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Lt. Colonel (later General) Sir William Congreve (2nd baronet) was the son of Sir William Congreve, Comptroller of the Royal laboratory at Woolwich. He suceeded to the post on his father's death in 1814. In addition to developing the rocket, he also developed a new naval cannon, adopted from 1813, a new time fuse, a colour printing process, a new type of steam engine, and a method of consuming smoke (used in the Royal Laboratory), and he developed many other surprising inventions. |
| Perhaps more famous for developing a test that could detect traces of Arsenic poisoning in victims, the principles of which are still in use today, James Marsh was also a skilled and inventive scientist who held the post of Ordnance Chemist at Woolwich. He developed the screw time fuze for mortar shells and In 1830 the percussion tube. In 1832 the first ship HMS Castor had her guns modified for them. They were not approved for the Army until 1845, when Woolwich commenced their manufacture - for coast artillery only. They became obsolete in 1866. . |  |
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Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Military Academy from 1851, Abel was appointed Ordnance Chemist 3 years later. His important early work into the stabilisation of guncotton led to his joint invention, with Professor James Dewar, of Cordite. Cordite, a smokeless explosive, had great advantages over gunpowder. Abel also developed a standard test for determining the flash point of petroleum. He was knighted in 1891. Building 20 in the Arsenal, the old Chemical Laboratory, is said to have been designed to Sir Frederick's specification. |
| Henry Maudslay was born in 1771 in a house in Salutation Alley in Woolwich (now under the Iceland frozen food store). At the age of 12 he started work in the Dockyard as a "powder monkey", making and filling cartridges. He later went to work for Joseph Bramah, and by the age of 20 he was head foreman of Bramah's works. A toolmaker of wonderful skill, he would later tutor other outstanding engineers, including Joseph Whitworth, James Nasmyth, Richard Roberts and Joseph Clement. His most important development was the slide rest lathe, which revolutionised British manufacturing techniques. |  |
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Perhaps Maudslay's most important achievement was one that allowed Britain's sail Navy to become pre-eminent. Each ship of the line needed between 1,400 and 2,000 wooden blocks for the rigging. These were made by hand, until Maudslay was approached by Marc Isambard Brunel with an idea to use his lathe to manufacture them automatically. By 1808 Maudslay's factory, the first mass-production facility in the world, was turning out blocks in their thousands. The modern piano and woodwind instrument also evolved thanks to Maudslay. He died in 1831, desiring to be buried in Woolwich churchyard under a cast-iron tomb of his own design. |
| Major Sir William Palliser (whose wife was famously painted by Millais) was responsible for finding a method at the Arsenal for converting smooth-bore muzzle loaders to RML guns by inserting a wrought iron liner and expanding this internally by heavy proofing. His method was widely used by both sides in the American Civil War. He also importantly developed an armour piercing shell for use against Ironclad warships. Incredibly, for the black powder age, the "chilled" Palliser shell could penetrate up to a metre of wrought iron and Teak laminate armour. |  |
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Although perhaps better known for his work around Newcastle, William Armstrong's influence at the Arsenal was of seminal importance. The building of 1856 - 57 which has become known as the Armstrong Gun Factory was the building in which, from 1858, Armstrong supervised the manufacture and development of his wrought-iron rifled gun. The early adoption of Rifled Breech Loading (RBL) guns by the Army and Navy was reactive, and problems perhaps largely due to the operators' inexperience with this type of weapon saw a reversion to the old smooth bore muzzle loaders until late in the C19. |