A battery of fire-arrows
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Although stories of early rocket-like devices
appear sporadically in the historical records of various cultures, the
Chinese are generally reckoned to have been the first to use rockets in
both ceremony and war. By the 1st century A.D., a
simple form of gunpowder appears to have existed in China, used mostly for
fireworks in religious and other festive celebrations. Bamboo tubes were
filled with the mixture and tossed into fires to create explosions.
Doubtless some of these tubes failed to explode and instead skittered out
of the fires, propelled by the gases and sparks produced by the burning
gunpowder. In any event, the Chinese began to experiment with the
gunpowder-filled tubes and hit upon the idea of attaching them to arrows
and launching them with bows. Eventually, it was found that the gunpowder
tubes could launch themselves just by the power produced from the escaping
gas, and the true rocket was born. The earliest we know true rockets were
used is 1232, a time when the Chinese and Mongols were at war. During the
battle of Kai-Keng, the Chinese repelled their enemy with a barrage of
“arrows of flying fire” – the first solid-propellant rockets. A tube,
capped at one end, was filled with gunpowder; the other end was left open
and the tube attached to a long stick. When the powder was ignited, the
rapid burning of the powder produced hot gas that escaped out the open end
and produced thrust. The stick acted as a simple guidance system that kept
the rocket moving in the same general direction throughout its flight.
Just how effective fire-arrows were as military weapons is not clear, but
their psychological effect must have been formidable because following the
battle of Kai-Keng, the Mongols began making their own rockets and may
have been responsible for the spread of this technology to Europe.
 Wan Hu blasts off |
Nearly all rockets up to this time were used for
warfare or fireworks, but there is an amusing Chinese legend that reports
the use of rockets as a means of transportation. With the help of many
assistants, a lesser-known Chinese official named Wan-Hu rigged up a
rocket-powered chair. Attached to the chair were two large kites, and
fixed to the kites were 47 fire-rockets. On launch day, Wan-Hu sat himself
on the chair and gave the order to light the rockets. Forty-seven aides,
each carrying a torch, rushed forward to light the fuses. Moments later,
there was a tremendous roar accompanied by billowing clouds of smoke. When
the smoke cleared, Wan-Hu and his flying chair were gone. No one knows for
sure what happened to Wan-Hu, but it seems likely that if the event really
did take place, he and his chair were blown to bits: fire-arrows were as
apt to explode as to fly.
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