Niramaruthur, the birthplace of the Star Spangled Banner - how the Indian rockets led to the bombardment of Baltimore

Off the Mangad bus stop in Niramaruthur, grab a cup of tea, maybe a dosa and take a long walk up a rural road. Over the course of my research into Tippu Sultan, I chanced upon an article related to the Congreve rocket.

The British army used this rocket to devastating effect against Boulogne, Copenhagen, Danzig and even Baltimore depicted vividly in the American national anthem as the "rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air." While William Congreve is accredited with the invention of the rocket, according to rocket historians including Willy Ley and F H Winter, the Congreve rocket was derived from the solid propelled rocket weapons of Hyder Ali, Tippu's father and ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, India. This war rocket was known as the Indian war rocket or Mysore rocket and was deployed against the British to devastating ends. One can still see a real version in the Royal Artillery Museum in Woolwich, England.

This is the accompanying verbiage: The motor casing of this rocket is made of steel with multi nozzle holes with the sword blade as the warhead. The propellant used was packed gunpowder. Weight of the rocket is about 2 kg. With about 1 kg of propellant, 50 mm in diameter about 250 mm length, the range performance is reported 900 metres to 1.5 km. Our designers analyzed and confirmed their performance. What a simple and elegant design effectively used in war!

Tippu held off the British over multiple wars but finally succumbed in Srirangapatnam.