The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1916-10-27
OLD WAR ENGINES
British "Tank" Is One Of Long
Line OF Queer Devices.
Wooden Horse Of Troy, Hlde.coVered
Towers Used by Alexander In
Siege Of Tyre and Caesars
Javellns with Iron Points.


Javelns with Iron Points.
The British tank described rs n
cur Of death resembling ponderous,
slow-moying steel caterpillar is one
Of large family of strange engines Of
destruction sired by the God of War,
suys "A bulletin of the National Geo
graphic society. Reviewing The his
tory of warfare among civilized ma
tluus, one of the earliest engines Of
destruction whose fame has been per-
pcWutcd on the pages Of legendary
epic was The great wooden horse which
the crutty Ulysses left on the plains OF
Hum, uud which the Troiuns believed
10 be an Offering sacred 10 the goddess
Athena. Comselad by the false Simon,
the Troluus mzed their wallis in order
thar The "gitt' of the Greeks might be
brought into the city After nightlnll
the warriors hidden inside the wooden
animal crrpt out, threw open the gates
of the city and admitted their compan-
ions, thus bringing about the desuuc-
ton of the city of PHam and wrcaking
vengeance upon The people who had
sheltered Paris and the fair but false
Helen OF Troy.
An engine Of war which cmergcs
from The cloud OF legend and takes It's
place among historical actualities was
that employed by Alexander the Great
in his seyen-months siege of the IA
NOUS phoeHiciap metropolis, Tyre. This
ancient city was strongly situated on
au island and rs there We're no long
range cutapults in the fourth century
before the Christian era, Alexander
conceived the plan OF building Il mole
or Cdusewuy from the mainland to the
island. This engineering enterprise
was hmpcred by the Tyrians, who
launched blazing ships against the as
suilunts as they sunk piles to hold in
place the rock ana debris that formed
IA roadway over which the army was
to march. In order To protect his con
struclion corps Alexander devised
great towers covered with green hides.
These were set up as shields against
the flontiug flames of the enemy and
the result WAS one of the memorable
victories in AloNander's conquest of
the eastern world.
one Of the simplest and yet one of
the most effective inventions Of an
cicnt times was the javelin with
point of soft iron employed by julius
Caesar in one of his Gallic wars. The
Iomun leglonaries hurled these weap-
ons 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 javelins so I'm
pcded 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 Ga fatal delay in their
advance) to disencumber themselves
from this unique weapon which may
properly be called the dum-dum plum,
the progenitor of the sOft-nose or dunn
dun 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 cncompassed 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
hn al
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
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 dog trOts across it.
Another arms oddity Of Biblical in
terest was the ruSe employed by
Gideon, leader of only 300 Israelites
who successfully engaged vast host
of Midanites and AmuIekiteS that "lay
along in the valley like grasshoppers
for multitude and their camels were
without number, as the sand by the
seaside for multitude" Gideon's en-
gines Of destruction were 300 trumpets,
300 empty pitchers and 300 lamps with
in the pitchers. AS the enemys 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 III
they had been attacked by grea
army. The result was wholesale
slaughter among themselves while the
followers Of Gideon watched