Hasan al-Rammah ( Arabic: حسن الرماح, died 1295) was a Syrian [1] [2] [3] Arab [4] chemist and engineer during the Mamluk Sultanate who studied gunpowders and explosives, and sketched prototype instruments of warfare, including the first torpedo. [5] Al-Rammah called his early torpedo "an egg which moves itself and burns." It was made of two sheet-pans of metal fastened together and filled with naphtha, metal filings, and potassium nitrate. It was intended to move across the surface of the water, propelled by a large rocket and kept on course by a small rudder. [6]
Al-Rammah devised several new types of gunpowder [7] and a new type of fuse and two types of lighters. [6]
Hasan al-Rammah ( Arabic: حسن الرماح, died 1295) was a Syrian [1] [2] [3] Arab [4] chemist and engineer during the Mamluk Sultanate who studied gunpowders and explosives, and sketched prototype instruments of warfare, including the first torpedo. [5] Al-Rammah called his early torpedo "an egg which moves itself and burns." It was made of two sheet-pans of metal fastened together and filled with naphtha, metal filings, and potassium nitrate. It was intended to move across the surface of the water, propelled by a large rocket and kept on course by a small rudder. [6]
Al-Rammah devised several new types of gunpowder [7] and a new type of fuse and two types of lighters. [6]