Weapons of Terror • By Stewart Richardson • The Ballista • The Trebuchet • The Egyptian Composite Bow
Torsion powered stone throwing Siege Ballista "
A Greek "Palintone" type Ballista Catapult Engine. This picture is a recreation of a medium size Greek Ballista Siege Catapult and is capable of throwing a three pound concrete ball more than 200 yards! The term "Palintone" (stretched-back) refers to the skeins and vertical stanchions being staggered within the head-frame of the machine
Ballista • The ballista was a creation a lot like a cross bow. It was built solely out of wood save for the ratchet device on the outside which was made of steel. • The ballista was the largest machine ever made in the Roman period. • It contained a more powerful spring frame that was very old which meant its cost was very high. This cost meant that these weapons were few in number with probably no more that 3 or 4 being used in any battle • The ballista could throw a 50 pound object around 1200 feet. The Romans would usually load bolts (arrows) and stone into the ballista.
Trebuchet There are two types of Trebuchet machine that are mostly mentioned. These are :-
A Traction Trebuchet depended on manpower to generate power. Several men would apply downward force on the short end of a wooden arm to fling an object held in a sling attached to the long end of the trebuchet. Counterpoise Trebuchet depended on a counterweight and pulleys to lower the short end and cause the sling on the other end to launch a missile.
Trebuchet • What is a sling trebuchet and how did it work? • A good sling trebuchet used a falling weight to throw huge missiles great distances, their landing causing much devastation. • • • • • •
A sling trebuchet has five primary parts: counterweight frame beam guide chute and of course the sling
Trebuchet In a well-built sling trebuchet, the frame supports the other parts and provides a raised platform for dropping the counterweight. A counterweight in a sling trebuchet pulled by gravity rotates the beam. The beam in turn pulls on the sling. The guide chute in a sling trebuchet simply guides the sling along through the frame and supports the projectile until speed is great enough to hold it in the sling alone. The sling in a sling trebuchet is the support for the missile until it is launched. The sling trebuchet was a marriage of previous catapults and advanced physical science. It works on a simple principle, but there was nothing simple about making sure a sling trebuchet was built with precision, especially considering they were constructed on site prior to battle.
Trebuchet A sling trebuchet works by affixing one end of the sling to the end of the beam while the other is tied in a loop and placed over a release mechanism on the beam’s other end. As the beam of the sling trebuchet rotated, it pulled the sling and its projectile down the guide chute. Once the sling of a sling trebuchet exited the chute, it accelerated in an arc out from the beam, but since the beam was still pulling the sling behind, the loop was held on the pin. As the sling trebuchet continued to accelerate through its arc, it eventually would swing ahead of the release pin, slipping off the pin and opening the sling to release its walldestroying missile. So effective was the sling trebuchet, its use is recorded throughout the middle ages and beyond
Egyptian bow
Sometime before the 19th dynasty, the period of Rhamses II, Egyptian archers acquired an important advance in their weaponry in the form of an Egyptian-style composite bow
Egyptian bow Egyptian composite bow is made much like others of the era. A wood core which had horn plates glued to its interior curve while sinew was glued to its exterior curve. The horn allowed for compression while the sinew acted like a spring to produce a much more powerful bow. By the time of Rhamses II, the Egyptians has improved the effect of the composite bow significantly by pairing the archers with charioteers. A fast pair of horses would pull the chariot at high speed while the charioteer guided them closer to the enemy formation