VARIOUS IMPROVEMENTS IN FIRE-WORKS
Year: 1823

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
Sir WILLIAM CONGREVE, of Cecil Strect, Strand, in the County of
Middlesex, Baronet, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth
did, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of His United Kingdom,
hearing date at Westminster, the Sixteenth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty three, in the
fourth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Sir Wil-
liam Congreve, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, His especial license,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Sir William
Congreve, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, during the term of years
therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick upon Tweed
and also in all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my
Invention of "VARIOUS IMPROVEMENTS IN FIRE-WORKS;" in which said Let-
ters Patent there is contained a proviso, that if I, the said Sir William
Congreve, shall not particularly describe. and ascertain the nature of
my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the

page_text: same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and
advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine,
and become void, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said Sir William Congreve, do hereby declare that my said Inventions
are described in manner following:
The first thing which I shall describe is the application of a parachute,
which I have combined with the rocket, for the purpose of holding
suspended in the air any complicated piece of firework, such as the
Chinese drun, or such other device, carried up and discharged by the
rocket. The parachute is contained in the head of the rocket, and is
connected with the firework, so that when the head of the rocket bursts
the parachute is liberated with the firework attached to it and of course
remains suspended during the display; very beautiful effects may thus
be produced in the air. The plan may also be very usefully applied
for establishing more permanent signals for greater distances than the
mere transitory flash of the stars of a common signal rocket, especially
for taking observations connected with geometrical surveys, where very
distant operations are required. It may also be used to throw a strong
light upon any distaut object, such as an enemy's camp, or a chace at
night, by suspending in this manner a strong Bengal or other light to
the parachute. In carrying up this parachute and its different appen-
dages I have also contrived to place them in the rear, instead of the
front of the rocket, for the greater convenience of delivering them at
any point of its ascent; and for this purpose I have constructed the
rocket so that its fire should issue in front, instead of in the rear, the
fire so issuing being made to reverberate by a hollow cone or cylinder,
or through vents opening to the rear. By this means the whole of
this firework may be constructed in a much more compact form, and
the parachute, with whatever is attached to it, or indeed any other
complicated piece which it may be intended to carry into the air, is
In fact the applications
sire to drop clear of the rocket in its ascent.

page_text: of this principle are numerous; it is not, however, necessary to detail
them. The compactness of form thus obtained is its greatest recom-
mendation. This description of rocket may also be combined with the
I
common rocket, so as to form a double rocket upon the same axis.
shall next proceed to describe the means I have resorted to for reducing
the length of the rocket stick, so that the poise of the rocket may be
a stick of one half the
preserved, and its flight as well regulated by
ordinary length, or even less, as with one of the common dimensions.
Now this I have effected by placing at the end of the reduced stick one,
two, three, or four projecting narrow planes, made of thin iron plate or
tin, or other fit substance, similar to the feathers of an arrow, and
nearly in the same proportion to the length of the stick, which planes
are so connected together by a ring or tube at each end that they main-
tain their relative positions with respect to each other but are allowed
to revolve freely upon the end of the stick, which is rounded for that
purpose. These planes are, moreover, a little twisted or rifled, so that
the action of the air upon them causes them to revolve without disturbing
the course of the rocket, and this action compensates for the reduction
of the length of the stick. The stick may be fixed to the rocket in the
common mode, or in the centre, as devised by me for the war rockets.
By a further extension of the principle the stick may be altogether
dispensed with by applying these planes directly to the body of the
rocket, so as to project behind the vent, the planes, as above, possessing
the power of freely revolving. In this case less than three planes is
not sufficient. The next thing I shall describe is a mode which I have
invented for regulating the moment of the bursting or discharge of the
burthen of the rocket, by a very simple operation, at the time the rocket
is about to be fired. This is effected by connecting the bursting charge
with the rocket by means of a cylindrical wooden collar, in the circum-
ference of which various lengths of fuzes are driven, as, for instance, of
one, two, three, four, or more seconds. This collar is constructed so
that it may be turned round, and that thereby a fuze of one second, or
a fuze of two seconds, or more, may be made to communicate the fire
from the head of the rocket to the bursting charge, according to the
wish of the person having to adjust the time of bursting, by thus making

page_text: a longer or shorter fuze the train of communication, and this merely by
the simple operation of turning the collar round. The time of the
burning of the fuze is marked outside the wooden collar as one second
two seconds, &, and a small mark is painted on the body of the rocke
so that any particular number, 1, 2, &, or the like, being set to this
mark, the communication of the fire will take place at the expiration
of the number of the seconds thus marked. The applications of this
principle of regulating fuze are of course various, and need not here be
detailed. The last thing which I have to specify is a mode of producing
instantaneous fire for the discharge of fireworks, &, instead of the
ordinary application of portfires to the leaders. For this purpose the
end of the leader must be armed with one of those self-igniting paper
crackers or self-igniting matches (as I have denominated them), formed
of fulminating silver and powdered glass, the paper case of which, by
being suddenly torn asunder, gives an instantaneous spark; the com-
position contained in this cracker or match must be surrounded with a
small quantity of mealed powder, made with oxymuriate of potash or
other rapidly inflaming material, communicating with the end of the
common leader, so that sufficient fire may be produced to make the
leader strike, as it is difficult to make the spark thus produced ignite
common gunpowder. In this way any firework, or any part or parts
or changes of fireworks, may be instantaneously lighted in succession
by pulling certain strings connected with the matches applied to the
end of the leaders. There is nothing new in the construction of these
self-igniting crackers or matches; the novelty I claim is, the application
of this mode of obtaining fire to the discharge of the leaders of fireworks,
or the trains of mines, or even to the discharge of cannon, spring guns,
and the like, being in all cases more simple and less expensive than the
use of the lock and flint, and more rapid than that of the port fire.
In witness whereof, I, the said Sir William Congreve, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of April, in the
year of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and twenty-
four.
WILLIAM (L.s.) CONGREVE.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fifteenth day of April,
in the year of our Lord 1824, the aforesaid Sir William Congreve
came before our said Lord the King, in His Chancery, and acknow-
ledged the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein con-
tained and specified, in form above written. And also the Specification
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made for
that purpose.
Inrolled the Fifteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-four.