For years, there have been many weapons that wars and battles that have been won with but out of all of them, Catapults were the most destructive. As walls and castles got higher in the middle ages, it was slowly realized that Catapults were the only one to the job. Catapults have been used for their sole purpose of launching a projectile really far without the help of an explosive. The definition of a catapult is: a large machine with an arm joined to some sort of bucket or cup and it is then swung after a lot of tension is put into it, causing it to go some distance
There are three main types of Catapult:
There are three main types of Catapult:
This is a Trebuchet
As seen from the picture, it launches the ammo by the power of gravity. There is a huge counter weight on the other side of the arm, which falls down once the person pulls the rope out. Then as it falls down, its momentum causes the arm to sling forward causing the ammo to go a certain distance. This kind of catapult replaces people power and puts all into the counter-weight.
Some pros:
As seen from the picture, it launches the ammo by the power of gravity. There is a huge counter weight on the other side of the arm, which falls down once the person pulls the rope out. Then as it falls down, its momentum causes the arm to sling forward causing the ammo to go a certain distance. This kind of catapult replaces people power and puts all into the counter-weight.
Some pros:
- It is able to launch the arm at a really high speed causing the ammo to do a lot of damage
- It uses the wheels to push it farther so the object goes farther in distance
- It also uses the space between the ground and weight to create speed so it uses more force to throw the object
- There is a huge risk of it falling over
- It takes a lot of materials and labour to assemble and build
- Takes a long time to reload and operate
This is an Onager
It has a similar body to Trebuchet but has much different way of launching the projectile. It uses no power of weights but rather the power of a rope Tension. Its arm has a pouch to put the ammo in and is connected to a main round piece which could spin. Then a rope is attached to another wooden piece which has rope tangled around it. When let go, the arm will fly forward causing the ammo to launch and the arm itself will hit the cushion so that it does not snap in half.
Some Pros:
Some Cons:
It has a similar body to Trebuchet but has much different way of launching the projectile. It uses no power of weights but rather the power of a rope Tension. Its arm has a pouch to put the ammo in and is connected to a main round piece which could spin. Then a rope is attached to another wooden piece which has rope tangled around it. When let go, the arm will fly forward causing the ammo to launch and the arm itself will hit the cushion so that it does not snap in half.
Some Pros:
- The sling is really efficient is launching the ammo
- The reload time isn't much
- It is Really accurate which is why it has been used a lot in the history
Some Cons:
- A lot of energy is lost in the arm when the rope untangles
- Difficult to modify once built
- The firing mechanism is hard to build
This is a Mangonel
It shares a lot of similarities with Onager but also has it little differences. As always the body remains the same like we saw on the Onager and Trebuchet. It is different from Onager as it is powered with torsion. Once the rope gets tangled with some human assitance, it gets attached to the arm which then unwinds to a certain point, which causes the arm to swing forward and launch the ammo. Also at the back of the catapult, the unwinding mechanism which controls the whole thing can be found.
Some Pros:
Some Cons:
It shares a lot of similarities with Onager but also has it little differences. As always the body remains the same like we saw on the Onager and Trebuchet. It is different from Onager as it is powered with torsion. Once the rope gets tangled with some human assitance, it gets attached to the arm which then unwinds to a certain point, which causes the arm to swing forward and launch the ammo. Also at the back of the catapult, the unwinding mechanism which controls the whole thing can be found.
Some Pros:
- It is really easy to move around as all the parts are altogether
- It takes the least time to reload out of all other main catapults
- It has the ability to shoot really high
Some Cons:
- Not that accurate
- Low range
- Not suited to shoot heavy objects
After looking at all the pros and cons, we saw that we have the best potential to hit the target with an Onager-Mangonel mix. We saw that both of these catapults combined make a really strong and easy to use catapult. Even though the cons might be that the accuracy might not be perfect, both these catapults give us the ability to not spend much time on the reloading and get straight to shooting. As seen from the picture, we have used the torsion powered design to launch it but used the Onager style to shoot it and stop it with a cushion.