Trebuchet Essay

The trebuchet, following the catapult, the trebuchet was capable of launching 400 pound projectiles hundreds of feet. This engine of war was created for one purpose, lay siege to an enemy castle. Recent discoveries indicate that the first trebuchet could have been invented as early as 300 BCE in what is now China, this version is thought to have been a rope based trebuchet with groups of military men using upper body strength in order to lob the projectile. The trebuchet reached Europe approximately 700 years later in 400 CE and was used mostly by the French as opposed to the Anglo-Saxons (Trebuchet). This was when the rope pulled design was improved into the counterweight system.
The counterweight system used a large weight, usually a large

block of metal, at the shorter end of the firing arm and the projectile at the longer end. This was done as so in order to cause the most momentum on the projectile. This design was geometrically superior because of two main reasons, although it does take more force to turn the construction, it applies a much greater force on the other end if the weight or force, the counterweight, is closer to the focal point. This locational design for the trebuchet arm was also geometrically superior because the projectile was placed more distant from the focal point, this is significant because a far point in an arc moves significantly faster than a closer point applying more momentum to the projectile launched.
Throughout history the trebuchet has been used to launch a great variety of projectiles.

The most common and historical example was a large boulder, typically 200-400 pounds, but over the course of this engine’s use many other objects have been used to wage war with the trebuchet. One deadly example of what was used were a bundle of sharpened stakes, when launched they would unbundle and due to the aerodynamics would naturally point forward, due to the weight of such a projectile it would be unblockable by say a shield, armor, or a tree. Another possible projectile was greek fire, sticky oil set on fire that could not be extinguished with water, also burning sand was used because it would seep into the cracks of

armor.
One significant advancement in the way of projectiles was that a sieging enforcement would launch rotting food, animal carcasses, or even human remains in an attempt to inflict disease on the defenders. This is the first documented case of biological warfare, using disease and infection to attack an opposing force.
The Trebuchet was first introduced to the English by the French in 1250 CE during the siege of dover. The French used the trebuchet to lay siege to the castle of Dover in violent and incessant attacks (Trebuchet). Later the english king, King Edward I ordered his engineers to construct the Warwolf which was a massive and famous big brother to the counterweight trebuchet, but the english failed to keep records of its design or even construction.
In Order for the trebuchet to surpass the many siege engines before it, humans had to achieve a greater understanding of geometry and physics.

The invention of the trebuchet in China, 300 BCE, required that the Inventors of the trebuchet systems had an advanced understanding of Newton’s second law, every action has an equal and opposite reaction, but the trebuchet was invented about 2000 years before Isaac Newton was even born. This goes to show that Isaac Newton in fact did not discover Newton’s second law, he only put it into word and documented it. The inventor also had to possess an advanced understanding of tension and friction because the guide chute was frictionless to prevent inhibiting the projectile's speed, and an understanding of tension was required because the projectile will only vertically escape the guide chute when the tension on the sling exceeds the projectile’s own

weight.
Throughout the last two millennia the trebuchet has become the dominant engine of war because it allowed the sieging force to attack an encamped army from a safe distance as most castles only contained catapults instead of trebuchets, catapults could not fire as far as a trebuchet could, or fire as heavy projectiles. Although it did require several more advancements in physics and geometry than previous mechanisms would but no great advancement in technology was discovered without corresponding leaps in related science.