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Rh is due to a resemblance in shape. Rockets are used in pyrotechny for purpose of display, scattering showers of stars, coloured balls, &c., on bursting (see ). They are also used in signalling, and especially as a part of lifesaving apparatus for wrecks (see ).

Large and heavy rockets, of which the head formed a projectile, had too a considerable vogue in the early part of the 19th century for war purposes. They were invented by (q.v.) and employed by him both afloat in coast operations and in field operations. Brought to the notice of all armies by the fact that a rocket battery of the Royal Artillery served in the allied army in the Leipzig campaign, war rockets were introduced in many armies, being sometimes issued as an additional portion of the equipment of ordinary field batteries, sometimes reserved for special rocket batteries. The Congreve rocket was in use in the British army as late as 1860. There were four natures—3-pounder, 6-pounder, 12-pounder and 24-pounder. The case was of sheet-iron, on to which was screwed a cylindro-conoidal head forming the projectile. The head was made hollow and could be filled with a bursting charge if a shell effect was desired, a base fuze being provided. The iron case contained the rocket composition, and was closed at the rear end by a metal plate with five holes or vents, and on the centre a bush into which the stick was screwed. These rockets were fired from rocket tubes on tripods, the tubes being provided with a tangent sight. Against masses of troops within easy range, the war rocket was considered an efficient engine; it was used also to set fire to buildings, but was always deficient in accuracy. Eventually the Congreve rocket was superseded by the Hale, of which two patterns were in use, the 9-pounder and the 24-pounder, for field and fortress warfare respectively. These had no sticks, and were centred Iby the arrangement of the vent, the gases, as they emerged from the vent, impinging upon a screw-formed tail, to which they imparted the necessary rotation. These rockets were fired from a trough. The maximum effective range of the 9-pounder Hale rocket was about 1200 yards. The use of these engines was discontinued in the British service about 1885. On the continent of Europe they had disappeared more than twenty years before. Austria, the last power to use them, broke up her rocket batteries in 1867.

ROCKFORD, a city and the county seat of Winnebago county, Illinois, U.S.A., on the Rock river, in the northern part of the state, about 85 m. N.W. of Chicago. Pop. (1890) 23,584; (1900) 31,051, of whom 9337 were foreign-born (6690 Swedes); (1910 census) 45,401. Area, 8.91 sq. m. It is served by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Chicago & North-Western, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul, the Chicago, Milwaukee & Gary (“Rockford Route”) and the Illinois Central railways, and is connected by interurban electric railway with Chicago and Freeport, Illinois, and Janesville, Wisconsin. The city has a Memorial Hall, erected in honour of the soldiers and sailors of Winnebago county, and in charge of the Grand Army of the Republic; a soldiers’ memorial fountain; a Carnegie library, containing 51,340 volumes in 1909; and the Velie Museum of natural history. Rockford College (non-sectarian), for the higher education of women, is ranked by the United States Commissioner of Education as one of fifteen women’s colleges of the highest grade in the country; it was opened in 1849 as Rockford Seminary, and was named Rockford College in 1892. In 1908–9 it had 196 students. Rockford is the see of a Roman Catholic bishop. In and near the city there are two hospitals and three sanatoriums. Manufacturing is facilitated by good water-power, supplied by a dam across the Rock river about 800 ft. long, constructed in 1844. Among the manufactures are furniture, hosiery and knit goods, agricultural implements, foundry and machine-shop products, saddlery and harness, &c. The total value of all factory products in 1905 was $15,276,129 (38.6% more than in 1900). The municipality owns and operates its waterworks; the water supply is obtained from artesian wells. Rockford was first settled in 1834, and was chartered as a city in 1852. More than one-fourth of its area has been annexed to the city since 1889.

 ROCKHAMPTON, a town of Livingstone county, Queensland, Australia, on the Fitzroy river 43 m. from its mouth, 335 m. in a direct line N. W. of Brisbane. It has a beautiful situation, and its climate, in spite of heat, is healthy. It is the port of a wide agricultural district, which also produces gold, copper and silver. Much of the trade is carried on through the ports of Alma and Broadmount, near the mouth of the river, both available for ocean steamers. Rockhampton has a large trade in frozen meat, and there are factories for extract and meat preserving. Rockhampton is the terminus of the Queensland Central railway and the seat of an Anglican and a Roman Catholic bishopric. Population of the municipality (1901), 15,461; within the 5 m. radius, 19,691; of the separate municipality of North Rockhampton, 2865.

ROCK HILL, a city of York county, South Carolina, U.S.A., 84 m. by rail N. of Columbia. Pop. (1890) 2744; (1900) 5485 (1706 negroes); (1910) 7216. Rock Hill is served by two lines of the Southern railway. It lies at an elevation of about 670 ft. above the sea. Among its buildings and institutions are the Federal Government Building, the City Hall, the Carnegie Library and the Winthrop Normal and Industrial College (chartered in 1891 and opened in 1894), a state institution for white girls. Cotton is the most important product of the surrounding country. The Catawba river, 5 m. distant, furnishes good water-power, and in a large power-plant electricity is generated for the city’s manufactories. Among the manufactures are cotton goods, cotton-seed oil, yarn, wagons and carriages, foundry and machine-shop products; and there are cotton gins, marble and stone works. The growth of the city has been almost entirely since the Civil War. Rock Hill was incorporated as a village in 1870, and was chartered as a city in 1892.

ROCKINGHAM, CHARLES WATSON WENTWORTH, (1730–1782), twice prime minister of England, was the son of Thomas Watson Wentworth (c. 1690–1750), who was created earl of Melton in 1733 and marquess of Rockingham in 1746. The family of Watson was descended from Sir Lewis Watson (1584–1653), son and heir of Sir Edward Watson (d. 1616) of Rockingham Castle in Northamptonshire. For his services to the king during the Civil War Sir Lewis was created Baron Rockingham in 1645. His grandson Lewis, the 3rd baron (1655–1724), was created earl of Rockingham in 1714, and was succeeded by his grandson Lewis (c. 1709–1745), whose brother Thomas, the 3rd earl, died unmarried in February 1746, when the earldom became extinct. The barony of Rockingham, however, descended to a cousin, Thomas, father of the prime minister, a grandson of Edward, the 2nd baron (1630–1689), who had married Anne, daughter and heiress of Thomas Wentworth, 1st earl of Strafford. The vast estates of the Wentworths had passed to Edward’s son, Thomas, who took the additional name of Wentworth, and then to his son, the 1st marquess of Rockingham.

Charles Watson Wentworth was born in 1730 on the 19th of March (according to some, the 13th of May), and was educated at Westminster school and St John’s College, Cambridge. He showed his spirit as a boy by riding across from Wentworth to Carlisle in 1746 to join the duke of Cumberland in his pursuit of the Young Pretender. He was created earl of Malton in the peerage of Ireland in September 1750, and succeeded his father as 2nd marquess of Rockingham in December of the same year. In 1751 he became lord-lieutenant of the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire and a lord of the bedchamber, and in 1760 was made a knight of the Garter. After George III. had begun his policy of dividing the great Whig families, those Whig noblemen and gentlemen who did not choose to join the sections headed by the Grenvilles, the duke of Bedford, or any other great noblemen, selected as their chief the young marquess of Rockingham. In May 1762 the king’s favourite,