Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1870-11-17
SCIENCE AND WAR.
4 Night Tslesr.pA f.r An

Anew nocturnal military telegraph has
been invented by Hungarian officer and
sold to the Prussian War Department. By
means Of this telegraph, which consists OF
rockets of different colors, q communica
ton can be established between two armies
stationed at distance of twenty miles
from each other. It would enable Bazaine.
for Instance, to have communicated with
the commandant of Thionville.
Each rocket represents six words, and
an order containing 800 words can thus be
conveyed by fifty rockets. The key to this
telegraph, which may be altered so az to
make it unintelligible TO the enemy, con-
tains all the words used in strategy and
tactics. The price of one of these rockets
Is about two shillings sterling.
We give the following detailed account
OF the Satan Rocket from La France:
NJ. l., the distinguished civil enpi.
neer and chemist, OF the Rue de Londres,
Paris, has invented rocket which will be
formidable engine OF defense. He has
chrlstened it the fusee Satan. We have
seen the rocket made, and We will endeavor
| to describe 1t to our readers. To the end
of an ordinary rocket is attached a very
slight receptacle of tin having exactly the
shape of q conieal bullet In this recep-
tacle is arranged a chamber filled with a
composition based, We believe, upon sui
phufet Of carbon, which composition. once
lighted, gives out considerable heat. A
fusee communicates from this chamber
with the top Of the rocket. The tin bullet
is filled, just before being used, with pet,o-
le1m oil. The lighted rocket rises in the
ar and traverses the space necessary
to arrive o7eH a certain spot.
Arrived above lt5 object the
rock Gets fire to the fusee, the com.
position IN the chamber ofthe bullet takes
light, bur,ts its envelope, and at the same
time fires the petroleum, which falls like a
sheet OF flame and continues burning.
This sheet of flame fills a space OF sixteen
to twenty-four square metres, according to
the size of the rocket. No | throws one
litre Of petroleum, No. two litres and No.
8 three litres. They can be thrown dis.
lance of six kilometres, and aimed with
great precision, being balanced by means
OF long stick attached to each rocket,
which maintains the elevation given to it
at the time of discharge. Some INTEREST," e
experiments were made with this weapon
at st. Cloud on the 10th of last month.
In less than ten minutes considerable
space of ground was covered with sea OF
fire. A committee, composed of superior
officers of artillery, presided over the ex-
pertinent, and the general at their head
was appalled, by the terrible nature of this
engine OF destruction.
Just imagine this sea of fire falling upon
the Prussian masses, burning everything,
setting light TO the cartridges in the soldiers
pouches, and to the ammunition vans OF
the artillery. Their rout would be COM
plete. The committee, In its report, has
declared in it's opinion no civilized nation
could make use OF these rockets except for
reprsals; and it would only be IN case OF
the Pru5sians firing upon us with petro-
leum bombs, such as they used at Stras-
bourg, that we should be entitled to retail
ate with the new rocket. However this
may be, the Committee of National Defense
has given the inventor q large building on
the Batignolle formerly a girls schooD,
and has ordered tho Immediate manufao.
ture, on large scale, OF Satan rockets.
From day to day 200 workmen will be ac-
lively employed, and within few days we
shall have sufficient stock to enable us to
repay the Prussians in their own com, if,
as at Strasburg, they make use OF unlawful
weapons