Catapults: a History

Ensuring the right size of sling is used for the individual and for the hoist.

Many various muskets were used as well as cannons. They would have a fixed blade like a spear point on the end of the musket that is called a bayonet. They would use it like a spear

A Trebuchet is a weapon used during the medieval ages in siege warfare. The trebuchet was used for the defense of towns, strongholds, and cities. First the materials used to build medieval trebuchets. Second the origins of trebuchets. Third how trebuchets were transported.

The first records of counterweight trebuchets began appearing in the 12th century. Proving to be an excellent siege weapon, many militaries began using this. Though stone-throwing artillery had been employed by both the Greeks and Romans, they were usually powered by torsion or tension; the trebuchet was the first war machine to use gravity and leverage to fire projectiles. They were used widely during the Crusades, in which the European militaries, especially the French, used the trebuchet to lay siege to Muslim cities in the hopes of capturing the “holy land.”

Polearms, or shafted weapons, were weapons with the fighting portion of the weapon mounted on a long shaft. The most common shafted weapon of the medieval time was the lance. Lances were generally comprised of a wooden shaft with a metal tipped point (”Weapons”). Polearms were common because of their simplicity to make. They were often times used when organized into units rather than individually. The long reach given by the shaft provided protection for the wielder by allowing them to stay out of reach while still dealing damage. Many polearms had an axe as the weapon at the end of the shaft. An example of this is the halberd which consists of an axe blade with a spiked end mounted on a wooden shaft. Other Polearms had bladed or pointed ends.

Another result of technological progression was the matchlock, which would shoot with ignition of a lit match. "The introduction of firearms into the Elizabethan Weapons Arsenal saw the end of castle warfare and the building of the magnificent Medieval castles"(Alchin 1). With the invention of lethal, quick cannons came the decline of forts for defense as soldiers prepared for battle. Cannons were made of bronze and iron, in many different sizes, and they fired stone or iron, to be used on land or

Staring at the map and planning his next course of action, Nightburn had called a meeting of all his high-ranking officers, Sir Faine, Lady Sara, General Zhousbek, Ject, Ace, his assassination squad and personal bodyguards. His officers trailed into the room over the next few minutes with a group gathered near the door engaged in idle conversation, but all grew quiet when Nightburn directed his question to Ject. “Is everyone here?”

A Mancatcher is a sort of of pole weapon,with a pronged head,each one semi-circular with two springed “doors” in the front.This created an effective valve that could fit around a man’s neck and keep him trapped.The weapon was mostly used to pull a man from horseback and drag them to the ground where they were helplessly pinned to the ground.This one is one of the few that was considered non-lethal.

Medieval society, in spite of its stereotypes, was not inherently more violent than modern society. “Although there was no state in the modern sense, and therefore no set of laws that inherently took away the power of the average man or woman to exercise violence, the violence of the day was considered differently, and with out the inherent sense of criminality that accompanies it today. Our understanding of the weapons of the medieval world is skewed by the vast disarming of the “the civilian” that is taken for granted today, yet is a vastly different situation compared to what existed in many parts of “the West” as little as seven years ago.

In response to the use of castles and fortresses, siege weapons were created. Siege weapons ranged from short range weapons such as the battering ram to longer range ones like the trebuchet or the ballista. The battering ram was usually a big shed with an armored roof and wheels to protect the men inside operating a thick beam with an iron head hung from the roof that was swung into enemy walls to bring them down. The siege tower, a wheeled tower filled with men that would be used to get over the walls, also saw its use during this time. The trebuchet was used for longer range, the missiles launched by the trebuchet ranged from using dead bodies of animals or people to spread disease, a primitive example of biological warfare, to using large boulders to take down fortress walls. In response

With the discovery of gunpowder came the invention of the fire arrow with gunpowder on its tip in the year 989 A.D. (Movement of gunpowder). By the 11th century, explosive bombs filled with gunpowder and fired catapults were introduced and used in China (Gun and gunpowder). Approximately eleven years after the arrow, the Chinese invented the flamethrower (Movement of gunpowder). It soon spread across Europe through trading. Ottoman turks used gunpowder to make their own cannons (Whipps).

There are 3 Laws of Motion developed by Isaac Newton in 1687, in his book “Mathematics Principles of National Philosophy”(Hall,Nancy).Newtons first law of motion says that an object will stay at rest until a external force is applied. Also know as inertia(Hall, Nancy). Gravity affects it buy pulling the counter weight down which pulls the the opposite side which has the sling and projectile up launching the projectile(Saimre tanol). For gravity to be most effective the counter weight must be at least five times heavier than projectile(Saimre tanol). Centripetal force is a big factor in calculating trebuchet factors. the definition of centripetal force is a force that acts inwards on any object that rotates or moves along a curved path and is directed toward a center point(Centripetal force). In this case centripetal force is good. when the projectile is released centripetal force pulls it inwards which makes it go farther and be more accurate with out centripetal force the projectile would go straight up or straight down(Centripetal

The Siege of a Castle was a guarantied victory, but it took a long time of patience. Patience was the key to victory with this strategy, however it was scarce in the battlefield, because of the angry, impatient soldiers waiting to get home to their families. The city walls were suppose to be fortifying a position that could not be easily overrun, and that it could be strong enough to enable the defense to maintain that position for a long period of time. Siege of a fort, castle, or city walls had four basic concepts. The Sieging technique was directly directed towards these four. In order for the attackers to get inside they would have to go over the wall, tear a passage through the wall, dig a tunnel underneath it, or just wait until the defenders surrendered.

Medieval weaponry is divided into two classes, cold weapons and firearms. A cold weapon is a weapon that does not involve fire or explosions. Swords were the most common cold weapon. They were used to pierce through armor, and deliver a deadly blow. Knives were used to finish a kill. They were carried in a holster on the hip of a warrior. Spears were used on horse-back and on foot. Warriors would throw spears at enemies if they were out of range of a sword. A catapult was as deadly as a firearm, but not considered one. Catapults would fling rocks at enemies over a distance. Like a catapult a crossbow could strike from a distance. Crossbows shot arrows that could pierce armor. Cannons were the first firearm introduced around the 14th century. They shot balls of molded

2017). From there, the Moors and the Ottoman Turks created their own forms of firearms. The Moors fought the Europeans in Spain for control of the area, and not even a year after that war the first firearms were finished in Italy. Soon after that the first cannons began to appear, the earliest to appear was from the Turks, they created the bombard. Which were these huge cannon, bigger than one could imagine. The bombards would blow down castle wall this was one of the key weapons that caused the city to fall. With it, fell the recipe of another type of gunpowder, which was mostly used as an early form of flame thrower (Sammon, J. 2012).