The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 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 a
car of death resembling a ponderous.
slow-moving steel caterpillar, Is one
of large family of strange engines OK
destruction sired by the God of War,
says a bulletin of the National Geo
graphic society. Reviewing the his
tory Of warfare among civilized ma
tions, 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
Ilium, anu which the Trojans believed
to be an offering sacred to the goddess
Athena. Counseled by the false Simon,
the Trojans razed their willis In order
that the "glft" 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 wreakins
vengeance upon the people who had
sheltered Paris and the fair but false
Helen of Troy.
An engine Of war which emerges
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 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
roadway over which the army was
to march. In order to protect his con-
struction corps Alexander devised
great towers covefed 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 simplest and yet one OF
the most effective inventions Of an
cient times was the javelin with q
point Of soft iron employed by Julius
Caesar in one Of his Gallic wars. The
Roman legionaries hurled these weap-
ons against the shields of their enc
mics. The iron head penetrated the
outer covering Of bulls hide, but fat
tened out against the hardwood or
metal back of the shield, and thus be-
came hooked to this protector. The
shanks Of the dangling javellns 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 "a 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 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-
deaver to explain all miracles on the
theory that they are the result of ex-
traorHnary 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 It's very foundation
great bridge of steel and concrete
when q dog trots across 1t.
Another arms oddity of Biblical in
terest was the ruse employed by
Gideon, leader of only 800 Israelites,
who successfully engaged a vast host
Of Mfdianites and Amalekites 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" Gideon's en-
gines of destruction were 500 trumpets,
300 empty pitchers and 800 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 800 trumpets spread
CONSERVATION and terror among the
sleepers who IN darkness imagined that
they had been attacked by great
army. The result was wholesale
slaughter among themselves while the
followers Of Gideon watched.