Thearos wrote on Jul 1
st, 2012 at 7:50am:
Three remarks
1. Very nice, first time I've seen a modern version of a "tree" mould. The alignment bosses are particularly well done.
2. I find the idea of multiple projectiles not believable. Two reasons:
a. the result will be, as DM writes, a spray of projectiles
b. the various projectiles will hit at different distances
c. You lose the great advantage of lead: super-fast projectiles going at super-long distances— this is explicitly attested, by the famous Xenophon passage, as the point of lead (you outrange stone shooters).
3. I am one of those who on this forum has mentioned "catapults", which is, of course, the correct Greek word to refer to what the Romans later called the ballista. There is one explicit attestation, in Appian's account of the siege of Athens, of the use of multiple lead proj. by catapults. So this is not speculation (like Jaegoor), but a specific ancient text.
I just came back after testing 3x 50g lead glans.These were my smallest ones yet.Hence the new mould.
They spread out to a triangular shape,flew about 160m (150g total weight,too heavy) and two of the 3 glans that flew horizontally went less than 40 meters apart at that distance.Slinging at an advancing army they would have had a good coverage.The distances covered by the two horizontal must have been very close,the third one on top probably hit a bit further ~20 meters. I think such a spray would have been useful on many ancient battlefields.
About point c. i agree, slinging 3 at once might give less distance,although 30g is less than ideal for most modern slingers,even with thin,light cords it puts very little tension on the cords.3x30g=90g is way more ideal. I bet 3 would travel at least that far as 1 ,if not a bit further.
3.I was thinking of another guy very into ballistas,i've seen his experiments with shooting 14 lead glans at once with 100+ m\s. It might have been done..but slinging lead is something that's known for sure,me thinks.