free plans to build a catapult is any one of a number of non handheld mechanical
devices used to throw a projectile a great distance without the aid of an
explosive substance.
The name is the latinized form of the ancient greek
katapeltes. The catapult appears to have been invented in 399 BC in the city
of Syracuse during the reign of the tyrant Dionysius I. Originally, free plans to
build a catapult referred to a dart thrower, while ballista referred to a
stone thrower.
the two terms swapped meaning sometime in the fourth century ad.
The early
history of the catapult and the crossbow in greece is closely intertwined.
The historian Diodorus Siculus, described the invention of a mechanical
arrow firing catapult by a Greek task force in 399 bxc.
The weapon was soon after employed against Motya, a key Carthaginian
stronghold in Sicily. Diodorus is assumed to have drawn his description
from the highly rated history of Philistus, a contemporary of the events then.
The date of the introduction of crossbows, however, can be dated further back
According to the inventor Hero of Alexandria, who referred to the now lost
works of the 3rd century bc engineer Ctesibius, this weapon was inspired by
an earlier hand held crossbow, called the gastraphetes, which could store more
energy than the Greek bows.
A description of the gastraphetes, along with a drawing, is found in Heron
technical treatise Belopoeica. A third Greek author, Biton, whose reliability
has been positively reevaluated by recent scholarship, described two
advanced forms of the gastraphetes, which he credits to Zopyros,
an engineer from southern Italy.
Zopyrus has been plausibly equated with a Pythagorean of that name who
seems to have flourished in the late 5th century bc. He probably designed
his bow machines on the occasion of the sieges of Cumae and Milet.
The bows of these machines already featured a winched pull back system
and could apparently throw two missiles at once.
A catapult mechanism used to throw missiles in ancient and medieval warfare.
At first, catapults were specifically designed to shoot spears or other missiles
at a low trajectory. They were originally distinguished from ballistae and
trebuchets, both of which were large military engines used to hurl stones and
other missiles, but these distinctions later blurred.
Later, larger catapults mounted on a single arm also hurled stones, pots
of boiling oil, and incendiaries at a high trajectory. They were used to attack
or defend fortifications. Catapults were widely employed in siege warfare,
but with the introduction of artillery they passed from use.
In the 20th cent. catapults using hydraulic pressure were reintroduced to
launch aircraft from warships.
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