The Sun.
London, England, 1825-09-02 00:00:00

GREEK FIRE-(CONGREVE ROCKETS.)

The invention of CONGIIF.YE ROCKETS, or the
art of throwing exploding projectiles, by means
of fusees, passes for a novelty ;-7- but this is a com-
plete error. The soldiers of the .Lower Empire
carried within their *l.ields light tubes, or band-
siphons, filled with artificial fire, IN hich rushed'
through the air with extreme velocity... The
Emperor Leo, the philosopher, himself gave
directions for the preparation of these siphons ;
an operation which the G reeks constantly laboured
'to keep secret. It is obvious on the threshold
of the inquiry, that a firework violently trans-
mitted through the air must naturally, by force
of re-action, have carried its vehicle with it when-
ever chance caused its escape from the soldier's
hand. Hence there must have been a species of
Congreve rockets .from the end of the ninth
century. Leo, the philosopher, mounted the
throne in 886. It. is not certain that he in-
vented hand-siphons ; lnle' there is no trace of
them found in the Byzantine history previous
to his reign.. The great siphon first described by
Thucydides and A pollodorus, the use of which
was revived in 672, was a kind of rammer
pump, which launched naphtha, pitch, and other
liquid and inflammable substances. Thence the
name of Median fire and liquid fire. The fire-
works which burnt in the water, and to which
the name of Roman or Greek fire was given,
were in the first instance employed by the As-
syrians, the Chinese, the Chaldeans, the Per-
sians, the 'Hebrews, the Medes, &c. They
were subsequently transmitted to the Phoeni-
cians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Alexan-
drians, the Byzantines, the Vandals, the Arabs,
the Franks, &c. The artificial fire in ques-
tion has not only been employed in very dis-
tant epochs, but it has never been entirely out
of use. The mode of composing and using
it is to be found in a great number of ancient
and modern works. Certain distinctions, how-
ever, in the ingredients, the preparations, and
especially the name, have caused the various mis-
takes into which great numbers of distinguished
,writers have fallen ; such as Theophanes, Ce-
drenus, Melanctlion, La Porte, Ducange, Moreri,
Montesquieu, Grose, Watson, Gibbon, &c. Etc.
In the celebrated MS. of Marcus Grsecus is to
be found, at the same time, the mod,. of making
gunpowder, Greek fire, and destructive rockets.'
The same information was revived in a work of
the thirteen century, attributed to Albert the
Great. Roger Bacon appears to have been ac-
quainted with something of the same kind, but
like Marcus Grasecus and Albert, he is silent on
the subject of cannon, and all other kinds of fire-
arms; so that the rockets called Congreve, which
are now-a-days regarded as the most recent in-
vention of artillery, constitute, on the contrary,
one of the most ancient. The proofs of this pro-
position are subjoined. From time immemorial
the Chinese have possessed fire-arms, and more
especially fireworks; but they never made any
remarkable use of them in war till towards time
commencement of the 13th century. At that epoch,
that is to say, about the year 1232, they defended
themselves against the Tartars by the use of bombs,
fire-projectiles, and flying fusees or rockets. The
latter, as we shall find, were already known in
Europe ; but after the most vigorous search,
there are no proofs of their use till 1379 or 1380.
'The Paduans employed them to burn the city of
nestre, and the Venetians to burn the tower
Belle Bebe, which appertained to the outworks
of Chiogia. These facts occurred almost under
-the eye of the historians who relate them. In
1449, Dunois threw rockets into the square of
Pont Audemor, and while the besieged exerted
'themselves to extinguish the fire they caused, the
French scaled the walls. In a MS. which passed
,for very ancient in 1561, destructive fire-rockets
are described with minute particularity. It is
recommended that the wrappers should be made
•cf iron-plates, and varnished to prevent their
rusting. Louis Collado, the chief engineer to
Charles the Fifth, informs us, that at the period,
when he composed his Artillery Manual (in
1586) fusees were employed in order to throw
light on the environs of besieged places,
-and for the purpose of routing cavalry. He
recommends that petards should be added to
them, in order to render them more danger-
ous, and that they should be thrown by means of a
long•tube, in order to aug•ment their projectile
force. Furttembach describes a kind of buckler,
surmounted by a tube, for the purpose of throw-
ing hand-grenades and fusees. This author in-
forms us that the Moors, and other Mussulmans,'
made great use of them in their sea,fights. lie
adds, Ist, that the head of the rocket ought to be
- shod with barbed iron : 2d, that sometimes the
wrapper was coated with inflammable matter, in
order to prevent the enemy from seizing and
- throwing it back : and 3d, that iron and leaden
balls were introduced into the petard, which, on
its bursting, composed a destructiventitraille.—
Towards time end of tile-seventeenth century, and
during the eighteenth, fusees were disused in
Europe, except for naval signals and feux de joie.
But in Asia they were still continued to be em-
ployed in war. In different districts of this part
of the world feux de joie have been long em.
ployed as well as in China. The Jew, Ben-
, jamin de Tudela, who visited Persia about
1173, saw a grey:.. number of fireworks, called
" suns," which are nothing but rotatory fusees.
When the Portuguese, for the first time, landed
at Melinda, in 1498, the Indians never ceased,
during the night, firing off rockets and cannon, as
a sign of rejoicing. The soldiers of Tippoo Saib
threw a great number of rockets among the Bri-
tish besieging force at Seringapatam. Julienne
de Bellair, who had previously witnessed their
efficacy, uselessly attempted to cause their
adoption in France towards 1791. Generals
Lariboissiere, Marescot, Eble, and several other
individuals of less note, were not more success.
Cul. At length Sir William Congreve was more
fortunate ; having succeeded, in 1805, in prevail-
ing upon the British Government to employ them.
—(Asiatie Journal.)

The Naval Court-martial recently held at
Deptford, on Mr. GOBLE, the Purser, is the first
instance of such tribunal assembling there.