68 Weird Weapons

CHAPTER 1 A Short History of Weapons HUMANS HAVE ALWAYS LOOKED FOR NEW AND MORE POWERFUL WAYS TO KILL. Thousands of years ago, the first people made weapons to kill animals for food and to attack their human enemies. At first, the weapons were very simple and made from stone or wood or both. In cave paintings we can see early people using spears. Boomerangs were also designed as hunting weapons. As humans became more intelligent, they found new and more effective ways to kill. And as people began living in larger groups, they needed more powerful weapons to defend themselves and fight in wars.

第一章武器简史人类一直在寻找新的更强大的杀戮方式。 几千年前，第一批人制造武器来杀死动物以获取食物，并攻击他们的人类敌人。 起初，武器非常简单，由石头或木头制成，或者两者兼而有之。 在洞穴壁画中，我们可以看到早期的人们使用长矛。 回旋镖也被设计成狩猎武器。 随着人类变得越来越聪明，他们发现了新的更有效的杀戮方式。 随着人们开始以更大的群体生活，他们需要更强大的武器来保护自己和在战争中作战。

Inventors started to use science and technology to invent new weapons. They used metal to make knives and swords, and moving parts to build war machines, like catapults. And then... BANG! The discovery of gunpowder in China in the 9th century changed the world of weapons forever. Suddenly, inventors had something very powerful to use in their designs. Gunpowder allowed weapons inventors to make many clever and sometimes unusual ways to kill. Many weapons were designed to kill large numbers of people in wars. Gunpowder could be used to fire rockets, cannons, and bombs. Battles became easier to fight at a distance. As in modern wars, soldiers did not have to see the people they killed. Other weapons can murder a victim secretly so that the killer is never caught. But not all weapons are clever or secret. Even normal, everyday things can become dangerous in the hands of a murderer! So watch out! If you're not already too scared, let's begin our journey through some of history's weirdest weapons.

发明家开始利用科学技术发明新的武器。 他们用金属制造刀和剑，用移动部件制造战争机器，比如弹射器。 然后……砰!9世纪中国火药的发现永远地改变了武器世界。 突然间，发明家在他们的设计中有了一些非常强大的东西。 火药使武器发明者发明了许多聪明的，有时甚至是不寻常的杀人方法。 许多武器的设计都是为了在战争中杀死大量的人。 火药可以用来发射火箭、大炮和炸弹。 远距离作战变得更容易了。 就像在现代战争中一样，士兵们不需要看到他们杀死的人。 其他武器可以秘密杀害受害者，这样凶手就永远不会被抓住。 但并不是所有的武器都是聪明或秘密的。 即使是正常的、日常的东西在凶手手中也会变得危险！所以要小心！如果你还不太害怕，让我们开始我们的旅程，通过一些历史上最奇怪的武器。

CHAPTER 2 Weapons of War SOME OF THE STRANGEST WEAPONS WERE INVENTED DURING WARTIME. SOME WORKED, BUT OTHERS WERE TOO CRAZY. In times of war, army leaders have always spent a lot of time and money on the most effective killing machines. They want weapons that surprise and frighten their enemies. As a result, the weapons inventors through time had to become more and more imaginative. One of the strangest but most effective war machines was the trebuchet (pronounced treh-boo-shay). It was used in wars around the Mediterranean from about the 12th century. The trebuchet was a kind of giant catapult.

第二章战争武器一些最奇怪的武器是在战时发明的。 有些奏效了，但有些太疯狂了。 在战争时期，军队领导人总是花费大量的时间和金钱在最有效的杀人机器上。 他们想要能吓到敌人的武器。 因此，随着时间的推移，武器发明者不得不变得越来越富有想象力。 最奇怪但最有效的战争机器之一是投石机（发音treh-boo-shay）。 大约从12世纪开始，它就被用于地中海周围的战争。 投石机是一种巨大的投石机。

How did the trebuchet work? It used a heavy weight to move a long arm very quickly. A sling was tied to the end of the arm. When the weight dropped on the other end, the arm flew up very quickly, and the sling threw rocks, burning oil, or other dangerous things at the target. It was a very powerful machine and could throw a 100-kilogram rock about 300 meters! The machine was even more effective when it was used to throw the dead bodies of animals and people into enemy castles, towns, and cities. Often the bodies carried serious illnesses. The people inside caught these illnesses and became very sick and died. It is no surprise that the people of the Middle Ages were terrified of the trebuchet!

投石机是如何工作的？ 它用很重的重量来快速移动长臂。 一条吊带系在胳膊的末端。 当重物落在另一端时，吊臂迅速飞起来，吊索向目标投掷石头、燃烧的油或其他危险的东西。 这是一个非常强大的机器，可以把一个100公斤重的石头扔到300米远的地方！当它被用来把动物和人的尸体扔进敌人的城堡、城镇和城市时，这种机器就更加有效了。 这些尸体往往携带着严重的疾病。 里面的人感染了这些疾病，病得很重，死了。 毫不奇怪，中世纪的人们对投石机感到恐惧！

Several centuries later in southern India, the British army was terrified by another strange but effective weapon: the Mughal sword rocket. At the Battle of Pollilur in 1780, the British soldiers were surprised to see thousands of rockets flying at them. And these rockets had swords tied to them! The British were so frightened of this terrible weapon, they had to surrender. The Mughal sword rocket was a simple, but clever, idea. First, you take a sword and tie a metal pipe to it. Then you fill the pipe with gunpowder— this makes it a rocket. Next, you light the gunpowder and... BOOM! The rocket carries the sword up through the air to attack your enemy. The sword rocket was a great success, and the British copied the idea themselves in future battles.

几个世纪后，在印度南部，英国军队被另一种奇怪但有效的武器吓坏了：莫卧儿剑火箭。 在1780年的波利卢战役中，英国士兵惊讶地看到成千上万枚火箭向他们飞来。 这些火箭上还系着剑！英国人非常害怕这种可怕的武器，他们不得不投降。 莫卧儿的剑火箭是个简单但聪明的主意。 首先，你拿一把剑，在剑上绑上一根金属管。 然后你在管子里装满火药——这样它就变成了火箭。 接下来，你点燃火药…… 繁荣!火箭携带着剑在空中攻击敌人。 剑火箭取得了巨大的成功，英国人在以后的战斗中也复制了这个想法。

Ideas for unusual weapons can often come from simple things. The bouncing bomb is a good example of this. It was used in World War II. Sir Barnes Wallis, a British engineer, knew that Germany had several important dams. He believed that a giant bomb could destroy these dams, and then water from the lakes would flood many German factories. But how could they hit the dams? One day, Wallis was throwing stones at a lake, watching the stones bounce along the top of the water, when the idea came to him. At that time, planes did not have the technology to drop bombs on an exact target. But planes could drop bombs near the dams. The bombs would bounce along the top of the water until they crashed into the dam walls. The bouncing bomb may seem like a crazy idea, but it actually worked! In May 1943, British planes destroyed the Möhne and the Edersee dams. The bouncing bomb helped the British win the war.

不寻常武器的创意通常来自简单的东西。 弹跳炸弹就是一个很好的例子。 它在第二次世界大战中使用过。 英国工程师巴恩斯·沃利斯爵士（Sir Barnes Wallis）知道德国有几座重要的水坝。 他相信一颗巨大的炸弹可以摧毁这些水坝，然后湖水会淹没许多德国工厂。 但他们怎么能袭击水坝呢？ 一天，沃利斯在湖边扔石头，看着石头在水面上弹跳，这时他灵机一动。 当时，飞机还不具备向精确目标投掷炸弹的技术。 但是飞机可以在水坝附近投下炸弹。 炸弹会沿着水面反弹，直到撞到大坝的墙壁上。 弹跳炸弹似乎是一个疯狂的想法，但它确实奏效了！1943年5月，英国飞机摧毁了Möhne和Edersee水坝。 弹跳弹帮助英国赢得了战争。