The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1916-09-29
NIX WASHINGTON, September
WV Especially he mysterio

British tank described as a
car of death resembling a ponderous,
slow moving caterpillar, is the current
enfant terrible in the large family of
strange engines of destruction sired by
today by the National Geographic so.
ciety.
THE modern fighting man has been
so schooled to expect unique and power
full inventions designed to destroy human
life that the tanks have inspired more
curiosity than terror, but far different
has been the story of the vast breed of
monsters that have engendered panic in
the hearts of soldiers in ages past.
Reviewing the history of warfare
amcng civilized nations, one of the ear
Hest engines of destruction whose fame
has been perpetuated on the pages Oh
legendary epic. was the great wooden
horse which the crafty Ulysses left on
the plains of Ilium, and which the Tro-
jams 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
After nightfall the warriors hidden in
side the wooden animal crept out, threw
open the gates of the city and admitted
their companions, thus bringing about
the destruction of the city of Priam and
wreaking 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 it's place
among historical actualties was that en-
ployed by Alexander the Great in his
seven months siege of the famous Phoe-
nician metropolis, Tyre. This ancient
city was strongly situated on an island
and as there were no longe range cata-
pults 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
against the assailants as they sunk piles
to hold in place the rock and debris that
formed a roadway over which the army
was to march. In order to protect his
construction corps Alexander devised as
al engine of war great towers covered
with green hides. These were set up as
shields against the floating flames of
the enemy, and the result was one of
the memorable victories in Alexander's
conquest of the eastern world.
''One of the most terrifying engines of
war of ancient times was the battle ele-
plant employed by Pyrrhus, Alexander's
cousin, in the first of the famous 'Pyr-
rhc victories over the Romans. Twenty
of these huge beasts were used against
the enemies of the Tarentines at the bat
tie Of Heraclea in $50 B. c. The strange
moving mountains of flesh caused a wave
OF fear to sweep over the Romans and
they fled from the field of carnage,
but after one experience with the ami
mails their courage returned and hence
forth the war elephant was more of a
curiosity than an effective engine.
Zone of the simplest and yet one of the
most effective inventions of ancient times
was the javelin with point of soft iron
employed by Julius Caesar in one of his
Gallic wars. The Roman DICTIONARIES
hurled these weapons against the shields
of their enemies. Tho iron head pene-
trated the outer covering of bulls hide.
but flattened out against the hardwood
or metal back of the shield and thus
became hooked to this protector. The
shanks of the dangling javelins SO i'm
peded the movements of the barbarian
soldiers that-they were forced either to
throw away their shields and fight I'M
covered against the Romans or else stop
long enough "a fatal delay in their adj
vance, to disencumber themselves from
this unique weapon which may properly
be called the dum-dum plum, the pro-
genitor of the soft nose or dum-dum bull
let OF today.
Perhaps the strangest engines of de-
struction In the history of the world were
the seven trumpets of rams horn which
the priests or Israel blew as they en-
compassed the walls of Jericho once each
day for six successive days and seven
times on the seventh day. After the final