English philosopher and experimenter who described the preparation of black
powder sometime in the late 1240s. He also wrote in his Epistola Fratris
Rog. Baconis, de secretis operibus artis et naturae et nullitate magiae (Epistle
of Roger Bacon on the Secret Works of Art and of Nature and Also on the Nullity
of Magic) about devices that sound like rockets:
We can, with saltpeter and other substances, compose artificially
a fire that can be launched over long distances.... By only using a very small
quantity of this material much light can be created accompanied by a horrible
fracas. It is possible with it to destroy a town or an army .... In order to
produce this artificial lightning and thunder it is necessary to take saltpeter,
sulfur, and Luru Vopo Vir Can Utriet.
The last five mysterious words make an anagram that conceals the proportion of
powdered charcoal needed to make the explosive.
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