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(Note: This is not the same person as the writer- see William Congreve (playwright).)
Born and raised in Kent, William Congreve was educated in law at Trinity College, Cambridge.
After the use of gunpowder rockets 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.
Congreve rocketThe Congreve Rocket was a British weapon designed by William Congreve in 1804. The British had become interested in the concept following the use of rockets against their troops in India in the 1790s. Several inventors made attempts but the design of Congs were used for the remainder of the Napoleonic WarsThe Napoleonic Wars lasted from 1804 until 1815. They were a continuation of the conflicts sparked by the French Revolution and covered the duration of the First French Empire. The First and Second Coalitions For a more detailed account see the French Rev, as well as the War of 1812The North American War of 1812 between the United States and the United Kingdom is one of several wars associated with that year. It is more normally known in British texts as the British-American War to distinguish it from Napoleon's war against Russia w -- the "rockets' red glare" in the American national anthembroadside on September 17 under the title "The Defence of Fort M'Henry," with an explanatory note explaining the circumstances of its writing. Of the five copies made, two are known to still exist. Fort McHenry. 1814 copy of "The Star-Spangled Banner" was describes their firing at Fort McHenryLocated in Baltimore, Maryland, Fort McHenry is best known for its role in the War of 1812, when it successfully defended Baltimore Harbor from the British navy. It was during this bombardment of the fort that Francis Scott Key was inspired to write The S during the latter conflict. They remained in the arsenal of the United Kingdom until the 1850s.Besides his rockets, Congreve was a prolific (if indifferently successful) inventor for the remainder of his life. Congreve invented a gunA gun is an aimable weapon that fires projectiles at high velocity, or a device that resembles such a weapon used for other purposes (e. glue gun in common usage. The term is also used for types of artillery with long barrels that fire at a relatively fla- recoilThe recoil when firing a gun is the backward momentum of the gun, which is equal to the forward momentum of the bullet or shell, due to the law of conservation of momentum. It has to be absorbed by for example the wrist, the shoulder or the carriage. mountA mount is a horse or other animal or bird intended for riding. See horse, camel, elephant, Garuda. A mount is an attachment point for equipment to vehicles. Mounts are usually made to enable the object mounted there to be moved in relation to the vehicleing, a time- fuze, a rocket parachute attachment, a hydropneumatic canal lock and sluice ( 1813), a perpetual motion machine, a process of color 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 meter s.
Congreve's unsuccussful 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 over flow. 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 only just as heavy, 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.