Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 September 1895 — OLD WAR MACHINES. BALLISTAE. A BESIEGING TOWER. THE CATAPULT. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OLD WAR MACHINES.

BALLISTAE.

A BESIEGING TOWER.

THE CATAPULT.

APPARATUS USED BY WARRIORS IN ANCIENT TIMES. Qnaint and Rude Instruments of War —Besieging Towns with Rams, Catapults and Ballistic—How the Rude Machines Were Used. Employed in the Past. For some years past such skill'/and deadly ingenuity has been displayed in

Which wore used for hurling great masses o rock against fortifications.

the invention of war engines and new explosives as to make the war in the future more terrible than it has ever been before. It is curious to consider, in light of these facts, the quaint and rude machines which have been employed for military purposes In the past. War as waged by the Romans was something very different and very much more interesting as a trial of £kill than it is nowadays, and it must have been very much more exciting. There was a chance for life and a chance for the display of personal prowess which the soldier of this era scarcely knows. It w’as at the sieges of towns that the greatest military skill was displayed by the ancient warrior. The town was surrounded by a lofty wall, which, in turn, was rendered doubly secure by it deep trench. So long as the wall could be kept intact, or rather so long as tho enemy could be kept out of the city, the besieged felt safe. In consequence the siege was really a series of attacks by the enemy and of defensive warfare on the part of those in the town.

This engine was employed to send flights of arrows. shooting them against the defenders of cities as they appeared on the walls.

The ordinary arms, spears, daggers and swords, were, of course, wholly inadequate when It came to attacking stone walls and hence there were invented a number of engines to aid in the conflict. Battering Ram. The first step in a siege was for the enemy to fill up the trench. This was done with earth and rubbish. Then efforts were made to destroy the lower part of the walls and form a breach.

For this the battering ram was employed. This engine consisted of a long beam to one end of which a mass of Iron was fastened which sometimes weighed a ton. It was so arranged that It could be swung backward and forward by the aid of machinery. To destroy the towers often built on the walls and to break down the ramparts engines called balllstae were used. These were like huge hows which discharged immense masses of rock and stone, hurling them high Into the air. Quite a complicated mechanism was employed to secure force uecessary to discharge the ballistae. Should soldiers or the inhabitants of the city appear on the walls the catapult was brought into use. By means of this machine flights of arrows were discharged. A system of cranks and levers was employed to make the catapult work and it required, moreover, tho services of several men. Besieging Towers. In order to get directly at tho defenders on the walls besieging towers were constructed. On the different stories of these towers soldiers were placed who directly attacked the town’s defenders. By means of bridges the enemy could cross over to the walls themselves and engage In hand-to-hand fighting. The besieged often defended the cities or months and only capitulated when dormed out. One historian .tells of a ioge which was brought to an end only when the course of a river was brought

Each story bore soldiers and at the top of the wall a bridge was let down, by means of which the besiegers could engage In hand-to-hand conflict with the besieged. Below is seen a battering ram with which breaches were made In walls.

against the city walls, and they were in this way undermined. But in almost all cases capitulation was only a question of time and was sure to result sooner or later.