The Conservative. (M'connelsville, Ohio) 1866-1871, 1870-11-25
SCIENCE AND WAR
A Might TeIegraph for Armies.

Anew nocturnal m ilitary telegraph has
been invented by q Hungarian officer and
sold to the Prussian War Department. By
means of this teleg raph, which consists of
rockets of different colors, a communion
ton can be establis he'd between two armies
stationed at q di stance of twenty miles
from each other. II would enable Bszaine,
for instance, to b ave communicated with
the comnandsnt of Thionville.
Each rocket represents six words, and
an order conta ming 800 words can thus be
conveyed by fifty rockets. The key to this
telegraph. which may be altered so as to
make it unin telligible 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 tn following detailed account
of the Satan Rocket from La France:
N. B., the distinguished civil engi-
neer and che mist, of the Rue de Lopdres,
Paris, has invented a rocket which will be
q formidable engine Of defense. He has
ehristened it the fusee Satan. We have
seen the rocket made, and we will endeayor
TO describe it to our readers. To the end
of an ordinary rocket is attached a very
slight receptacle of tin, having exactly the
shape of o conical bullet In this recep-
tacle is arranged q chamber filled with a
composition based, We believe, upon sui
phuret 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 petro-
Ie1m oil The lighted rocket rises in the
air and trsverses the space necessary
to arrive over a certain spot.
Arrived above its object, the
rocket sets fire to the fusee, the com.
position in the chamber ofthe bullet takes
light, bur is its envelope, and at the same
time fires the petroleum, which falls like q
sheet of flame and continues burning.
} This sheet Of fame fills q space of sixteen
to tventy-four square metres, according tc
( the size of the rocket. No l throws one
E litre CT petroleum, No. 2 two litres and No
!. 3 three htres. They can be thrown a dis
lance of six kilometres, and aimed witt
: great precision, being balanced by means
: Of a long stick attached to zach rocket
which maintains the elevation given TO i
ct the time of discharge. Some INTEREST," {
experiments were made with this weapon
at st. Cloud on the 10th of last month
In less than ten minutes a considerable
space of ground was covered with a sea o
fire. A committee, composed of superio
officers of artillery, presided over the ex
pertinent, and the general at their heat
{ was appalled, by the terrible nature of thi
2 engine OF destruction.
Just imagine this sea of fire falling upol
the Prussian masses. burning everything
setting light TO the cartridges in the soldier;
! pouches, and to the ammunition vans Q
: the artillery. Their rout would be com
plete. The committee, in its report, hs
declared in its opinion no civilized natio
could make use of these rockets except 70
. reprisaIs; and it would only be In case c
: the Russians firing upon Is with petrc
leum bombs, such as they used at Stras
bourg. that we should be entitled to retail
ate with the new rocket However, thi
may be. the COMMITTEES of National Defens
J has given the inventor q large building o.
a the Batignolle formerly q girls school
. and has ordered tho immediate msnufaC
= ture, on q large scale, of Satan rockets
Frem day to day 200 workmen viii bs 81
lively employed. and within a few days "
Il shall have q sufficient stock to enable us {
+ repay the Prussians in their own coin, i
as at S~trasburg, they make useof unlawfJ
weapons.