Rocket tube

“ They were blast tubes for the rocket exhaust. Unlike the landing boats, each tube did not have its own fuel supply. One fuel tank served each globe. The pilot could direct the exhaust through any tube or combination of tubes he wished, by operating valves that either sealed or opened the vents. The system gave high maneuverability to the boats. By playing on the controls with the skill of an organist, the pilot could shift direction with dazzling speed. ”

“ They had a terrible time with their rockets because the heat of one set off the next. The result was a disastrous explosion—and they had a whole ocean of air to cool them! What would a rocket do in free space? Also remember the principle of a rocket is that you shoot particles out of the rear at a very high speed and thus impart the kick to the ship. The electronic rocket does the same thing—but instead of shooting molecules of hot gas, it shoots electrons, a giant cathode ray tube such as Coolidge had in 1927, but his was so small that the kick was immeasurable. ”

“ It's a funny thing. Just riding around the tube to put on a show, the way I'm paid to do, I'm like a robot. Up in my head there's a little timing device that tells me just how fast, down to the last split second, a rocket can take a magnet bend.
I can work out to the last fraction of an ounce the carom I can afford to take off the force fence or another rocket without wrecking. But the moment I go out to win, the tube guards start hanging out the crash warning again. ”

“ These men can always supply the ammunition quicker than it can be fired, and one or other must therefore advance towards the frame to meet No. 2 with the round prepared. No. 2 having thus received the Rocket, places it on the cradle, at the same instant that No. 1 puts a tube into the vent. No. 2 then points the frame, which has an universal traverse after the legs are fixed; he then gives the word “Ready,” “Fire,” to No. 1, who takes up his portfire and discharges the Rocket. No. 1 now sticks his portfire stick into the ground, and prepares another tube ”

“ Astro smiled. "Not if you open the by-pass, sir," he said, "and feed directly off the pump reservoir. The gas cools the tube and at the same time expands itself and adds to the power thrust."
At Astro's easy reply Connel could only stand openmouthed in amazement. Again, one of the three cadets of the Polaris unit had developed a revolutionary procedure that even top rocket scientists would be proud to call their own. ”

“ We'll circle around it, entering its atmosphere on the daylight side, and shoot into the upper limits of its atmosphere. There the power units can find some heat to work on, and we can really slow down. But we'll have to use the rocket tubes to get the acceleration we'll need to drive the ship into the air. ”

“ Many holes equally spaced over the sphere were the outlets for the dissolving ray—most of them on the bottom and alternating with them on the bottom and sides were the outlets of powerful rocket propulsion tubes, which would enable it to rise easily from the hole it would presently blast into the earth. A small, tight-fitting door gave entrance to the double-walled interior, where, in spite of the space taken up by batteries and mechanisms and an enclosed gyroscope for keeping the borer on an even keel, there was room for several people. ”

“ Rocket engines able to supply this thrust have been under development for some time. For launching a satellite, or other space vehicle, the rocket engineer divides his rockets into two, three, or more stages, which can be dropped one after the other in flight, thus reducing the total weight that must be accelerated to the final velocity desired. (In other words, it is a great waste of energy to lift one huge fuel tank into orbit when the tank can be divided into smaller tanks—each packaged in its own stage with its own rocket motor—that can be left behind as they become empty.) ”

“ But the baffles themselves crumbled and were flung astern, so that the solid-fuel rockets had always [Pg 21] the efficiency of gas-throated rocket motors; and yet every bit of refractory was reaction-mass to be hurled astern, and even the steel tubes melted and were hurled away with a gain in acceleration to the ship. Every fraction of every ounce of rocket mass was used for drive. No tanks or pumps or burners rode deadhead after they ceased to be useful. ”

“ Equipment will also be required aboard to get the payload through the atmosphere and safely back to earth, To land a man on the moon and get him home safely again will require a very big rocket engine indeed—one with a thrust in the neighborhood of one or two million pounds, While nuclear power may prove superior to chemical fuels in engines of multi-million-pound thrust, even the atom will provide no short cut to space exploration. ”

“ After World War II, captured V-2 rockets were used to train American technicians in missile launch procedures and to carry the first payloads of scientific instruments into the upper atmosphere in the United States.
The operational V-2 rocket structure consisted of three sections. The nose housed the warhead and control mechanisms. The fuel tanks carried liquid oxygen and alcohol propellants. The rocket engine, turbopumps, and control surfaces were contained in the tail section. ”

“ These large Rockets have from their weight, combined with less diameter, even more penetration than the heaviest shells, and are therefore equally efficient for the destruction of bomb proofs, or the demolition of strong buildings; and their construction having now been realized, it is proved that the facilities of the Rocket system are not its only excellence, but that it actually will propel heavier masses than can be done by any other means ”

“ A man in a space suit could climb into the saddle of one of these creations, plug in the air-line of his suit to the crash-wagon's tanks, and travel in space by means of the space wagon's rockets. These weird vehicles had remarkably powerful magnetic grapples. They were equipped with steering rockets as powerful as those of a ship. They had banks of solid-fuel rockets of divers power and length of burning. And they even mounted rocket missiles, small guided rockets which could be used to destroy what could not be recovered. ”

“ Gas pressure generators are used to open Stage I and Stage II propellant storage valves, release staging nuts and terminate vernier rocket thrust. Two solid propellant vernier rocket motors are mounted inside the Stage II engine compartment. The pitch rockets are two solid propellant rockets mounted in the between-tanks area of Stage II, equidistant from one another. Pitch rocket nozzles are protected by external fairings which are ejected by the rocket blast at ignition. Initiators are used to start the vernier rocket motors and activate engine gas pressure generators. ”

“ The self-propelled rockets have not been altered in essential features since the remote centuries when the Chinese first used them in celebrations. A cylindrical shell is mounted on a wooden stick and when the powder in the shell burns the hot gases are ejected so violently downward that the reaction drives the shell upward. At a certain point in the air, various signals burst forth, which vary in character and color. One of the advantages of the rocket is that it contains within itself the force of propulsion ”

“ It is evident, therefore, that however extended the magnitude of Rockets may be, and I am now endeavouring to construct some, the falling mass of which will be considerably more than that of the 13-inch shell or carcass, and whose powers, therefore, either of explosion or conflagration, will rise even in a higher ratio, still, although the first cost may exceed that of any projectile at present thrown, on a comparison of effects, there will be a great saving in favour of the Rocket System. ”

“ The second’s fury that reduced the third stage of a $5,000,000 rocket to junk was evident to him only as a brilliant blue-white flash, a hammer-like shock through the antennae support that left his wrist and forearm numb. Then a violent wrench as a long cylinder, expelled from the split hull, caught the loop of his life line and dragged him in till he clashed hard against it, the suddenly increased tension or a sharp edge parting the line close to the anchored end. ”

“ The vehicle’s main stage is powered by a rocket engine burning liquid oxygen and a hydrazine mixture. The second and third stages are contained in the “tub” on the nose of the rocket. Both use scaled-down Sergeant solid-propellant rockets: eleven in the second stage and three in the third. A final Sergeant motor is attached to the base of the satellite to provide the velocity necessary to place the vehicle in orbit. An electric motor spun the entire “tub” prior to launch and during the climb into space in order to stabilize the satellite. ”

“ The advantages claimed for rockets over cannon are, unlimited size of projectile, portability, freedom from recoil, rapidity of discharge, and the terror which their noise and fiery trail produce on mounted troops.
Structure.—A rocket is essentially composed of a strong case of paper or wrought iron, inclosing a composition of nitre, charcoal, and sulphur,—the same as gunpowder, except that the ingredients are proportioned for a slower rate of combustion. If penetration and range be required, its head is surmounted by a solid shot ”

“ The charge of rockets must always be driven above the piercer, and on it must be rammed a thin head of clay; through the middle of which bore a small hole to the composition, that when the charge is burnt to the top, it may communicate its fire through the hole to the stars in the head. To a rocket of four ounces, give to each ladle-full of charge 16 strokes ”

“ All rockets designed for service are cylindrical, having strong metallic cases, and armed, as we before observed, either with carcass composition for bombardment and conflagration, or with shells and case shot for field service. They are, however, of various weights and dimensions, from the eight-inch carcass or explosion rocket, weighing nearly three hundred weight, to the six pound shell rocket, which is the smallest size, used in the field. The sticks, which are employed for regulating their flight, are also of different lengths, according to the size and service of the rocket ”

“ Figs. 2, 3, and 4, represent the mode of fitting any ship to fire Rockets, from scuttles in her broadside; giving, thereby, to every vessel having a between-deck, a Rocket battery, in addition to the gun batteries on her spar deck, without the one interfering in the smallest degree with the other, or without the least risk to the ship; the sparks of the Rocket in going off being completely excluded, either by iron shutters closing the scuttle from within, as practised in the Galgo defence ship, fitted with 21 Rocket scuttles in her broadside, as shewn in Fig. 3 ”

“ Since the exhaust of the rockets must rely on some material of a sort, or rather some sort of resistance to push the ship along, how does it push on nothing? Of course, near Earth it has the ground and then the atmosphere to push from, but out in the void, why not cut off and save fuel, therefore saving an extra heavy load of explosives, if rocket-ships were really practical in space flying? ”

“ The mouths of the rockets being rubbed with wet meal powder, lay them in the grooves, head to tail, and tie them fast; from the tail of the first rocket, carry a leader to the mouth of the second, and from the second to the third, and so on to as many as there are on the swivel, making every leader very secure, but in fixing these pipes take care, that the quick-match does not enter the bores of the rockets ”

“ The system here shewn is the use of the Rockets by infantry—one man in ten, or any greater proportion, carrying a frame, of very simple construction, from which the Rockets may be discharged either for ground ranges, or at high angles, and the rest carrying each three rounds of ammunition, which, for this service, is proposed to be either the 12-pounder Shell Rockets, or the 12-pounder Rocket case shot, each round equal to the 6-pounder case, and ranging 2,500 yards. ”

“ To the mouth of each rocket fix a leader, which must be put through the hole with the stick. Then a little above the water must be a board, supported by the stand, and placed along one side of the rockets; and the ends of the leaders are to be turned up through holes made in this board, exactly opposite the rockets. By this means, they may be fired singly, or at once. Rockets may be fired by this method in the middle of a pond, by a Neptune, a swan, or a water-wheel. ”

“ During the first twenty years of the space age, all launch vehicles were propelled by solid or liquid chemical rockets; however, nuclear and electric rocket motors are needed to provide the higher thrusts and velocities required for possible future manned journeys to other planets. Robert H. Goddard, the American rocket pioneer, was the first to suggest the possibility of electric rocket motors, but it was not until 1964 that electric rockets were actually tested in space. ”

“ Signal sky rockets without bounces, are nothing more than common sky rockets, closed and caped: rockets of this sort are very light, therefore do not require such heavy sticks as those with loaded heads, for which reason, you may cut one length of the rocket, off the stick, or else make them thinner. ”