First Rocketeer Essay

The first rocketeer was a Greek named Archytas who lived in the city of Tarentum, which is in modern day Italy. Around the year 400 B.C., he flew a pigeon made of wood. It was hung on wires and was propelled by escaping steam. The pigeon used the Newton's Third Law, which was not theorized until the 17th century. About three hundred years after the pigeon, another Greek who was called “Hero of Alexandria”, created another, similar, invention that he called an aeolipile. The aeolipile was a rotund metal chamber on top of a water kettle. A hot fire beneath the kettle heated the water until it turned into steam. The heated stem went up through pipes into the sphere and then escaped from two L-shaped openings on opposite sides of it. This propelled the sphere in a rotating motion.

No one knows for sure when the first “real rockets” were invented. It is often speculated that the first rockets were mistakes, caused by the first century Chinese. They used a precursor to gunpowder that contained sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal dust. This mixture was filled into tubes of bamboo and thrown into fires during religious festivals to create
Specifically the battle of Kai-Keng. During this battle, the Chinese fought off the Mongols using “fire arrows”. These were very simple designs- in fact, all it was was a tube with one open end, filled with gunpowder and attached to a long rod. A Chinese soldier would ignite the gunpowder, thrusting it guided by the rod into a horde of clamoring Mongols. It is unknown how destructive they were, but the mental aspect of it made it a more dangerous weapon. After this battle, the Mongols adopted the rocket technology and are said to have used it during campaigns against both Japan and Baghdad. The large Mongolian empire delved into Europe and is thought to have been responsible for the spread of rockets