On the Making of Cannons and Missiles

1400/1569 (Romania)

Bound volume, 394 pages, manuscript on paper; with covers: 21 × 16 x 6 cm, without covers: 20,5 × 15 x 5,5 cm

National Archive of Romania
BU-F-00642-2286 (Centrale, Colecția Manuscrise nr. 2286)

Conrad Haas (1509-1576), a famous 16th century military engineer, was a pioneer of rocket propulsion and, indirectly, one of the earliest pioneers of space exploration. Born near Vienna, he went to Transylvania in 1551 and was later appointed Arsenal Master in Sibiu (German: Hermannstadt) by the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I.

In 1529 he began writing an ambitious and surprisingly innovative treatise on rocket technology. Using his knowledge of mathematics, chemistry, physics, ballistics and pyrotechnics, he produced a text which presents for the first time many concepts and designs that became established in modern rocket technology. He is thus one of the undisputed pioneers of modern missile and rocket engineering.

The text is ambitious and original, a masterpiece in its genre, with 17 types of rockets described. Haas was the first person to put into writing the concept of motion of multi-stage rockets, of different fuel mixtures using liquid fuel, delta-shaped fins for the flying machines and bell-shaped nozzles. Besides the calculations and written descriptions of these innovative technologies, Haas also provided colour illustrations in his manuscript to show the design of his devices and experiments.

Haas appears to have worked on this treatise for several years. The manuscript was completely unknown until its discovery in 1961.

The item presented here consists of three different manuscripts: a book of fireworks (1-36), a book of military techniques (37-111) and the manuscript of Conrad Haas (112-394).

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