Item #43964 Group Of Copy Letters From The Woolwich Military Science Laboratory, 1790.

Group Of Copy Letters From The Woolwich Military Science Laboratory, 1790.

VARIOUS.

London: Woolwich Arsenal, 1790. Fourteen large folio pages, handwritten in neat script with one hand drawn illustration showing the profile of the building as it is to be equipped with a special chimney for the new sulphur refinery - "to carry off the dangerous effluvia". Minor chips and tears to edges, minor spotting. The letters were, apparently, rescued from a bonfire when the storage building at Woolwich Arsenal was demolished in the 1970s. As a group, they provide a view into the daily workings of the most important military research establishment in the British Isles during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The letters make reference to Major William Congreve (later Sir), the Comptroller of the Royal Laboratories at the Royal Arsenal, who ten years after these papers were written won substantial renown as a result of his work on rocket technology. These Congreve rockets, heavily based on Mysorean rockets used against the British East India Company, were used to great effect in subsequent wars, including the Napoleonic Wars. Included in these documents are lists of requirements, including personnel and various ingredients for making cartridges, documents calculating the expense of powder for the war office, and discussion concerning the construction of various engines and pieces of machinary, such as the aforementioned sulphur refinery. Item #43964

Price: £575.00

Standard worldwide shipping is free for all orders over £200. UK standard postage is free for all orders. For expedited delivery, please contact us directly. See our full terms.