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Historically, weapons have always played a
huge role in determining things such as who would win the war or who would lose
due to arsenal superiority. It is amazing how so long ago people could
construct such siege engines as they did which would hurl massive rocks and
barrels huge distances. The construction of siege engines began about 200 B.C. with the invention of Torsion powered catapults. By 50 A. D. these torsion engines were in widespread use in Julius Caesar's army. For years these engines were used to pound and destroy cities such as Jerusalem (70 A.D.). Torsion powered catapults reached their peak at about 600 A.D. when trebuchets started to emerge. A trebuchet is a massive siege engine that uses gravity to hurl its projectile. The Greeks, taking advantage of this awesome device decided to start loading something more reactive into the trebuchet. Thus the Greeks became a great nation with their legendary Greek Fire. The use of trebuchets continued well into the 15th century along with its smaller companion the crossbow which was widespread all over the world until the end of the middle ages and some are still used today. The small catapult I built simply to test the power behind a torsion band to see how much power 'elasticity' could really hold. standing 8" tall I managed to get a range of about ten feet. The second catapult I am now currently building. It is a scale model of what was once an actual catapult called an onager. The trebuchet was a result of a history class project at New Covenant Schools in Lynchburg. Me along with about ten other class members put this engine together in about 6hrs. However it took several more hours replacing bent fulcrum bars, tesing range, accuracy ect. It was certainly a learning experience and the project shed light on how truly immense and complex the medieval siege engines were to construct and operate.
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