Trebuchets
The trebuchet was a large siege engine capable of launching very large projectiles, primarily spherical boulders crafted by a stone smith.
A trebuchet is essentially a large seesaw with the fulcrum closer to one side. A very heavy counterweight (cw) was attached to the shorter end. A much lighter projectile at the other, longer arm was placed in a sling. Something to note is that even though the cw has a relativity short path, being attached to a much longer arm and then a sling, amasses to massive energy and momentum.
There were three different forms of trebuchet. The first had the cw attached directly to the throwing arm. The fixed cw form of the trebuchet was much better off when engineers attached wheels to the base to allow the trebuchet to move forward to allow the cw to have a straighter path as it dropped. The cw material was often lead or boxes attached to the arm and filled with earth
Another form of trebuchet was the hinged cw. This model is the most effective because it allows the cw to fall in the straightest path. The cw was composed of a wooden box attached to the arm via a hinge and filled with stone and/or earth.
There was also a trebuchet that combined the two types of cw. These styles of trebuchets did not seem to be very common. Different forms of projectiles were used on different occasions.
Other than massive boulders, the bodies of prisoners would be flung to demoralized the enemy and to spread disease, as well as the bodies of infected animals, such as cows or horses would also be flung. Beehives and live scorpions made for very potent live ammunition along with incendiary weapons.
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Article added: 2006-09-20 @ 4:48 pm
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