|
HurlinThom
|
What constitutes a catapult or a trebuchet is dependent on how you define the terms. The earliest use of the term catapult was the Greek katapeltes, which referred to a crossbow-type machine. Approximate meaning, beater down of shields, used to break up formations of spear-and-shield men. Latin catpulta was a dart-firing ballista. The Roman onager, also called manganum or mangonel was a later development, and not called a catapult, though that's what the modern conception looks like. Actually the cartoon/Hollywood catapults would probably not function in the real world.
A trebuchet can be defined by the counterweight or by it having a Class 1 lever as an arm: force at one end moves the other end, with the fulcrum between. What is called a traction trebuchet is operated by people pulling on ropes, not by counterweight. To further confuse things the French have three terms, trebuchet means one with a suspended counterweight, mangonneau being one with the weight fixed directly to the arm and perrier being the traction trebuchet.
And the Arabs called a trebuchet al-manjaniq, their version of mangonel.
And mangonel comes from the Greek Manganon, a general term for siege engine.
And in British English a catapult is what Americans call a slingshot, which has no sling.
Anyhow, you can see that there's a lot of flexbility in the terms. To a certain extent it depends on the historical period or country in question.
|
Pages: 1
Trebuchets are drug paraphenalia (Read 4972 times)
