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A Fifteenth-Century Dilbert Cartoon

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Reading Judith Barker's excellent Agincourt: Henry V and the Battle That Made England, I came across what is, in effect, an early fifteenth-century Dilbert cartoon.  Barker, in discussing the strategic logistical planning for the Agincourt campaign, which Henry V of England undertook by invading France in the early 1400's, notes that gunpowder had been invented, and artillery had appeared on the battlefield.  Early cannons, she explains, were not only difficult to aim, being very heavy metal things with no mechanical means of orienting them, but also required considerable effort merely to fire.  The ammunition had to be loaded in the front, and a complicated, albeit primitive device, was used to get the gunpowder into the cannon.  Consequently--and this is the crucial fact--the typical artillery crew usually only managed to fire their weapon once during a battle. 

Now there is a record of a particularly efficient gunner, who, in a battle, was able to fire no less than an amazing three shots from his cannon in the course of a fight.  Witnessing this feat, his commanders concluded that he could not have accomplished it were he not in league with the devil.  So the gunner was sent off an a pilgrimage to cure his soul.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    October 23, 2008
    LOL -- Craig that is a great one! I love the battle of Agincourt and did several reports on it back in school. The ultimate in the triumph of advancing technology and tactics over older technology

  • Anonymous
    October 29, 2008
    I pointed bit.ly/microsoft here out of a sense of frustration I wanted to watch the Azure Videos but can only do so using Silverlight which when installed got me here bit.ly/silverlight I had googled Microsoft Dilbert Cartoon and found myself here! And found an irony in the url. For I wanted to find out about Azure Security implications.... Why do your fellow Microsoftians make it hard for me to find out if I could like your products??? OPEN not CLOSED PLEASE!!!! Tell Ozzie he is making progress but there are still some old school Microsoftians blocking his approach!!! Tier 1 for Safari and Firefox Browsers is a joke when I can't even get IE opening the PDC Videos.