The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1916-10-25
OLD War ENGINES
British Tank" Is One of Lonu
Line of Queer CoVices.
Wooden Horse of Troy, Hide-Covered
Towers Used by Alexander in
Siege of Tyre and Caesars
JaVeiinS with Iron Points.

The British tank" described as
car of death resembling a ponderous,
siow-moving steel caterpillar, is one
| of large family of strange engines of
| destruction sired by the God of War,
says q bulletin OF the National Geo
graphic society. Reviewing the his
tory of warfare among civilized pa-
lions, one 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
lHum, 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 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 its
place among historical actualities was
| that employed by Alexander the Great
in his seven-mOnths siege of the IA
nous PhOenician metropolis, Tyre This
| ancient city was 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 Il 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
| q 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 one of the memorable
victories in AIeXander'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
| point of soft iron employed by julius
Caesar in one of his Gallo wars. The
| Roman DICTIONARIES hurled these Weap-
onS against the shields of their enc
mics. The iron head penetrated the
outer covering of bulls hide, but flat
tened out against the hardwood or
metal back of the shield, and thus be-
came 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
| uncovered against the Romans or else
stop long enough Ca fatal delay in their
advance) to disencumber themselves
from this unique weapon which may
properly be called the dum-dum plum,
dunn bullet of today.
Perhaps the strangest engines of
destruction 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.
After the final blast the hosts of ISreal
gave a great shout and the walls fell
fiat, according to the Biblical account
in the Book of Joshua. Those who en-
deavor to explain all miracles on the
theory that they are the result of eX-
traOrdinary applications Of the natural
law have seen in this remarkable event
a demonstration of the vast destruc-
tive power of sympathetic vibration
the 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
terest was the ruse employed by
Gideon, leader of only 300 Israelites,
who successfully engaged vast host
of Midianites and Amalelites that "lay
along in the valley like grasshoppers
for multitude; and their camels We're
without number, as the sand by the
seaside for multitude" Gdeon's en-
gines of destruction were 300 trumpetS,
300 empty pitchers and 300 lamps with
in the pitchers. AS the enemy's camp
was approached during the night the
pitchers were smashed, the lamps held
aloft in the left hand, while terrifying
blasts from the 300 trumpets spread
CONSERVATION and terror among the
Sleepers who in darkness imagined that
they had been attacked by a great
army. The result was wholesale
slaughter among themselves while the
followers of Gideon watched.