Hugh Gaughan serves as an assistant construction project manager for a local general contractor in Forest Lake, Minnesota. When not working in Minnesota, Hugh Gaughan takes an interest in medieval history. He once built a working trebuchet - an ancient weapon that hurled large stones to break down enemy fortifications.
Trebuchets use a swinging arm to provide kinetic energy. The first traction trebuchets relied on the leverage of human, later evolving into machines, that drew their power from a counter-weighted arm.
Although historians once associated trebuchets with the Middle Ages, stone-throwing devices date back to the Greeks and Romans. Four centuries before Christ, Chinese armies made machines requiring the effort of from two to 250 men. The latter device could hurl a 160-pound projectile some 80 yards. Recreating these devices in 1991, researcher discovered that a well-trained team could reload and fire every 15 seconds.
Trebuchet capacities increased over time. By the 12th century AD, Arab and Byzantine armies could project 400-pound stones to break barriers and support troops. Replacing traction trebuchets with counter-weighted ones represented a quantum leap in destructiveness. The new trebuchets could hurl stones weighing up to 2,500 pounds.
The trebuchet reigned supreme on the battlefield until the invention of the cannon. Even so, an expert writing in 1410 recommended they should still serve alongside the newer weapons.
Trebuchets use a swinging arm to provide kinetic energy. The first traction trebuchets relied on the leverage of human, later evolving into machines, that drew their power from a counter-weighted arm.
Although historians once associated trebuchets with the Middle Ages, stone-throwing devices date back to the Greeks and Romans. Four centuries before Christ, Chinese armies made machines requiring the effort of from two to 250 men. The latter device could hurl a 160-pound projectile some 80 yards. Recreating these devices in 1991, researcher discovered that a well-trained team could reload and fire every 15 seconds.
Trebuchet capacities increased over time. By the 12th century AD, Arab and Byzantine armies could project 400-pound stones to break barriers and support troops. Replacing traction trebuchets with counter-weighted ones represented a quantum leap in destructiveness. The new trebuchets could hurl stones weighing up to 2,500 pounds.
The trebuchet reigned supreme on the battlefield until the invention of the cannon. Even so, an expert writing in 1410 recommended they should still serve alongside the newer weapons.
