394) Progress of the Continental Manufacture of Congreve Rockets. [April, 



Cattegat, which his brother with the aid of a telescope saw in Copenhagen, 

 thirty leagues distant — at least, so say the Danish papers. 



In Austria, rockets have been adopted since 1815. They had a battery at 

 the siege of Huningen, but did not make use of it ; Montgery says, they got 

 it from the English. Shortly after, however, Colonel Augustine was charged 

 by the Austrian government to establish a manufactory. The Danes assert 

 that he learnt the art from Schumachker ; the Austrians loudly assert the claim 

 of invention for Augustine : non nobis, ^-c. In 1820 Augustine made some 

 successful experiments in presence of the court of Vienna, at Raketendorf 

 (Rocket-town); and in 1821 his signal-rockets were seen, it is said, at the 

 distance of forty leagues. They employed them in 1821 against the Neapoli- 

 tans at Antrodoses, Monte Cassino, and San Germano, with success : that is, 

 the Neapolitans ran away, but, as Montgery justly remarks, as they did the 

 same every where else, it is not possible to assign the rockets as the reason 

 decidedly on this occasion. Every body, however, who served in Italy, knows 

 that the Austrians placed a great reliance on these new arms, but the pains they 

 take to prevent the public from examining them hinder us from having an exact 

 idea of their composition. A French captain of the name of Gautier de Rigny, 

 who commanded the French station in the Levant in 1823, was told, on visiting 

 an Austrian armed sloop from Trieste, that they had rockets on board 

 which they could affix to the cannons. Particular orders, he was told, prevented 

 further information from being given : their composition, however, has been 

 published in Prussia and in Paris. 



The establishment at which they are made is called Raketendorf, near 

 Neastad, about six miles from Vienna. The public are kept, not only from 

 the manufactories and workshops, but even from the vast enclosed field in 

 which four companies of artificers, appointed for this new service, are exercised. 



In 1816, the Saxons, who, at Leipsic and other places in their territory, 

 have no small opportunity of knowing the value of rockets, began to set 

 about making them. What progress they have made in the art cannot be as- 

 certained, as they have made no public experiments, and keep the manufacture 

 a profound secret. 



They, however, have lent an officer to Prussia for the purpose of rocket- 

 making, and the manufactory is established at Spandau. An odd claim has 

 been set up for Prussia, as being the original place of invention of rockets. 

 In 17I8, Colonel Geissler, a Saxon, published a work in Germany on artillery, 

 entitled " Neue Curieuse und Bolkommene Artillerie;" in page 173 of which, 

 he says that, in 1688, he saw rockets at Berlin which held a large grenade. 

 They weighed from 50 to 120 pounds, and were contained in wood covered 

 with cauvas, and were filled with an explosive mixture. He also proposes 

 rockets armed with a dart, which were intended to set fire to houses at a little 

 distance. These inventions were, however, far inferior to what had been in 

 use before his time, and were soon forgotten. The engineer will readily perceive 

 they have nothing to do with Congreve rockets, either in principle or effect. 

 At Leipsic, the English supplied the Prussian or Swedish army with a battery, 

 which compelled four of the enemy's battalions to surrender : at Wittenberg 

 the same battery set the town on fire. Count Loewenhielm, who was present 

 at Leipsic, says, that the rockets horribly mangled the bodies of all that they 

 struck, and that on riding over the field the next day, he was amazed with the 

 heaps so mutilated. 



In Sweden, the rocket-manufactory is under the care of Colonel Schroders- 

 tierna, who is said to have brought them to no great degree of exactness. 

 In Russia and Poland ilso they are made, but not very successfully. Accord- 

 ing to some accounts, Rostopchin employed Congreve rockets in setting fire 

 to Moscow, but this is not very probable. Some experiments on a small scale 

 are making towards perfecting their manufacture in the United States ; and 

 we hear that Major Parlby has been very successful in his attempts in India. 



Such is the present state of the rocket-manufacture all over the world. We 

 liope that it will be a long time before any opportunity will be afforded of proving 

 their efficacy iu war. W.C. 



