East Indian Ceremonial Weapon Identification Help

[DaveA]

The staff which appears to be iron is designed to be hammered into the ground...Is this a launch device for the famous Tipu Sultan Rocket warfare? Some Boffin can perhaps work out the two aiming devices...pointers ... so that stuck at a certain angle the rockets would arrive at the target in a known range bracket... An early rocket launcher. ...

A very intriguing suggestion, Ibrahim!

The challenge for an early artillery soldier would be to place a rocket launcher into the ground at the precise angle and orientation needed to have some assurance of hitting a target. Rockets have propellant and cannonballs do not, but in both cases the trajectories are based on simple geometry. Today, we use math and get the pointing solutions. Back then?

Caution: pure speculation follows!

This might be a calculator, used to direct rocket artillery fire.

See the photo attached for one possible illustration of how it might work.

Presumably the scissors do not move now, but perhaps they did at one point. I speculate that these are used to help position the pole in the ground to achieve the a ballistic trajectory appropriate to the distance to target. The device would first require calibration. Once this is complete, the scissors are fixed in place. This would only work for a single known charge of powder in the cannon or a rocket.

Alternatively, if the scissor do move, then perhaps the gears/notches help position the scissors for different munitions. ::
The instruction manual is probably lost to history.

Once correctly positioned in the ground, the device serves as an indicator for soldiers to copy as they position the actual rockets. This device itself does not seem appropriate as a launcher. Chances are that there are very few of these but lots of rockets.

Just a thought!