The Catapult

1. Who is credited with inventing the catapult? Sometimes the Chinese, because they made their own type of catapult. Usually engineers working for Dionysius the Elder in 399 B.C.

The first were tension catapults Flexible bow was mounted at the end of a long wood framework enclosing a dovetail slider in this early arrow-firing catapult, based on a design originally devised technicians working for Dionysius the Elder of Syracuse in the fourth century B.C. The movable slider, carrying the bowstring with it by means of a claw-and-trigger arrangement, was held to the rear of the stock against the force of the bow by a linear ratchet after being pulled back with the aid of a circular winch. The piece connecting the catapult to its pedestal appears to have been an ancient version of the universal joint. The bow itself probably consisted of three different materials glued together: a wood core, a front layer of animal sinew and a back layer of horn. Since sinew is so strong in tension and horn in compression, such bows would have been much more powerful than the ordinary kind carved out a single piece of wood. The arrow is roughly two meters long.

2. For what kind of military action were catapults typically used?

3. How did catapults change naval warfare? Warships became smaller, with fewer rowers. Shipbuilders started to add armor to warships. Navies began to fight long-distance battles instead of ramming each other.

4. How did catapults change the status of engineers and mathematicians in ancient Greece?

Were you working productively this class? Were you following all safety guidelines? Did you clean up after yourself?

Why were catapults such effective weapons? What sorts of projectiles would they use? - against castle walls? - against wooden palisades Spanish_Palisade_Fort.jpgSpanish_Palisade_Fort.jpg‎ Dover Castle

What sorts of projectiles would they use? Historical records say: Rocks Carved stone balls Iron arrows Lead shot Baskets of venomous snakes Diseased horse carcasses Clay pots filled with asphyxiating gas Flaming barrels of gooey, syrupy chemicals Hornet’s nests Dead bodies of captured enemy soldiers Diseased human carcasses Messengers or the severed heads of messengers Cattle manure Liquid fire, most famously “Greek fire”

Greek fire (Circa 1150)

What were the tools and tactics that generals used to lay siege and conquer a castle? 1. Blockade 2. Negotiation 3. Threats 4. Attack! - rush up to the castle - moveable towers - miners - breaches in the walls caused by missles - swim the moat