Measures for Progress: A History of the National Bureau of Standards

FROM GAGES TO GAS MASKS 205
Dr. Goddard obtained
his first rocket patent
in 1914, in 1919
stated the princi pit
of multistage rockets,
and in the next dec-
ade developed liquid
fuels and gyroscopic
stabilizers Jo r h is
rockets. His recoil-
less launcher demon-
strated for the Bu-
reau in 1918 fired a
two-foot-long powder-
loaded rocket.
The historic liquid-
fueled rocket of the
1920's, pictured
above, rose only 41
feet. With stabiliza-
tion and better fuel
the rocket flew 7,500
feet up just a decade
later. Goddard's interest was not in weaponry but in methods of raising recording
apparatus beyond the range of sounding balloons, in order to explore the upper
atmosphere.
which was to detect reflections from infrared light projected by the scope
itself.
At least two inventions that came to the Bureau in World War I proved
to be 20 years ahead of their time. Late in 1916, Dr. Robert H. Goddard,
a physics professor at Clark University, Worcester, Mass., went to Dr. C. G.
Abbot, Secretary of the Smithsonian and head of the Astrophysical Labora-
tory, with an idea for a rocket device theoretically capable of firing shells
"far outdistancing rifled cannon."
The principle of the rocket was of course centuries old, and in modern
times its "red glare" had illuminated the bombardment of Fort McHenry,
in th.e port of Baltimore. By increasing its thermodynamic efficiency and in-
corporating new power principles, Goddard believed he had found a way to
control and enhance the flight characteristics of the rocket. Dr. Abbot
agreed and called in Dr. Edgar Buckingham, the aerodynamics specialist
at the Bureau. After studying Goddard's data they concurred on "the
probable great military value of this rocket" and recommended that the
Bureau assign $5,000 of its Signal Corps funds for development.
By January 1918 two models of Goddard's rocket gun had been
designed, one with a potential range of 7 miles, the other of 120 miles.
Buckingham reported that a working model of the former, preliminary to