1779 compressed oxygen and hydrogen rocket engine?

[PMN1]

Not so much an 'alternate history', more a 'is it possible'??

Was looking at something else and came across a wiki post about Erasmus Darwin

Erasmus Darwin - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It seems he drew up an idea for compressed oxygen hydrogen rocket engine.....

In notes dating to 1779, Darwin made a sketch of a simple hydrogen-oxygen rocket engine, with gas tanks connected by plumbing and pumps to an elongated combustion chamber and expansion nozzle, a concept not to be seen again until one century later.[22][23]




Is this feasible with the material of the time?

Does it have any potential??

 

[Lascaris]

Short version. No. Longer version. He'll no.

 

[Archibald]

Liquid hydrogen is a nasty b**tch of a stuff for tanks and piping even in the present day.
-270°C, average, is hard on materials.
Not sure they could tame that SOB with 1770's tech level.
One glaring example: early hydrogen balloons. It did not end very well.

Edit: in passing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin–Wedgwood_family

My mind is blown. Talk about a brilliant family. IT is like the Simpsons having a dumb gene on males - except the other way around: smartass people.