![]() ![]() Early adopters of the catapult design were Dionysius of Syracuse and Onomarchus of Phocis. In Europe, the first catapults appeared in later Greek times around 400 BC- 300 BC. Improvised catapult made out of leaf spring during the Warsaw Uprising for launching of Molotov cocktails More modern trebuchets often replace the counterweight with industiral springs to create tension. The counterweight was usually much heavier than the projectile. A falling counterweight, or the effort of the one or more operators, pull down the bottom end of the arm and the projectile is thrown from a sling attached to a rope hanging from the top end of the arm, essentially like a sling attached to a giant see-saw. Onagers have an arm with a bucket, cup, or most often a sling to hold the projectile at one end.įinally, the last type of catapult is a trebuchet, which used gravity or traction rather than tension or torsion to propel the throwing arm. Torsional ballistas were operationally equivalent to their tensional cousins, except the torsional energy store gave greater power. The bottom end of the throwing arm of the onager and the inner ends of both ballista arms are inserted into rope or fibers that are twisted, providing a torsional store of energy. Subsequently, torsional catapults were developed those with two torsion powered arms, the later versions of the ballista and oxybeles, and those with one torsion powered arm, the onager, known in medieval times as the mangonel. ![]() Although similar to a crossbow, a sling on the end of the rope meant these weapons could be used for firing all sorts of projectiles, from rocks to pots of Greek fire. These catapults are tensional, in that the energy is stored as tension and compression of the bow. The arbalette à tour was a medieval version of the stand-mounted crossbow. The next step from this was a larger form a crossbow mounted on a stand, including early versions of the oxybeles (Greek for bolt shooter) and the ballista (the Roman version of the oxybeles). The first catapult distinct from hand-held launchers (bows, crossbows, slings etc.) was the Greek gastrophetes, a crossbow so large it was braced against the abdomen rather than being held in the hand, hence the nickname belly-bow.
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