He was told that 'the British at Seringapatam had suffered more from the rockets than from the shells or any other weapon used by the enemy.' 'In at least one instance', an eyewitness told Congreve, 'a single rocket had killed three men and badly wounded others.' The rockets were used by the British, the Russians and Paraguay during the nineteenth century. After development work was complete the rockets were manufactured in quantity further north, near Waltham Abbey, Essex. The project was continued chiefly with William Congreve, who set up a research and development programme at the Woolwich Arsenal's laboratory. Several captured Mysorean rockets were sent to England following the annexation of the Mysorean kingdom into British India following the death of Tipu Sultan in the siege of Seringapatam. Lieutenant general Thomas Desaguliers, colonel commandant of the Royal Artillery at Woolwich, was impressed by reports of their effectiveness, and undertook several unsuccessful experiments to produce his own rocket weapons. The design was based upon rockets deployed by the Kingdom of Mysore against the East India Company during the Second, Third, and Fourth Anglo-Mysore Wars. The Congreve rocket was a type of rocket artillery designed by British inventor Sir William Congreve in 1804. A Russian soldier depicted using the Congreve rocket

1866 mount and blade