Why was this ancient Chinese rocket so decorated?
Upvote:2
This is a Chinese multistage rocket known as the "Huolongchushui" (Huolongjing; MING dyn.cca.1400).
The earlier poster is somewhat correct, it was in fact fired upwards, facing the enemy, and the rockets underneath that provide the thrust were very carefully balanced and coordinated to fire simultaneously (through human methods) to fire the bamboo tube upwards and toward the enemy. At this stage (literally, this is a multistage rocket) the thrusters trigger the fuses in the mid-range rockets in the shaft which fire several further rockets toward the enemy.
I'm not sure about the reusability, however it would survive the burn from the rockets, and if you had a functioning model why throw it away? Great Ming dynasty rocket engineers were big on mathematical repeatability, and they'd likely love to get their hands on a launched tube.
Interestingly, The translation of the name is "Fire dragon which arises from the water", if you were an ancient society you'd be scared of an enemy that has this kind of firepower.
Upvote:8
The decorated part does not explode b/c it is a launcher, not a bomb. It does not break upon falling either, b/c it was used by the navy, so the used-up launcher falls into the water, and can be recovered later.
Decorations make sense. They scare the enemy (who will think they are facing a fire-breathing dragon). And they inspire pride into own soldiers. I am pretty sure early rocket weapons were focused on psychological effect, due to low accuracy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huolongjing#Fire_arrows_and_rockets , last paragraph:
The Huolongjing also describes and illustrates the oldest known multistage rocket; this was the "fire-dragon issuing from the water" (huo long chu shui), which was known to be used by the Chinese navy.[32][33] It was a two-stage rocket that had carrier or booster rockets that would automatically ignite a number of smaller rocket arrows that were shot out of the front end of the missile, which was shaped like a dragon's head with an open mouth, before eventually burning out.
Painting above is probably inspired by this illustration: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huolongjing#/media/File:Chinese_Multistage_Rocket.JPG
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