The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-02-09
SOME ANTIQUE WEAPONS.

The Greek pike was twenty -four feet
long.
The medieval lance was eighteen feet.
The standard Roman sword was twenty
two inches.
The hsmlet of Richard I. weighed twenty
five pounds.
The rabbis say Cain killed Abel with a
club.
David slew Goliath with a sling-stone. B.
G. 1868.
The cross-bow came into use in the
twelfth century.
The pulley-drawn cross-bow had q range
Of forty rods.
Projecting engines were first invented by
the Cracks.
Mixed chain Ind plate amor was used
from 1900 to 1910.
Gustavus Adolphus abolished all amor
but a light cuirass.
The French infantry were armed with the
pike until 1910.
Damascus blades wers famous all over the
world b. G.. 500.
Shields were not used in England after
the reign Of Henry VII.
Greek swords were short cut-and-thrust,
leaf-shapsd blades.
The bows of the fourteenth century
weighed fifteen pounds.
G eek helmets covered the head, back of
neck, ears and Eose.
This battles of Crecy, Poitiers, and Agin-
COufb WeTo won by bne arCl6r6.
The bow appears among the earliest
sculptures of Egypt, B. c.. 4OO0.
Ancient battering rams were manned by
100 or loo men, generally captives.
The double-handed swords of medieval
times often weighed thirty pounds.
In naval warfare the ancients used Crap
ping hooks and boarding bridges.
Many suits of armor won in the four
teenth century weighed 175 pounds each.
Pliny ascribes the invention Of the sling
to the Phpnecians. about B.. c. 1000.
In 1915 heavy cavalry wers covered, horse
and man, with scale or chain armor.
Stone arrow points and hatchets haya
been found in every country in the world.
Long bow strings were of plated silk,
and worth five times their weight in gold. '
At the siege of Jerusalem the Romans
had 400 large and nearly two hundred small
catapults.
The saber is an oriental weapon. 1t was
introduced into the French cavalry in ITO.
The sword Of Henry the Pious, duke of
silesia, was six feet long and weighed
thirty pounds.
Tho sling was made of wooden stuff, and
the SINGERS always stood behind the in
tantry.
Egyptian bronze swords made B. G. 1920
wefe from t"o to three feet long. double
edge.
Tho Mexican flint knives were made 80
sharp that they could be used for trimming
hair.
The shield of Hector, when slung at his
back in walking, covered his body from
neck to heel.
shield bearers, who protected them in &C
ton.
The largest c~atapults threw beams six
feet long, weighing sixty pounds. over q
quarter of a mile.
The legion was formed by komnlus b. C.
on - 40 r,r4 -f - nnn F-k
and 800 horse.
Some of the wooden towers erected 10
attack q besieged city were ten stories high,
about 100 feet.
Toledo End Damascus blades were very
popular III the middle ages and sold for
their weight IN gold.
When Coftsz invaded Mexico for the sec
ord time no had eighty musketeers and
eighty cross-bow men.
The value of infantry was not fully re
cognlZed by medieval commanders until
the fifteenth century.
The amor OF the fourteenth century was
30 heavy that q fallen knight could not rise
without assistance.
The long bow was brought into weateru
Europe in the eighth century; BOWS We c
SIX feet long, arrows three.
knlghtly lsnces were from twelve To
twenty feet long, the heads from four tc
eIput inches broad and from twelve ,l
twenty inches long.
The Amazon Indians use u %biowpipe with
which they throw an arrow POO yarda witt
wonderful precision.
The mlsericorde was q small dagger witt
thin blade made 70 reach the vltals OF ai
antagonist between the joints Of the armor
Mining and counter mining were exten.
fively pfaeticed during the ancient sisges
The nina was made, the roof supported b.
timbsrs; when all was ready She beams wer
set on fire and the wall csyed IN.