Ganswindt, Hermann (1856–1934)
German law student and amateur inventor, born in Voigtshof, East Prussia,
who, along with Nikolai Kibalchich and
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, was one of the
first to realize the potential of the rocket for space travel. He came up
with a design for an interplanetary spacecraft as early as 1881 that used
the reaction principle. In his scheme, steel cartridges charged with dynamite
would be placed in a reaction chamber. As a cartridge exploded, half of
it would be ejected while the other half struck the top of the chamber to
provide the reaction force. Suspended below the chamber on springs was the
inhabited part of the ship. Ganswindt even provided his crew with artificial
gravity by allowing the spaceship to spin.
Related
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• HISTORY
OF ROCKETRY
• ROCKET
ENGINEERS AND SPACE SCIENTISTS
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