7 Sir William Congreve 7

Scott Key to write in the “Star Spangled Banner” (now the

U.S. national anthem): “... the rockets’ red glare, the

bombs bursting in air.”

Congreve continued to improve his rockets’ range and

accuracy, leading many European countries to form rocket

corps, usually attached to artillery units. Performance of

the Congreve rockets was poor by modern standards

because the only available propellant was black powder,

which is not ideal for propulsion. They were made obsolete

by improved artillery and ordnance, but they continued

to find uses for flares and ship rescue.

Congreve is also usually considered the first modern

inventor to propose plating warships with armour (1805)

to protect against artillery fire. Upon the death of his

father in 1814 (whose baronetcy he inherited), he became

comptroller of the Royal Laboratory of Woolwich Arsenal.

From 1818 until his death, Congreve was a member of

Parliament for Plymouth, Devon.

René Laënnec

(b. Feb. 17, 1781, Quimper, Brittany, France—d. Aug. 13, 1826,

Kerlouanec)

R

ené-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laënnec was a French phy-

sician who invented the stethoscope and perfected

the art of auditory examination of the chest cavity.

When Laënnec was five years old, his mother, Michelle

Félicité Guesdon, died from tuberculosis, leaving Laënnec

and his brother, Michaud, in the incompetent care of their

father, Théophile-Marie Laënnec, who worked as a civil

servant and had a reputation for reckless spending. In

1793, during the French Revolution, Laënnec went to live

with his uncle, Guillaume-François Laënnec, in the port

city of Nantes, located in the Pays de la Loire region of