![]() ![]() It was a giant iron hook attached to a crane, and it literally grabbed boats and threw them around like toys. The Claw of Archimedes was used to fend off the Roman fleet invading Syracuse in 214 BCE. The wildest of all weapons I’ve discovered wasn’t used even before medieval times. Small cluster launchers are often seen on assault aircraft packed into cylindrical tubes, or on the backs of land-based vehicles called rocket artillery designed to launch dozens of rockets in seconds, like our own military’s M270 MLRS, which have been heavily featured in movies as a source of destructive firepower. Today, armies have replaced the rocket-propelled arrows with more rockets. It was believed to be mounted on the back of a wagon, stacked with hexagonal tubes that made it appear like a beehive. Given the whimsical name and the fact that it was powered by medieval gunpowder, it should come as no surprise that it originated in China. Several weapons could have cleared a battlefield. One weapon could fire 32 rocket-propelled arrows simultaneously. ![]() Speaking of airborne weaponry, one of the earliest and scariest uses of rocketry in combat was the “nest of bees.” This was a wooden box filled with arrows that had barbs on one end and small gunpowder charges on the other. Things like asparagus, beets and cauliflower struggle to grow in our soil without help from an agent to make the soil more alkaline. It’s also used for certain drinking waters, and as I’m sure many local gardeners know: neutralizing the acidity in our soil. It’s also used as a food additive for the same reason: to regulate acidity. Calcium oxide is frequently used in steel foundries by counteracting acidic substances and creating molten slag. Today, quicklime, or calcium oxide, is used in almost everything. The quicklime reacted to the water in the sailors’ eyes, mouths and lungs to burn, blind and choke them. Medieval tacticians likely used it most frequently at sea to blind opponents before boarding their ships. It also gives off energy as a chemical reaction with water, which produces heat. Quicklime, or calcium oxide, is what’s left over when you burn limestone or other things with calcium carbonate at high temperatures. Quicklime may have been used several times throughout the medieval ages as a destructive chemical agent. In another anachronistic twist, chemical weapons weren’t unique to the First World War. Law enforcement in both China and Japan use an adapted version of the man-catcher to isolate and apprehend violent individuals in a non-lethal fashion, which makes a lot of sense in a highly populated area. It’s easy to see a thousand different ways for the application of the man-catcher to go wrong however, it’s an item still in use today. Historians believe it was used to snag high-value targets like knights and lords from their horses to take as hostages for ransom. The “man-catcher” was a pronged spear, on which the end was replaced with a spiked metal collar and spring-loaded hinge. We’re all pretty familiar with the traditional arsenal of premodern death-dealers, but what about the nontraditional weapons of war? Some of these are still in use today. The sinister “man-catcher.” Courtesy photo.
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