Rocket
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Historically there have been many methods in which humanity has sought to cheat death. In China the desire for immortality lead to the practice alchemy. Needless to say, the Chinese did not find the source of eternal life but their alchemical pursuits did discover one thing: gunpowder. Despite the modern name, "gunpowder", guns and firearms were only invented and used later. Rockets came first.
A Brief History of Rockets
- 400-100 BCE: A prototypical rocket is developed in Greece. A Roman named Aulus Gellius writes of how the Greeks would entertain the people of the city of Tarentum with a wooden pigeon on a wire propelled by steam. Three hundred years later, Hero of Alexandria describes the Aeolipile: a metal ball on a water kettle. When the kettle is heated, the water turns into steam, goes up the pipes, and spins the ball around by escaping two L-shaped nozzles. While not rockets per se, they operate in the same manner through the usage of hot gas escaping in order to create movement.The Greeks never expanded on this concept beyond mere amusements, so these remain only as interesting footnotes in rocket history.
- 1000s to 1200s CE: At this point the Chinese are believed to have invented the rocket proper, although not until 1232 is solid evidence established with records mentioning the Chinese attacking invading Mongols with "Arrows of flying fire". These "Fire arrows" were regular arrows with rockets attached or rockets with primitive warheads. Rockets also make an appearance in Europe around this time. Arabs wrote about rockets which the Mongols used to help capture Baghdad. The Arabs in turn used this rocket technology against the French during the Seventh Crusade.
1300s: Іome time in the 14th century that Huolongjing was written in China, a tactical book about the use of black powder or "fire weapons". Included were 10th century fire arrows, rocket launchers, two stage rockets, winged rockets, land mines, naval mines, triggers for them, proto-guns such as fire lances, match lockers, early bombards, poisonous gunpowder extra. What makes this book important for rockets is that it talks about the first multi stage rocket the "fire-dragon issuing from the water" Or it's proper name the Huo Long Chu Shui. The Fire dragon was a tube lifted on by rockets, with more rockets inside of it. Once lunched it would fly out and the booster rockets would ignite and fire the rockets out of the front of it. The Fire dragon was used mostly by the Chinese navy. But one of the more badass Fire arrow weapons was invented by the Koreans, known as the "Hwacha"; these were the multiple-rocket launcher systems of the day, in that it could fire 100-200 fire arrows in quick succession to absolutely drown an invading army in arrows. Just a few dozen of these could be rapidly deployed to drive back any massed force, making them decisive defensive weapons.
1400 Military Rockets make their way to Europe itself rather then Europeans coming to the mid east and getting rocketed for their trouble thanks to Ottoman Empire when they lay siege to Constantinople. Of course the Ottomans got flamethrowered for their trouble so it perhaps all balanced out in retrospect.
1500s: The earliest experiments with multistage rockets in Europe were made.
1600s: The "Artis Magnae Artilleriae pars prima" ("Great Art of Artillery, the First Part", also known as "The Complete Art of Artillery") was printed in Amsterdam and it was used as a Artillery manual and included instruction on production and properties of Rockets, including multi-stage rockets, batteries, and rockets with wing stabilizers rather then big sticks.
1700s: the first all metal rockets are developed in India in the Kingdom of Mysore. The Mysore rockets were used very successfully against the British East India company (East India Company brief summery: think a cyberpunk mega corporation only more racist) and the British were surprised by what these rockets could do. Their all metal nature allowed more fuel meaning they had a lot more range (2 kilometers) then what the British had seen a rocket do, and so like any good British man, they stole a few and sent them back home so that they could learn how to make more.
1800s: The British invent the Congreve rocket from their study of the Mysore rockets. The Congreve was very effective for it's days, true it did not outrange a cannon but you could fire it a lot faster, it was lighter so you needed half as many horses to pull a rocket unit around, and they had a major advantage over cannons: they had payloads. Thanks to slower speeds rockets could have warheads such as incendiary compounds to light a town ship on fire, it's why they were relatively ineffective against fort Henry during the war of 1812 and allowed the US to sing about how their flag was still there, despite the rockets red glare. In 1844 William Hale came up with the Hale Rocket, a much more accurate version of the Congreve without the need of a stick to stabilize itself since it was able to spin itself like a rifled bullet.
1900-early 1945s: now things get interesting. Up to now humans had only experience with solid fuel rocket engines, mostly of gunpowder, but the early 20th century the first liquid fuel rockets started to be developed and a lot of rocketry groups were started but military rockets had died off by the time world war one began. The reason was that everything a rocket could do a howitzer could do better since we had gotten a handle on making shells by this point. Rockets had some uses during the war though mostly as a anti Zeppelin device. Still over the course of the war much research was done into rockets. After the war though Germany found itself with a problem, the treaty of Versailles ended the war, the German army could have any artillery to allow long range fire such as the Railway guns they used to shell Paris with in first World War, but like a good rule lawyer there found a loop hole and funded rocket research.
Rockets were similar to the older rockets, somewhat inaccurate but you could fire lots of them very quickly and as lessons from the first world war showed: the best way to use artillery was as a quick, short intense barrage to disorientate the enemy just before you attacked and rocket artillery was very, very good at that. Rockets thanks to their lightness due to the lack of gun needed for them also became the gold standard in man-portable anti-tank weapons with the US Bazooka and German Panzerfaust being among the first. Germany of course invented the V1 and V2, a flying bomb and a the first missile respectively, during the war, but like other such weapons Germany would have honestly done better to build a few dozen more Panzers then invest in such relatively ineffective weapons.
Late 1945s-2000s: Following the Second World War missiles would quickly come to dominate the way all nations would deliver atomic weapons and missiles soon got bigger then anything that had come before becoming some of the largest machines ever built. Missiles also would come to dominate air weapons as well, for awhile the US thought it did not even need to put cannons on it's aircraft and It could use missiles for everything; they were wrong of course but with ranges far beyond any gun and the ability to chase an enemy it's not hard to see why they thought so. Anti-tank missiles continue to be highly effective and anti-air missiles are also very, very useful.
Incidnetly: the difference between a Missile and a Rocket is more then semantics, a rocket is unguided a missile is not. Once you shoot a rocket of nothing controls it but gravity, physics and fate, while with a missile something is still controlling it.
Unlike firearms which have the Railgun of Damocles hanging over their future, Rockets and Missiles always seem to stick around in how we picture future wars thanks to their traits, lightness compared to guns, and ability to carry explosive payloads to delicate to be shot out a gun that make them useful now.
Rockets in fantasy
Rockets are fairly common in fantasy works, but only as a means of lunching fireworks rather then as a combat weapon. Even in settings with gunpowder weapons, Rockets spotty history of being used tends to mean they get excluded in combat.
| Medieval Weaponry | |
|---|---|
| Melee Weapons: |
Battleaxe - Dagger - Lance - Mace - Club Pole-arm - Spear - Sword - Warhammer |
| Ranged Weapons: |
Blowgun - Bows and Arrows - Cannon Crossbow - Firearm - Rocket - Shuriken - Sling - Incendiary Weapons - Artillery |
| Armor: | Armor - Fantasy Armor - Helmet - Pauldron - Shield |