William Hale (inventor)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

William Hale ( October 21, 1797 in Colchester - March 30, 1870 in London ) was a British inventor and entrepreneur . He is best known for his Hale rocket .

Life

Little is known about Hale's youth and schooling. He was probably taught by his maternal grandfather, the scholar William Cole (1753–1806), and later he learned a lot from self-study . He dedicated himself to fluid dynamics and in 1827 received a patent for a ship propulsion system consisting of a steam-powered Archimedean screw , a primitive forerunner of water jet propulsion . His patent was recognized and awarded by the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Arts , but the Admiralty of the Royal Navy showed little interest in Hale's invention. At the same time, Hale was working on improvements to windmills and gunpowder .

Hales missile factory in Rotherhithe

In 1839 Hale moved to Woolwich , where the Congreve missiles manufactured at the Royal Arsenal became his main interest. He was able to further develop rocket technology significantly: the stabilization rod that had previously been required became superfluous due to a self-rotation ( twist ) of the rockets he developed, which increased their accuracy and simplified their handling considerably. In 1844 he was able to obtain the first patent (No. 10008) for his Hale rocket. He set up a factory in Rotherhithe , a district of London.

Since the British government was initially not interested in Hale's invention, he sold a license to the USA for the then very high amount of $ 20,000. Hale traveled through Europe and tried to sell his missiles to other countries. In 1849 he succeeded in Denmark and Hamburg . He also negotiated with Lajos Kossuth , the exiled leader of the Hungarian uprising of independence against Austria , which put Hale in serious trouble. He was accused in court in 1853 of supporting insurgents in Italy and Hungary . The case attracted international attention. Although the conspiracy charges were dropped, he was fined heavily for unauthorized manufacture and storage of gunpowder, which nearly ruined him. The Crimean War , which broke out in 1853 , provided a welcome opportunity for new business and in 1854 Hale was able to sell missiles to the British Army . He achieved further sales successes in Austria in 1858 and in Prussia in 1859 .

In 1863, his treatise Treatise on the comparative merits of a rifle gun and a rotary rocket was published as one of the first scientific papers on rocket flight. He correctly explained this using Newton's third law .

In 1867 the United Kingdom finally acquired Hale's license and officially introduced the Hale missile as armament. Shortly thereafter, however, extensive improvements to put guns ( breech loading , rifled bore ) of the rocket artillery to a temporary end.

Hale dealt with rescue missiles for ships in distress and continued his earlier ideas about new ship propulsion systems. Most recently, in 1868 he published a treatise on the mechanical means by which vessels are propelled by steam power on steam-powered ship propulsion, which, however, received little attention.

William Hale died of typhus on March 30, 1870 at his home in West Brompton and was buried in Brompton Cemetery .

Private life

Around 1828 he married Elizabeth Rouse, and the marriage resulted in two sons, William jun. and Robert, as well as two daughters. His sons worked with him in the factory. Elizabeth Hale died in 1846. Hale married Mary Wells in 1867.

Honors

The Hale crater is named after William Hale and the astronomer George Ellery Hale . The New Mexico Museum of Space History honors him in the International Space Hall of Fame .

Web links

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b W. Johnson: Hale, William (1797–1870) , in: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press , 2004
  2. ^ Frank H. Winter: Hale, William In: Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography , 2008.
  3. ^ New Mexico Museum of Space History : William Hale in the International Space Hall of Fame
personal data
SURNAME Hale, William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British inventor and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH October 21, 1797
PLACE OF BIRTH Colchester
DATE OF DEATH March 30, 1870
Place of death London