In the 16th century, a whiffler was an attendant armed with a javelin, battleaxe, sword, or staff employed to keep the way clear for a procession or other public spectacle. In effect, an early form of steward involved in crowd control. Research Whiffler
Arms is a military term referring to weapons. Weapons of offence are divisible into two distinct sections: firearms, and arms used without gunpowder or other explosive substance.
The first arms of offence would probably be wooden clubs, then would follow wooden weapons made more deadly by means of stone or bone, stone axes, slings, bows and arrows with heads of flint or bone, and afterwards various weapons of bronze. Subsequently a variety of arms of iron and steel were introduced, which comprised the sword, javelin, pike, spear or lance, dagger, axe, mace, chariot scythe, etc. with a rude artillery consisting of catapults, ballistae, and battering-rams. Among ancient nations the Egyptians seem to have been most accustomed to the use of the bow, which was the principal weapon of the Egyptian infantry. Peculiar to the Egyptians was a defensive weapon intended to catch and break the sword of the enemy. With the Assyrians the bow was a favourite weapon; but with them lances, spears, and javelins were in more common use than with the Egyptians. Most of the large engines of war, chariots with scythes projecting at each side from the axle, catapults, and ballistae, seem to have been of Assyrian origin. During the historical age of Greece the characteristic weapon was a heavy spear from 21 to 24 feet in length. The sword used by the Greeks was short, and was worn on the right side. The Roman sword was from 22 to 24 inches in length, straight, two-edged, and obtusely pointed, and as by the Greeks was worn on the right side. It was used principally as a stabbing weapon. It was originally of bronze. The most characteristic weapon of the Roman legionary soldier, however, was the pilum, which was a kind of pike or javelin, some 6 feet or more in length. The pilum was sometimes used at close-quarters, but more commonly it was thrown.
The favourite weapons of the ancient Germanic races were the battle-axe, the lance or dart, and the sword. The weapons of the Anglo-Saxons were spears, axes, swords, knives, and maces or clubs. The Normans had similar weapons, and were well furnished with archers and cavalry. The cross-bow was a comparatively late invention introduced by the Normans. Gunpowder was not used in Europe to discharge projectiles until the beginning of the fourteenth century. Cannon are first mentioned in England in 1338, and there seems to be no doubt that they were used by the English at the siege of Cambrai in 1339. The projectiles first used for cannon were of stone. Hand firearms date from the fifteenth century. At first they required two men to serve them, and it was necessary to rest the muzzle on a stand in aiming and firing. The first improvement was the invention of the match-lock, about 1476; this was followed by the wheel-lock, and about the middle of the seventeenth century by the flint-lock, which was in universal use until it was superseded by the percussion-lock, the invention of a Scotch clergyman early in the nineteenth century. The needle-gun dates from 1827. The only important weapon not a fire-arm that has been invented since the introduction of gunpowder is the bayonet, which is believed to have been invented about 1650.
The bow (long-bow) of the English archers was from 5 to 6 feet in length, and the arrow discharged from it was itself a yard long. The long-bow continued in general use in England until the end of the reign of Elizabeth, and even as late as 1627 there was a body of English archers in the pay of Richelieu at the siege of La Rochelle.
Javelin is an American fire-and-forget anti-armour weapon system developed during the 1980s, employing an infra-red seeking missile head which is programmed to recognise the typical shape and signature of a tank and to ignore other heat sources. Javelin has a maximum range of 2000 metres and can penetrate more than 400 mm of armour. Research Javelin
Phalanx was the name applied to the ordinary formation adopted by Greek heavy infantry. They were drawn up in close array, shoulder to shoulder, in a line eight deep, as a rule, though the Thebans used a formation twenty- five or even fifty deep. The Macedonian phalanx was an improvement on the Greek formation, in that the men stood in a rather more open order, sixteen deep, armed with spears 640 centimetres long. In 324 BC Alexander made only the three front and the rear ranks spearmen; the intermediate ranks were composed of archers and javelin men. Research Phalanx
The Short Blowpipe is a British one-man shoulder-fired infantry anti-aircraft missile system, and the first to be employed by the British army, being subsequently replaced by the Javelin system. The Short Blowpipe is a radio command guided missile powered by a two-stage solid fuel rocket motor and has a range of 3500 metres and fires a missile which is manually guided by radio command and travels at a speed of Mach 1. Research Short Blowpipe
Spartan (FV 103) is a British tracked armoured vehicle similar to the Scimitar, used by specialist troops which can include mortar fire control teams, anti-aircraft teams equipped with Javelin, or as an engineer command vehicle. A Jaguar 4.2 litre engine provide a top speed of 50 mph. Spartan is manned by a crew of seven and is armed with a 7.62 mm machine-gun. Research Spartan
Javelin Plus is a financial modelling tool designed for the development and analysis of business planning models. Because Javelin Plus is faster and, in many ways, easier to use than a spreadsheet, it appeals to a broad base of business analysts and financial planning professionals. Javelin Plus' s understanding of time periods such as weeks, months, quarters, and years makes it helpful in creating time-series models. It automatically calculates monthly figures from input data.
Javelin Plus minimises errors that are difficult to spot in complicated financial models by using formula-name references rather than cell references. Javelin Plus allows you to construct a model by defining relationships rather than by tediously defining a series of cells. Data is stored in an information base instead of a spreadsheet, so you can create the relationships between the different values and show them in several views rather than in a simple, flat matrix (although that is one of the options). Javelin Plus makes it easy to do forecasting because you can actually draw a graph in the quick graph view, and the product will insert the respective numbers into that variable' s data table (another view). For example, if you create a variable called East which is equal to the total sales of Boston, New York, and Toronto and a variable called First Quarter equal to January, February, and March, when you call for East and First Quarter,
Javelin Plus automatically adds the data associated with the three cities for the first three months. One of the most interesting aspects of Javelin Plus is the snap-in building block capability which allows users to develop fully integrated add-in tools. Snap-ins are open-architecture design features, similar to templates, that allow you to create unlimited applications which can be accessed as needed.
Javelin Plus allows text and date variables to be used in modelling as if they were numeric variables. This means you can base calculations in models on non-numeric data. You can perform true date arithmetic which is especially useful for querying in models that include databases. Database functions such as sorting and cross-tabulation are included. Javelin Plus also has improved worksheet-printing options for the worksheet view, including user-specified page breaks, margins, setup strings, and printer fonts. Graph styles include high-low-close, mixed line/bar, and XY plots of up to seven variables. Research Javelin Plus
The Argo C-22 was an American three-stage sounding rocket of the 1960's consisting of the first three motors of the Argo D-4 Javelinrocket. The Argo C-22 was primarily intended to carry experimental payloads of between 68 and 113 kg to an altitude of between 160 and 200 km. Research Argo C-22
The Argo D-4 Javelin was an American four-stage research rocket of the 1960's capable of carrying a scientific instrument payload of 23 kg to a height of 965 km. The Argo D-4 Javelin was 1483 metres long, 58 cm in diameter, weighed 3355 kg and comprised an Honest John M6 followed by two Nike-Ajax M5 boosters and a final stage designated X-248, providing a speed of Mach 13. Research Argo D-4 Javelin
The Gloster GA5 Javelin was a British two-seater all-weather fighter aircraft in service with the RAF from 1956 to 1968. The Gloster Javelin was a mid-wing monoplane of Delta configuration powered by two Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire 203 turbojets providing a top speed of 1130 kmh and a range of 1530 km. Armaments varied with the model, the first models had four 30 mm Aden guns mounted two in each wing, later models had two 30 mm cannons, one mounted in each wing and the capacity to carry four Firestreak air-to-air missiles carried on four under-wing hard points. The Gloster Javelin was the last production aircraft produced by the Gloster company. Research Gloster Javelin
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Whiffler
