Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1916-10-27
old WAR engines
British "Tank" Is One of Long
Line of Queer Devices.
Wooden Horse of Troy, Hide-coVered
Towers Used by Alexander in
Siege Of Tyre and Caesars
JaVelins with Iron Points.

The British tank" described as q
a of death resembling u pOnderouS
slow-moving steel caterpillar, is ont
of a large family of strange engines Of
destruction sired by the God of War,
says a bulletin of the National Geo.
graphic society. Reviewing the his
tory OF warfare among civilized Ia.
lions, n Of the earliest engines of
destruction whose fame has been per,
petuated on the pages Of legendary
epic was the great wooden horse which
the crafty Ulysses left on the plains of
1lium, and which the Trojans believed
to be an Offering sacred to the goddess
Athena. Counseled by the false Simon,
the Trojans RACED their walls In order
that the gift of the Greeks might be
brought into the city. After nightfall
the warriors hidden inside the wooden
animal crept out, threw open the gates
of the city and admitted their compan-
ions, thus bringing about the destruc-
ton of the city of Priam and wreaklng
vengeance upon the people who had
sheltered Paris and the fair but false
Helen of Troy.
An engine of war which energies
from the cloud of legend and takes its
place among historical actualities was
that employed by Alexander the Great
In his seven-months siege Of the fu-
nous Phoenician metropolis, Tyre. This
ancient city vas strongly situated on
an island and as there were no long
range catapults In the fourth century
before the Christian era, Alexander
conceived the plan of building a mole
or causeway from the mainland to the
island. This engineering enterprise
was hampered by the Tyrians. who
launched blazing ships against the as
sailants as they sunk piles to hold in
place the rock and debris that formed
Il roadway over which the army was
to march. In order to protect his con-
struction corps Alexander devised
great towers covered with green hides.
These were set up as shields against
the floating flames of the enemy and
the result was n of the memorable
victories in Alexander's conquest of
the eastern world.
One Of the simplest and yet one Of
the most effective inventions of an
Gent times was the javelin with a
point of soft iron employed by julius
Caesar In n of his Gallo wars. The
Roman DICTIONARIES hurled these weap-
against the shields Of their enc
mics. The iron head penetrated the
outer covering Of bulls hide, but fiat
tened out against the hardwood or
metal back of the shield, and thus be-
came hooked to this protector. The
shanks of the dangling jayelins so i'm
peded the movements of the barbarian
soldiers that they were forced either
to throw away their shields and fight
uncovered against the Romans or else
long enough Ga fatal delay in their
ddvance) to ~disencumber themselves
from this unique weapon which may |
properly be called the dum-dum plum,
the %progenitor of the soft-nose or dun.
DUN bullet of today.
Perhaps the strangest engines of
In the history of the world
were the seven trumpets of rams horn |
which the priests Of Israel blew as
they encompassed the walls of Jericho
once each day for six successive days ,
and seven times on the seventh day.
the final blast the hosts of Isreal |
gave a great shout and the walls fell
Hat, according to the Biblical account
n the Book Of Joshua. Those who en-
1eavor to explain all miracles on the
theory that they are the result of ex-
..raordinary applications of the natural
aw have seen in this remarkable event
1 demonstration of the vast deStruc-
i've power of sympathetic vibration
he same principle which has been
Known to shake to its very foundation
/ great bridge of steel and concrete
when a dog trots across it.
Another arms oddly of Biblical in
crest was the ruse employed by
iideon, leader Of only 300 ~Israelites,
Who successfully engaged u vast host
If Midlanites and A%malekites that "lay
llong in the valley like gr%asshoppers
or multitude; and their camels were
Without number, as the sand by the
for multitude" Gideon's en-
of destruction were 300 trumpets,
100 empty pitchers and 300 lamps with
n the pitchers. AS the enemy's camp
vas approached during the night the
were smashed, the lamps held
loft in the left hand, while terrifying
from the 800 trumpets spread
and terror among the
leepers who in darkness imagined that
hey had been attacked by a great
.rmy. The result was wholesale
laughter among themselves while the
blowers of Gideon watched.
Eskimo Lamps.