Copenhagen with even better effect, and they were again used in the Walcheren Expedition and in an attack on the island of Aix.
These rockets were all of an incendiary nature, with paper cases, and fired at an elevation of 55 degrees. Myer gives the proportion of the composition as 62.44 saltpetre, 23.18 charcoal, 14.38 sulphur. This writer gives Congreve's rockets little credit for efficiency, but admits that they "attracted great attention and were regarded as formidable." He remarks that at the siege of Flessingen "the rockets acted so badly that the English themselves said that they did more harm to the battery than the besieged town." He also states that as a result of finding an "unburnt specimen" in the town after the bombardment of Copenhagen trials were conducted by Captain Schuhmacher, although how an unburnt rocket could reach the town is not clear; possibly he means from a reconstruction of the remains collected.
These trials seem to have been successful, and in 1808 a rocket brigade was formed.
In 1809 Admiral Cochrane used rockets upon the town of Callao, in 1810 they were used against Cadiz, and in 1813 in the battle of Leipsic, where the commanding officer, Captain Bogeu, was killed, and at the siege of Dantzic. It is interesting to note that during that year they were used for propaganda purposes. At the siege of Glogau proclamations, etc., were printed on thin paper and fastened to the sticks with light thread. Rockets were used with effect at Waterloo, the rocket detachment being directed by Sergeant Dunnet.
In 1813 Colonel Augustin, of the Austrian army, saw the English rocket batteries in action and trials of Congreve rockets in London, and the following year visited Copenhagen, where by arrangement between the two Powers he was instructed by Schuhmacher in his method of rocket construction.
