Cat wearing jetpack in 16th century drawing baffles historians

Some drawings prepared for a German prince who was trying to squash a peasant uprising in 1530 were recently digitized by the University of Pennsylvania. After catching the attention of an Australian book blog they made their way to researcher Mitch Fraas. Faced with the 500-year-old drawings, he confronted the damndest thing: They feature cats wearing jetpacks. “I really didn’t know what to make of it,” said Fraas, a historian Penn library. “It clearly looks like there’s some sort of jet of fire coming out of a device strapped to these animals.”

source
Note: Please be sure to read the source article it explains what the painting is actually depicting.

Edit: After a wtf I laughed and thought I should share this.

reply to post by AlaskanDad


Ha what silly billys using a cat as a weapon?.

Man: "So cat I will light this and you run into the enemy town"
Cat : "Meooow"
Man *lights wick*
Cat: "MEOOOOWWW"
*Sparks fly the cat screams and runs around setting everything on fire*
Man: "Whose stupid idea was this?"

lol.

The cat came back! Run away!

Deceptive title.

reply to post by AlaskanDad


All I see is a poor animal tortured with fireworks tied to his body.

I like when they mention the surprise at someone being able to draw an accurate rhinoceros from a description and imagination alone. Don't they realize that before TV people had to both write a verbal description that took the place of the TV picture and that our imaginations got much more exercise than they do these days?

reply to post by AlaskanDad


I think it's more likely a tiger or female lion. And upon closer inspection, I feel the 'jetpack' is actually a burlap sack with something spilling out, possibly blood. Who knows, maybe it's an artists representation of a dream, or prophecy.

ETA: Just saw the note in the OP. LOL what an imagination.

reply to post by boymonkey74


Actually, the US almost tried something similar in WWII against Japan using bats.

They went with nukes instead.

Suicide cat bombers...

Well, I do recall that during WWII the US had the idea to strap incendiary devices to bats and let them loose over cities. The idea never took off though.

reply to post by MystikMushroom


And neither did the bats Too heavy.....I will get my coat..dum de dum.

reply to post by AlaskanDad


Astounding! Great Catch-

Actually the bats did work (a little too well) and had a friendly fire incident.

The cat bomb was for targeting the dry deck of a ship with a cat's innate ability to avoid water!

I knew of a kid that I went to school with who lit a cat on fire in his back yard. The cat, in a brilliant move of retaliation got the last laugh and ran under the house ansd set the house on fire. It, fortunately for the rest of the family who were a very nice buch, did not burn the house down, but, did expose the young mans actions. I believe he later ended up in jail. Imagine that.

beezzer
reply to post by boymonkey74

 

Actually, the US almost tried something similar in WWII against Japan using bats.

They went with nukes instead.

They managed to set fire to Carlsbad Army Airfield Auxiliary Air Base....

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by AlaskanDad


That's gotta hurt. And look, the cat's front legs are raised in the air....liftoff!

beezzer
reply to post by boymonkey74

 

Actually, the US almost tried something similar in WWII against Japan using bats.

They went with nukes instead.

They put nukes on bats?!

Got it...

It seems that it inspired this wave of terror too :

Bombdogs

Phage

beezzer
reply to post by boymonkey74

 

Actually, the US almost tried something similar in WWII against Japan using bats.

They went with nukes instead.

They put nukes on bats?!

Very, very, very, tiny nukes.

Nukettes.

beezzer
reply to post by boymonkey74

 

Actually, the US almost tried something similar in WWII against Japan using bats.

They went with nukes instead.

The thing with the bats actually worked ... and it almost saw actual use. I guess we can now ask ourselves - which is worse, using incendiaries on bats sent on suicide runs or a nuke?



I don't think we could say the same for the kitty pack.

reply to post by AlaskanDad


I read about this the other day in a different article. They were being used as warfare.

In the same century that Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel and Shakespeare wrote "Richard III," German artillery experts were trying to master the art of strapping bombs to cats.

A 16th-century treatise on warfare and weapons includes illustrations of cats and doves wearing what look like early jetpacks. The idea was that these animal bombers could set fire to cities or castles that were otherwise inaccessible to human soldiers.

According to Fraas' translation, some of Helm's instructions read as follows: "Create a small sack like a fire-arrow … 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."

ewweee poor cats

source

leolady

reply to post by AlaskanDad

Theres much more to this than you realize.

Youve only "scratched" the surface.