William Hale

William Hale (21 October 1797 – 30 March 1870), was a British inventor and rocket pioneer. Biography Hale was born in Colchester, England in 1797. He was self-taught although his grandfather, the educator William Cole, is believed to have tutored him. By 1827 he had obtained his first patent; he also won a first class Gold Medal of the Royal Society of Arts in Paris for his paper on ship propulsion using an early form of jet propulsion. Hale was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 2004.