Samson’s a jaw-dropper
QUESTION Why was the jawbone of an ass such a popular weapon in the Bible?
There is only one account in the Bible of the jawbone of an ass (donkey) being used as a weapon. Samson, in the Book of Judges, uses it as a club to take vengeance on Israel’s enemy, the Philistines:
‘And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.
‘And Samson said: “With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.”
‘And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place ramath Lehi.’
however, the ass’s jawbone is not the real reason for Samson’s success in battle. We are told ‘then the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him’ — he gained the victory by the power of God and not by his strength alone.
Henry Drabble, Wakefield, W. Yorks. In BrITAIn, the jawbone of an ass has been indelibly linked with Cain’s murder of his brother Abel, despite a lack of biblical evidence.
A jawbone is depicted in Cain’s hands in biblical illustrations throughout the Middle Ages and is often referred to in vernacular literature.
In 1942, art historian Meyer Schapiro suggested this was due to the association of the Anglo-Saxon word for jawbone,
cinban, with the words cain bana, meaning Cain the slayer or murderer. A more persuasive theory is that animal jawbones were once used as makeshift sickles or reaping hooks.
Cain was a farmer, so an ass’s jawbone would have been a readily available tool that could be used as a weapon.
stewart Rey, Bristol.
QUESTION Why are car tyres black? It’s not the natural colour of rubber.
The Michelin brothers of France are credited with the introduction of the pneumatic tyre to the ‘horseless carriage’ in 1895. These were a yellowy white, the colour of natural rubber.
Subsequently, manufacturers added zinc oxide to stabilise the rubber and decrease tyre wear. These tyres were pearly white.
In 1904, S. C. Mote, chief chemist of the India rubber, Gutta Percha [a type of latex] And Telegraph Works in Silvertown, east London, discovered that carbon black, a fine soot used as a pigment by ink makers, improved rubber’s resistance to wear, greatly increasing its lifespan and durability.
A zinc oxide tyre had a lifespan of 5,000 miles compared with up to 40,000 miles for a modern tyre.
Industrial production of black tyres began in 1911 by U.S. tyre manufacturer B. F. Goodrich. By 1917, all car tyres were black. Today, 70 per cent of all carbon black produced is used in car tyres.
Bill Taylor, Wigan, lancs.