A further development of the line-carrying rocket is a light, easily portable apparatus designed to be carried on ships, a sys tem which has obvious advantages. As a wreck is usually driven on the lee shore, a rocket fired from the ship will travel with the wind ; also, the land presents a much better target than does the ship if the rocket is fired from the shore, and further, a vessel so equipped has the means of establishing communication with an other at sea. The Schermuly apparatus is designed for this pur pose; the system consists of the ejection of a steel rocket from a pistol with an enlarged barrel, the flash of the cartridge igniting the rocket. This method combines the advantages of the rocket and gun, or mortar systems—the rocket is more easily aimed and is in flight immediately the pistol trigger is operated, the delayed action after ignition of the rocket being one of the greatest draw backs of the older system, particularly if fired from a moving vessel. A six pound rocket will carry a r hemp line a distance of 35o yards. It seems certain that this apparatus will universally be adopted, vessels being compelled to carry it as is the case with wireless apparatus. (A. ST. H. B.)
Rocket Propulsion.—The pioneer work on the use of the exhaust of a rocket to propel a body was done by Prof. R. H.
Goddard of Clark University, Worcester, Mass., who has studied the problem since 1909. In 1928 experiments were carried out on a rocket intended to travel into the rarefied upper air so as to obtain data as to its composition and condition. In 1918 Prof.
Goddard, under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, published data supporting the practicability of a rocket flight to the moon. In 1928, after mathematical studies by Prof. Max Vallier of Munich and Albert Mueller, a rocket automobile was tested at the racing track of the Fritz Opel motor car factory at Russelsheim near Frankfurt. From the rear of the car project twelve large tubes arranged in a rectangle. From these tubes the exploding gases emerge. Speeds of slightly over 6om. an hour were attained within eight seconds of starting.
The extension of this principle to aeroplanes has been inves tigated with promising results.