Glaring Rockets
Bernie from Boyne Falls
asked about a phrase that appears in the Star-Spangled Banner: the rockets’
red glare. Basically, he
expressed surprise that rockets existed in 1814, when Fort McHenry was attacked
by the British naval vessel Erebus.
Indeed, they did exist
in that era. The British stole the idea from India, which waged war with
rockets against the British in the late 1700’s. Colonel William Congreve brought samples back to Great
Britain and made it his business to improve upon them. The Congreve rocket, as
it came to be called, was designed to be launched from ships.
Francis Scott Key
witnessed the rocket and mortar attack against Fort McHenry on September 13 and
14, 1814. They were launched from onboard batteries that consisted of a wooden
box housing many metal firing tubes. The rockets weighed about 30 pounds, and
they were designed to embed themselves in a target before an incendiary charge
burst into flames. [The illustration above shows a different model.]
The word rocket came
from a Latin word, rocheta,
and it meant a projectile. It had a cousin in a word that meant a bobbin, a
cylindrical wooden object around which thread would be wound. The military
rocket had a similar shape.
The Oxford English
Dictionary summarizes it this way: “A cylindrical projectile that can be propelled
to a considerable height or distance by the combustion of its contents and the
backward ejection of waste gases, usually giving a burst of light and used for
signalling, in maritime rescue, for entertainment, and as a weapon.”
SIDEBAR: A timeline of rocket history
Available from McFarland & Co.: Word Parts
Dictionary, 2nd edition
Nook edition
Nook edition
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