[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by Schroeder

I thought artillery rockets were a Chinese invention.

Yes and no, I guess. Wiki has this:

The use of rockets as some form of artillery dates back to medieval China where devices such as fire arrows were used (albeit mostly as a psychological weapon). Firearrows were used in multiple launch systems and transported via carts. Fire arrows were also used in Korea, in devices such as the hwacha or the Singijeon. The use of medieval rocket artillery was picked up by the invading Mongols and spread to the Ottoman Turks who in turn used them on the European battlefield.
Metal-cylinder Rocket Artillery

The first iron-cased metal-cylinder rocket artillery were developed by Tipu Sultan, a Muslim ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, and his father Hyder Ali, in the 1780s. He successfully used these metal-cylinder rockets against the larger forces of the British East India Company during the Anglo-Mysore Wars. The Mysore rockets of this period were much more advanced than what the British had seen, chiefly because of the use of iron tubes for holding the propellant; this enabled higher thrust and longer range for the missile (up to 2 km range). After Tipu's eventual defeat in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War and the capture of the Mysore iron rockets, they were influential in British rocket development, inspiring the Congreve rocket, which was soon put into use in the Napoleonic Wars.[1]