3/6/2024 0 Comments Squirrel torsion catapult"In general, kings like to have big things they can show off. The Romans named the onager after a wild donkey that delivered an especially strong kick. The rope is twisted tightly to create torsion, which, when released, generates enough force to launch a small projectile from a catapult arm. "At a fundamental level, you're not going to build these engines unless they have value, but there is value in that intimidation factor," says Fulton. The second, known as an 'onager' or torsion catapult, gets its power from a rope-like bundle of animal sinew and hair. It was more likely that castle defenders would try to fire incendiaries at the trebuchet to burn the weapon to the ground.Įven if Edward's legendary trebuchet only launched rocks, there simply was no siege weapon that was as terrifying to the enemy and as entertaining to the troops. "Once you lit it and threw it, you couldn't put out the flames with water and it would burn very intensely," says Gurstelle, adding that the recipe for Greek fire - pine tar, sulphur, naturally occurring petroleum - was "lost in the sands of time."įulton agrees that Greek fire was a popular Byzantine incendiary weapon, especially for naval attacks, but doubts that Edward or anyone else was launching Greek fire bombs from trebuchets with any regularity. Gurstelle explains that Greek fire was a secret weapon of the Byzantine empire that was like "ancient napalm." The potential energy is stored as elastic energy of a stretch (tension), bend, or twist (torsion). To prepare a catapult to launch a rock, it takes work to twist a rope (provide torsion), to stretch a rubber band (provide tension), or bend wood. In the opening scene of the Netflix movie "Outlaw King," Edward I unleashes his Warwolf on Stirling Castle with a fabulous explosion of what he calls "Greek fire." Did such a thing exist? Catapults take advantage of elastic force, involving stretched, compressed, bent, or twisted material. "That was more psychological than biological," says Fulton. He wanted to fire the War Wolf first, and even built a special viewing platform so the ladies of his court would have a good view of the destruction it wrought.įulton has more confidence in the tales of human heads being lobbed back and forth by trebuchets at the Siege of Nicaea in 1097, during the First Crusade. The greatest of Edward's trebuchets was christened Ludgar, or "the War Wolf." The War Wolf required five master carpenters and 50 workmen to build, and was so terrifying in scale that Oliphant had no choice but to surrender. Edward had ordered all Scottish churches stripped of their lead, which was used to build powerful catapults called trebuchets, the largest of which could hurl boulders weighing over 300 pounds (140 kilograms). Behind the castle's thick walls, Sir William Oliphant and his Scottish loyalists endured months of aerial bombardment from perhaps the greatest collection of "siege engines" the world had ever seen. In the year 1304, King Edward I of England laid siege to Stirling Castle, home to the last holdouts of a Scottish rebellion. A 65-foot-tall (20-meter) replica of a trebuchet at the Château des Roure in Labastide-de-Virac, France.
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