Trebuchet Essay

History of the Trebuchet
This was an enormous weapon capable of throwing immense boulders over two hundred and fifty meters. This was not achieved on the first try. It took a thousand years of experimenting and modifications to accurately create the machine. The agent of mass destruction and fear was called a trebuchet.
The trebuchet was a weapon used during siege warfare. It would hurl heavy stones to smash castle or city walls. Cities, castles, and fortresses could turn to rubble from the force of one. The trebuchet was named multiple ways such as Medieval Trebuchet which is derived from the Old French word ‘Trebucher’ meaning to throw over. It is also called Ingenium coming from the Latin word ingenium meaning ingenious device.
Trebuchets

were made a long time ago. It is believed that traction trebuchets were ancient war engines that were invented in China in 300BC. In ancient Sicily around 212BC, these war machines were used to defend the city of Syracuse. The defenders of the city were taught the advantages of this weapon by Archimedes; the famous Greek mathematician. In order to drive the missile; a large group around two hundred and fifty men had to pull down on the ropes that would launch the missile up to one hundred meters. The trebuchet was changed up when it had come to Europe in the Middle Ages. They replaced the men with a large counterbalance weight at the end of the shorter arm. This allowed the missile to go farther than usual. The only problem was that the machine could never be exactly accurate from the heavy jerking. This led to a hinged counterweight causing more power to the projectile. The trebuchet was less strained, decreasing the jerking and increased the life of it. The trebuchet now did not have to be repositioned after every shot since it is now stable. One last adjustment was the propped counterweight. The weight was forced to make an angle with the arm instead of hanging straight down which increased the falling distance and force.
Gynours were men who operated the trebuchet in the late medieval era of the Middle Ages. They were often under constant fire from arrows and missiles and enemies tried to burn trebuchets during trips. Many warning cries happened when a fire missile was launched into the air by a trebuchet.
Missiles were very deadly when thrown from a trebuchet.

Stones were mostly what they would launch. They also used sharp wooden poles and darts if they ran out of stones. But a trebuchet can release up to two thousand stones in a day. To create madness, they could launch fire missiles. To launch missiles over a castle or city wall, Medieval Trebuchets could shoot hundreds of yards. Other items that were often launched were burning sand, pots of Greek fire, dung, dead bodies, disease ridden bodies, body parts, and dead animals. Greek fire was a powerful burning liquid weapon that could not be put out with water. Most of the items were used to humiliate the enemy, spread death and disease, and taint their water supplies rather than to destroy walls. In the fourteenth century, Mongols fired dead bodies that contained the Black Death into the city of Kaffa. The disease spread quickly across the Mediterranean and into European port since Kaffa was a port

city.
Medieval battlefields experienced hand-to-hand combat but were rare compared to sieges to fortified cities suing aggressive forces. Hand-to-hand combat counterattacks only happened when the walls were destroyed and during the nighttime. The battlefield was controlled by trebuchets since they could fly three hundred pound stones up to two hundred and seventy-five meters that would destroy walls. Both sides of the battle usually had trebuchets to defend their cities and attack their enemies.
The trebuchet came to England during the Siege of Dover. Louis the Dauphin of France cut across the channel and laid obstruction to Dover Castle. This became violent and caused nonstop attacks on the walls. Hugh de Burgh refused to surrender causing King Edward I to have Master James of St. George create a new version of the trebuchet. James of St. George called his creation Warwolf. It was typically thought as the most powerful and most famous of the trebuchets in history.
The invention of the trebuchet changed war tactics and created excitement that still is in our society today. They could launch many items to cause huge destruction to walls and corrupt the cities with diseases. To achieve the accomplishment of the perfected trebuchet, it took many years of adjustments.
Engineering of the Trebuchet
A trebuchet is a machine used in medieval siege warfare for hurling large stones or other missiles. The weapon is very similar to a catapult. It would hurl smash castle or city walls. Cities, castles, and fortresses could turn to rubble from the force of one.
There are key elements that all trebuchets need in order to work properly. A trebuchet has a long beam that pivots around an axle above ground on a wooden structure. The beam is divided into a long and short arm by the axle. The counterweight is at the end of the short arm while the projectile is at the end of the long arm. The three basic forms of trebuchets are traction trebuchets, counterweight machines, and hybrid machines. The most powerful of the three are the counterweight trebuchets.
Traction trebuchets were when a group of men pulled down ropes hanging from the short end of the beam to launch the missiles. The short end usually had rake-like ropes to help give the group a little more room and power. The axle has to be high above the ground to be able to make the beam swing above their heads. Most likely it is a wooden square frame on top of a pole. The sling release adds a huge amount of whip to the launch and can increase the range dramatically. The cords are both connected to the beam end but when launched on cord falls off firing the missile that is inside of the pouch. There are other types of traction trebuchets including the “tower” type, the single pole type, the two-post type, and the heavy type.
The counterweight machines did not use manual power to launch the object, they used weight.

Using large stones or other materials creates great power during the medieval times. These are the most common types of trebuchets. They could shoot about three hundred meters using fifty to one hundred kilograms of weight. The counterweight provides automatic force to fire and is very heavy. To increase the distance the projectile goes, the throwing arm needs to be long compared to the counterweights arm and a large weight compared to the object being thrown. The proper ratio for the counterweight to the projectile is about one hundred to one while the ratio of the throwing arm to the short arm is about four to

one.
Hybrid trebuchets are a combination of a traction and counterweight trebuchet. It uses gravity to pull down the mass of the missile as well as men pulling on ropes attached to the short end of the beam. Gravity is the force that attracts something towards the earth.
The medieval trebuchet had a lever and sling that applied a large force to the shorter end of the arm while the missile on the end of the longer arm with the fulcrum in the middle. End short end has heavy lead weights or a pivoting ballast box. The falling weight propelled the long end up making the middle project into the air.
The most important factor of the trebuchet is the sling. The range of the weapon is greatly increased by extending the length of the throwing arm. This gives the crew the ability to aim and adds distance to the trebuchet. The crew used to have to move the whole machine in order to change the direction of the trajectory before they added the sling.

Works Cited
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