Archaeology & History

'Rocket cats' found in 16th century war book

By T.K. Randall
March 7, 2014

Image: UPenn Ms. Codex 109, f137r
Credit: CC BY-SA 4.0 / Laura Aydelotte / Franz Helm Having recently been digitized by the University of Pennsylvania, the peculiar "Feuer Buech" manuscript sports a number of illustrations showing what may have been ideas for military weapons devised almost 500 years ago.

Written by artillery master Franz Helm, the book includes drawings of cats and doves with rocket packs attached to their backs for the purpose of "setting fire to a castle or city which you can't get at otherwise." It isn't clear whether this idea was ever actually attempted."Create a small sack like a fire-arrow," Hanz wrote. "If you would like to get at a town or castle, seek to obtain a cat from that place. And bind the sack to the back of the cat, ignite it, let it glow well and thereafter let the cat go, so it runs to the nearest castle or town, and out of fear it thinks to hide itself where it ends up in barn hay or straw it will be ignited."

The unconventional manuscript has been gaining widespread attention since details of it appeared online.

"It's sort of a harebrained scheme," said researcher Mitch Fraas. "It seems like a really terrible idea, and very unlikely the animals would run back to where they came from. More likely they'd set your own camp on fire."

Source: Independent

Tags: Cat, War, Rocket