Descending through the Middle Ages we find the sword and spear
still holding sway, with the bow as an important accessory for
the use of the common soldier. As for the knight, he became an
iron-clad champion, so incased in steel that he could fight
effectively only on horseback, becoming largely helpless on foot.
At length, the greatest stage in the history of war, the notable
invention of gunpowder was achieved, and an enormous
transformation took place in the whole terrible art. The musket,
the rifle, the pistol, the cannon were one by one evolved, to
develop in the nineteenth century into the breech-loader, the
machine gun, the bomb, and the multitude of devices fitted to
bring about death and destruction by wholesale, instead of by the
retail methods of older days.

At sea, the sailing vessel, with her far-flung white wings and
rows of puny guns, has given way to the steel-clad battleship
with her fewer but enormously larger cannons, capable of flinging
huge masses of iron many miles through the air and with a
precision of aim that seems incredible for such great distances.

We must add to this the torpedo boat, a tiny craft with a weapon
capable of sinking the most costly and stupendous of battleships,
and the submarine, fitted to creep unseen under blockading
fleets, and deal destruction with nothing to show the hand that
dealt the deadly blow. Even the broad expanse of the air has been
made a field of warlike activity, with scouting airships flying
above contending armies and signaling their most secret movements
to the forces below.

OLD AND NEW METHODS IN WAR