William Congreve (inventor)
Sir
William Congreve (
May 20,
1772-
May 16,
1828), was an
English inventor and
rocket pioneer.
Born and raised in
Kent, William Congreve was educated in law at
Trinity College, Cambridge.
After the use of
gunpowder rockets by Indians against British troops during the later
Mysore Wars against
Tipu Sultan, he was inspired to work on similar devices for use by the British military. By
1805 he considered his work sufficiently advanced to engage in two
Royal Navy-run attacks on the French fleet at
Boulogne, France, one that year and one the next. Parliament authorized Congreve to form two rocket companies for the army in
1809. Congreve subsequently commanded one of these at the
Battle of Leipzig in
1813.
Congreve rockets were used for the remainder of the
Napoleonic Wars, as well as the
War of 1812 -- the "rockets' red glare" in the
American national anthem describes their firing at
Fort McHenry during the latter conflict. They remained in the arsenal of the United Kingdom until the 1850s. Congreve was awarded the honorary rank of
Lieutenant colonel in
1811 and was often referred to as "Colonel Congreve."
Besides his rockets, Congreve was a prolific (if indifferently successful)
inventor for the remainder of his life. Congreve invented a
gun-
recoil mounting, a
time-
fuze, a rocket
parachute attachment, a
hydropneumatic canal lock and
sluice (
1813), a
perpetual motion machine, a process of
colour printing (
1821) which was widely used in
Germany, a new form of
steam engine, and a method of consuming
smoke (which was applied at the
Royal Laboratory). He also took out
patents for a
clock in which time was measured by a
ball rolling on an
inclined
plane; for protecting
buildings against
fire; inlaying and combining
metals; un
forgeable
bank note paper; a method of killing
whales by means of rockets; improvements in the manufacture of
gunpowder;
stereotype plates;
fireworks; and
gas meters. Congreve was named as comptroller of the Royal Laboratory at Woolwich from 1814 until his death. (Congreve's father had also held the same post.)
Congreve's unsuccessful perpetual motion scheme involved an endless band which should raise more water by its
capillary action on one side than on the other. He used capillary action of fluids that would disobey the law of never rising above their own level, so to produce a continual ascent and overflow. The device had an inclined plane over
pulleys. At the top and bottom, there travels an endless band of
sponge, a bed, and, over this, again an endless band of heavy
weights jointed together. The whole stands over the surface of still
water. The capillary action raises the water, whereas the same thing cannot happen in the part, since the weights squeeze the water out. Hence, it is heavier than the other; but we know that if it were the same weight, there would be
equilibrium, if the heavy chain be also
uniform. Therefore the extra weight of it will cause the chain to move round in the direction of the arrow, and this will go on, supposedly, continually.
Congreve died in
Toulouse, France in 1828.
Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills*
1911 Encyclopedia,
"Sir William Congreve".
