Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-06-11
ARCHIMEDES, KRUPP
OF CLASSIC WAR
The Great Mathematician Who
Turned Inventor to Save His Ma
tive City-How He Burned the
Fleet of Rome With Suns Rays.
Rv PETER sTAINFoRTH


TNHERE were stlnkpots in those days
l. Asphyxiating projectiles, chlorine cylln
ders and incendary bombs were still await
ing the enterprise and scientific skill ol
Krupp. Kultur G. Co, but even the Chinese
Of re-gunpowder days knew the efficacy OF
evil smells in discouraglng the martial spirit
Of the enemy. Burning tar shared the glory
of stinkpots in the defense Of many clas-
steal fatherand, and many a miner and
sapper found his underground trench filled
with smoke just when he was ready to drop
I out the underpinnings OF some walled town,
! But all such bits Of "frightfuness' were
| primitive expedients beside the martial arts
| Of Archlmedes Of Syracuse He was the
Nrupp Of classic war.
A Mythical Marvel
The fame Of this great mathematician and
inventor is based on a number of triumphs
ranging from the locating of "pi," through
the Archimedean screw for raising water, and
his famous remark, "EurekaH' to the part
he played in the siege of Syracuse. There
Is something Germanic in the ease with
which he prolonged the Roman attack on
his native city for three years and turned
what was expected to be short and swift
conquest into a blockade.
His most famous exploit in this regard Is
probably as mythical as a good deal of the
newspaper talk about new German engines
of destruction II was the burning OF
Romes battle fleet before Syracuse by con-
Centrating the suns rays through mirrors.
Certain of the more reliable journalists OF
212 B. c. fall to mention the incident, but
the reports of others have gained credence
from experiments conducted by Button in
1747. with a 50-foot reflector made UP of
16s mirrors, six by eight inches each Buff
fon melted lead at 14O feet and set fire to
wood at 100.
The remarkable skill Of ArchImedes in the
devising of machinery of war is seen en-
tirely in defense. And because the town to
whose aid he came was a seaport, his most
startling invention, aside from the giant
burning glass was a great crane and grap-
mel for seizing and upsetting any ship that
ventured near the walls. Nowadays we come
up from the bottom of the sea and drag our
enemies down with us. Archimedes swooped
down from the air with a hand of iron to
upset and sink the largest galleys.
Inventing the Trench
In repeIing attacks from land, the Krupp
Of classic days faced an art OF offense that
was marvelousy developed. Then, as now,
1t was generally admitted that, given time,
no fortifcations could stand against the
"enEnes" of attack. These were the cata-
pult and ballista, the ram, the tower" the
rat" the tortoise" and that oldest and
newest weapon. the trench.
Tho Greeks were the first masters Of the
science of offensive war They invented the
approach trenches, which flourish in Euro
pean dispatches under the German title,
"laufgraben." They were used principally
to get close enough to the walls of a town
to start subterranean tunnels to undermine
the walls. The tortoise" a rude hut of
woven branches or leather-covered planks,
was a quicker, but less secure method. A
handful of men could hide beneath It and
push their improvised roof forward till It
touched the walls, but an unkind enemy,
such as Archimedes might be lurking with
a grapnel to catch its edge and overturn II.
A much safer method was the rat" This
had more length than the tortoise. It was,
in fact, hut pushed forward at the end of
a long, covered tunnel, through which con-
stant communication with the headquarters
could be kept up.
BY means OF the long tunnel rat" could |
be used to swing ram or heavy metal and
wooden beam against the lower stones Of
the wall. The ram was in many ways the
most important instrument of siege; the |
breach 1t created meant the probable fall of !
the city. To make it's use doubly effective It
was often carried in the bottom story of
great towers on wheels which were showed
against the walls by soldiers concealed with
n From the top, drawbridges were let down
on the city wall and attacks could thus be
delivered not only through the breach caused
by the ram, but on the battlements above.
Throwing a Ton of Rock
And while such operations were going for
ward both sides depended on those other
engines. the catapult and ballista, to fling
,urning arrows, Greek fire, steel darts Ccon-
larger than those we now drop
rom aeroplanes) and great rocks The aver
lge ballista could manage stones up to 500
pounds before Archimedes put his mind to
t. For the defense OF Syracuse he devised
ngines TO throw stones weighing 1900 pounds
o a distance of 600 yards on direct range and
900 yards through a curved trajectory
AS weapons OF defense against the ram
hero were two favorltes. Both Of them
doubtless owed much improvement to Arehi-
nedes. One was a sort OF buffer or pad,
owered down the side of the wall to fall be
ween the stones and the end Of the ram
mother was that old favorite, the grapnel,
70 adapted that 1t could be thrust down to
rasp and hold the swinging head
There was one very modern weapon OF
warfare in those days, with which, however,
Archimedes had nothing to do 1t was the
distortion of news, such as was praeticed
gainst Germany at the beginning Of the
var, when the Teuton nations had no means
4 communication with America II the in
iabitants OF Syracuse. after revolving against
king whom Rome hated. had not been de-
eived into thinking the Romans stnl threat
ned their independence the war would never
ave come
on the surface Archimedes' death was