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Stories of early rocket devices appear through historical records from different cultures. Maybe the first rockets were accidents. In the first century AD the Chinese were said to have had a simple form of gunpowder made from saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal dust. To create explosions during religious festivals, they filled bamboo tubes with a special mixture and tossed them into fires. If both ends of the tube weren't sealed, the escaping gas from the explosion would shoot out the open end, sending the tube in the opposite direction. So the first rockets were probably poorly built fireworks!

The Chinese then started to experiment with these gunpowder filled tubes open at one end. At some point they attached bamboo tubes to arrows and launched them with bows. In time they discovered that the gunpowder filled tubes could launch themselves using just the power of the escaping gas. The true rocket was born.

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15y ago

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