1-lb. Signal Rocket Mk III (Service)

Over-all length

Maximum diameter

Total weight

Color of stars

Number of stars

General: This rocket is designed for day or night signalling.

Description: The components consist of a propellant-composition filled case, closed by a wooden plug, and an upper cylinder containing 28 white stars.

The case consists of a rolled paper tube choked near the lower end to form a vent and threaded below the choke to receive the wooden plug. The tube is filed with rocket-propellant composition, the center of which has a conical cavity. A clay filling plug with a tapered hole in its center is located in the top of the tube, and the recess and the face of the clay are primed with mealed black powder. A small charge of rocket composition is dusted over the top of the clay. A clay plug with a tapered hole is located immediately above the choke. The recess and the choke are primed with gunpowder. A metal socket for accommodating the stick is glued to the outside of the case, and also bound to it with twine.

The cylinder consists of a rolled paper tube filled with 28 white stars. It is closed at one end by a paper disc covered with a paper cone, and at the other end is attached to the case. The joints are sealed with paper strips.

The rocket is painted olive drab and carries a white instruction label around the case. Manufacturing and filling information is stenciled on the cylinder.

Operation: When the wooden plug is removed, the vent is exposed and the rocket is ignited by applying a lighted portfire to the vent. When the major part of the rocket composition has burned, combustion spreads through the cavity and primed hole in the clay filling to the rocket composition in the cylinder, and thereby ignites and ejects the stars. The burning stars are ejected at a height of about 900 ft. and burn for about nine seconds.