February 1996
Someone who has the curiosity to look over the achievements of Romanian Aeronautics will have a nice surprise. Its high-tech industry is producing a large range of military and civil items, from fighter jets (IAR-99) and tactical support helicopters (Puma, sold to Greece and Middle East countries) to passenger couriers (Rombac, which is a version of the BAC 111). This industry has roots back in time to the beginning of the century. It was raised on the shoulders of imaginative inventors who shared the same dream of flying long before that, even in the 16th century. No joking!
You'd better believe it: Romanians have the flying gene in their DNA. From the rise of the history, one of the intriguing myths has as main character a young man named Flyer, who seduces young girls, giving them shivers and hot dreams through the night. Also, in most of the fairy-tales, heroes in need can count on flying horses for a cloud walk.
Putting aside fantasy and getting to the real world, we can meet a fellow around the year 1529 who is making... rockets. This is no nobody, but the man in charge of the arsenal at Sibiu, a city in Transylvania. His name is Conrad Haas.
He lived between 1509 and 1579 and had developed astounding inventions for the time. A complex personality of the Renaissance, he gathered his work in the third part of an anonymous manuscript (Varia II 379) dated 1529, dealing with rocket-building. He is a forerunner in astronautics, judged by the list of his achievements:
He was not the first man occupied with rockets and fireworks, but nevertheless he is the father of the multi-stage rocket. This invention has a date and place of birth: Sibiu, Transylvania, 1529.
In his job as Arsenal Master, Haas participated in the war with the Turks in the year 1542 near Vienna, and also in the war actions near Bratislava. In his manuscript he adds: My advice is for more peace, never war; fire muzzles to be left under their covers, so that the cannon ball will never be fired and the gunpowder will never be burned... What do you say, Mr. Oppenheimer?
The manuscript of Conrad Haas is full of hand-drawn sketches without dimensions or guide-marks. They have a technical look, using sections and additional notes for easy understanding.
For the construction of the rockets he used paper (as in the Chinese rockets of the 7th century BC) glue, gauze, wood, feathers, cotton weave, and chemical powders for the propellant. The author specifies that he had always bought the powders from Hans Walach (John the Romanian) who lived in Alba Iulia (a town in Northern Transylvania) and had various recipes for pyrotechnic purposes.
Conrad Haas himself developed up to 17 recipes. First were three in different granulations: normal, granulated and dusty. There followed compositions for "violent" boosters (recipe number 8), or "not lazy, not fast" (number 15). All the range of velocity was obtained by the variations in the proportions of the chemical powders. Haas was the first to use mixed composition for solid fuel. Let's listen to the expert:
First you must have half a pound of gunpowder very well granulated, and more than half a pound of cannon powder; this is the best material. You can make another mixture using a pound of good powder and two lotons (half an ounce) of brimstone.
As you can see, the way to the stars crosses Transylvania. Conrad Haas is not the only person there who has something to do with rockets. Have you heard of Hermann Oberth?
After the pioneering work of Conrad Haas in the 16th Century, the next known written document that deals with rocket-building and fireworks has its origin between 1784 and 1801 in Moldavia, another Romanian Principality. The text is part of a larger document of a great Moldavian family, the Conachi. This document is... an expenditure list. The text has no explicit title and begins (with no other warning) at the 109th page: Composition for a half funt high altitude rocket which we've test it and it is good.
The writing probably belongs to Gavril Conachi (Great Minister of Internal Affairs in 1785), schooled in mathematics and technology, initiated into the knowledge of ballistics.
The language used in this text has technical terms coming from different sources, which is common for that time. It has 22 hand-made sketches without dimensions and guide marks, and a table with eight variants of rockets (arranged according to the mass of the fuel) on page 110. The manuscript offers necessary details for the construction and use of a part of the rocket components. The rockets were used for fireworks and for besieging fortified towns.
Even though it is written after the Sibiu Coligatum of Conrad Haas, this text has obvious omissions and far fewer constructional details than its predecessor. The explanation for this is not a regression in the Science of Building Rockets of the time, but rather the different geographical location of the two Romanian Principalities. Moldavia is in the East of Romania, neighbouring with Tsarist Russia, whilst Transilvania is in the West, under Habsburg Empire authority. For this reason the knowledge of rocket-building has different sources, Moldavia "suffering" from oriental (Russian and Turkish) influence.
All the rockets described in the manuscript are tailed rockets, in eight sizes. They have no conical nose, stabilising wings or retrieving device. You can find 90 recipes, of which 41 are for solid fuel for different purposes: smoky, bright, coloured, noisy and powerful. They include saltpetre, brimstone and charcoal. The steps for fuel-preparation are not mentioned, but there are some indicators for the technology: the substances must be "clear" (meaning chemically pure), pounded (triturated) and mixed together with brandy (as today the mock-up makers use alcohol). There are 17 recipes for slow matches: 3 for rockets, the others for fireworks burning with coloured flames on mobile or fixed devices. For example, you can put three threads of cotton together or if they are thicker put two, put them in strong brandy and with gun powder and leave them for three days, after that bring them out and put them on a board and put over another gun powder and let them dry and so make them a slow match which is for firing (the rockets).
All the balancing of the rockets is done by hand, using a day-to-day experience acquired by long practice.
This is a domestic-purpose manuscript, not a printed one, showing a personal interest in rocket-building. It is probably copied from a printed document or a manuscript written in another language (Russian?) and in circulation during that century. It is almost certain that printed matters like this are not yet to be found in archives. Many of them belong to private collections inaccessible to the public.
After the pioneer work of Conrad Haas and the Conachi family, the next written testimony (yet known) is a book less investigated by the specialists, printed in 1852: The little, improved artificier; or guiding to establish in short time and with less expense of the most beautiful pyrotechnic works. After an attempt made by Anton Stuber with more than 150 pyrotechnic compositions and 53 figures. The work is translated and adapted in Romanian by P. Shiller.
It is, as we say today, a "pocket" book, with a long title, specific for that time, a title made to explain the content of the book from the very beginning.
Till now we know little about the author and the printing place of the original book, nor about the translator; but it is certain that the Romanian book was printed in Iasi, in the Northern part of Moldavia, at the Franco-Romanian Printing House, in the Cyrillic alphabet.
The importance of this book is twofold. Firstly, as the translator said, he made not only the translation but also the adaptation, meaning by this that he added notes and explanations to the original text. Secondly, the book was printed, not copied by hand. Even if the original number of copies is not known, this indicates that there was then a need, a market (as we say today) for this kind of information.
Only a small number of copies have been preserved: the book is a bibliophile rarity. It has 188 pages and is structured in five parts. Each part is divided into chapters. At the end there are tables with the compositions of the solid fuels, and construction sketches.
The first part deals with materials, instruments and working techniques, in a systematic, detailed and precise style. In the fourth part, under the title Aerial fireworks. Fireworks masterly made to climb in the air on their internal force the book presents the methods of manufacturing body components and describes some types of rockets.
Follow the Table of composition, with 150 recipes for solid fuel and 22 types of fireworks (of which 7 are rockets). These are classified according to calibre and effects (light, colour, smoke, noise).
For the Nineteenth Century, the novelties are:
The "science" of fireworks and rockets is defined by the author in the Introduction: The learning of the composition of these bodies is termed the mastering of pyrotechny. It has two parts: that is serious pyrotechny for battle, and party pyrotechny. We are going to pursue the latter...
During the constructional explanations, the translator points out that for good results, the builder must strictly obey the units of measure. He recommends the palm (a unit known all over Europe, consisting of three widths of the hand, or twelve fingers). One finger is twelve lines and eight palms are one line of wood. In British terms, a finger is approximately one inch, a line of wood is a fathom. The party fireworks were 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24 fingers or more in calibre.
The most interesting (and first mentioned in this area and at this period of time) is the rocket with a container with burning coloured fire, carried back to the ground by a parachute. As the author said: One of the newest and most beautiful inventions of halting a rocket by all means is the falling umbrella, which stops by floating in the air a torch composed of different colours, which seems to be a star fixed in the sky.
The container is ejected by a gunpowder explosion, and floats attached to a silk parachute. What is intriguing is the modernity of the device, which has a parachute protector and an ejection mechanism, and whose parachute is packed in a manner similar to today's practice.
Also described is the firework known a couple of centuries ago, the fire on stings or kits. It has two variants: one-way or return (come-and-go). The novelty of the device is that the same rocket can perform the manoeuvre two or three times.
For centuries, the only form of aviation was concerned with the construction of fireworks and rockets. In the next episode you will read about the first Army units dealing with rockets in the Romanian Army at the end of the 19th century.
The tradition in fireworks and rocket-building has a continuation in the modern period of Romanian history by a number of printed books that deal with this specific field of aviation. One of them is a part of the collection of old books from the Library of the Romanian Academy, under the title: Treatise on light pyrotechnics used in field warfare and sieges.
The book was written by lieutenant Stergeanu (the researchers did not manage to find his first name), active in the Engineer Corps of the 2nd Regiment from Focsani (a town in Southern Moldavia). It was published in Bucharest at Modern printing house in 1892, and has 233 pages divided into 12 chapters, with 182 sketches which permit, in some cases, a better understanding of the text.
This is the first (known) military printed matter on the subject, specially for military purposes. The novelty presented in this book is the description of techniques that can produce rockets in great number, used for signals and for making light over the battlefield. This was possible with a better organised work, perfected tools and specialisation in narrow fields.
Adequate materials and chemicals were used, in order to cut the hazards during work and the number of rejects. For the first time there is presented an electric device for starting the rocket, also means for storing and transporting the rockets. For the first time, paper bodies were replaced with metal ones. To be more precise, the propeller (engine) was built from processed metal, and the body was made from iron sheet.
What is very surprising is that the author uses the word fusea (from the similar word in French: fus‚e) not rachetta (from rocket*) in use long before this book was printed. This can be explained by the use of a French bibliography, as the author says at the beginning of the book. In the text we can find the word rocket (certainly, in Romanian) but it is used for a specific type, the come-and-go rocket. Also the term fusea is used to define a part of the rocket, the slow match (in English, fuse). The author makes no confusion, because at the beginning of the work he defines his terms: The slow "fusea" - named also safety tent or Bickford ribbon or Instant "fusea" named the fire-carrying ribbon.
The sketches are made with drawing tools and by hand. They don't always have sections or guide marks, and they are not coloured. Dimensions are in millimetres.
In the introduction of the book, the author explains the nature and purpose of the writing: to teach soldiers how to make and use rockets for signals (with different coloured rockets) or to provide sufficient light necessary during the night for various military activities. Also there is a debate between the use of electric light or lighting-rockets. He is in favour of the rockets, because electric projectors are very expensive, heavy to transport... have a capricious functioning, needing specially-trained men. You can't improvise. But ...light rockets are made by the serving troops, without the problems previously mentioned... they need less work and you can get materials easily.
The first two chapters are dedicated to the history of light pyrotechnics used in field warfare and sieges. Chapter 3 deals with the classification of light rockets in fixed fires, mobile fires and aerial or flying fires. The author insists on fires; defining them, describing and giving details on construction, number of workers, and period of time necessary for making a determined number of fires. He underlines the superiority of flying fires (light rockets) ...they are those which have the ability to climb very far into the sky. They can be seen from a great distance, which gives them superiority over the other light signals.
Chapter 4 describes the making of the light rockets and other lighting devices: torches and grenades, light barrels, pitch flat cakes, fireworks for protection and positioning, and so on.
Chapter 5 describes the light signals launched by rocket. There are all kinds of signal styles: squares, printed, noisy... also there are fires and laces with parachutes, the firing of rockets, light rockets, rockets with dynamite. There are recipes for the propellant, the procedure for loading the engines, the assembly of the rockets.
The next chapter is devoted to party fireworks: fixed or mobile fires, fireworks with continuous fires, bombs with fireworks, fireworks on all kinds of structures etc.
The following chapters provide technical details, the most interesting being the electric lighting devices based on cells (Galvani, Volta, Daniel, Bunsen) and other devices with induction, rotations, shocks...
That's all about rockets (for now). In the next episode we will take a look at an interesting gliding flying device made in Romania at the beginning of the 20th century.
(*Phil: according to Duden, the word rocket and its variants originate in Italian as rochetta/rochetto, and dates from at least the early 16th century.)
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