A battering ram is a siege engine originating in ancient times to break open fortification walls or doors. A siege engine is a device that is designed to Break or circumvent City walls and other Fortifications in Siege warfare. "Ancient" redirects here For other uses see Ancient_(disambiguation. Fortifications are Military Constructions and Buildings designed for defense in Warfare Humans have constructed defensive works for
In its simplest form, a battering ram is just a large, heavy log carried by several people and propelled with force against an obstacle; the momentum of the ram would be sufficient to damage the target if the log were massive enough and/or it were moved quickly enough (i. In Classical mechanics, momentum ( pl momenta SI unit kg · m/s, or equivalently N · s) is the product e. , had sufficient velocity).
In a more sophisticated design, a battering ram was slung from a wheeled support frame by ropes or chains so that it could be much more massive and also more easily swung against its target. Sometimes the ram's attacking point would be reinforced with a metal head and vulnerable parts of the ram might be bound with metal bands. Many battering rams had protective roofs and side-screens covered in materials, usually fresh wet hides, presumably from the animals eaten by the besiegers, to prevent the ram being set on fire, as well as to protect the operators of the ram from enemies firing arrows down on them by allowing them to seek shelter within the battering ram structure. The image of the Assyrian battering ram shows how sophisticated attacks and defences had become by the 9th century BC. The defenders are trying to set the ram alight with torches and have also put a chain under the ram. The attackers are trying to pull on the chain to free the ram, while the aforementioned wet hides would protect against the fire.
In castles, defenders attempted to foil battering rams by dropping obstacles in front of the ram, such as a large sack of sawdust, just before it hit a wall, by using grappling hooks to immobilize the log, by setting the ram on fire, or by sallying to attack the ram directly.
Some battering rams were not slung from ropes or chains, but were instead supported by rollers. This allowed the ram to achieve a greater speed before striking its target and was therefore more destructive. Such a ram, as used by Alexander the Great, is described by the writer Vitruvius. Alexander the Great ( or, Mégas Aléxandros; July 20 356 BC June 10 or June 11 323 BC also known as Alexander III of Macedon (el Ἀλέξανδρος Γ' Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (born c 80–70 BC died after c 15 BC was a Roman Writer, Architect and Engineer (possibly praefectus fabrum
Variations on the battering ram included the drill, the mouse, the pick, and the siege hook. A siege hook is a weapon used to pull stones from a wall during a Siege. These were smaller than a ram and could be used in more limited spaces.
Battering rams had an important effect on the evolution of defensive walls.
Historical battering ram usages include:
There is a popular myth in Gloucester that the famous children's rhyme, Humpty Dumpty, is about a battering ram used in the siege of Gloucester in 1643, during the English Civil War. Jerusalem (יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, he-Latn Yerushaláyim; Arabic: ar القُدس, ar-Latn al-Quds) is the Rome ( Roma ˈroma Roma is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city with more than 2 Gloucester (ˈɡlɒstɚ) is a city, district and County town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Humpty Dumpty is a character in a Nursery rhyme typically portrayed as an egg. The English Civil War (1642-1651 was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists. However, the story is almost certainly untrue; during the siege, which lasted only one month, no battering rams were used, although many cannons were. The idea seems to have originated in a spoof history essay by Professor David Daube written for The Oxford Magazine in 1956, which was widely believed despite obvious improbabilities (e. g. , planning to cross River Severn by running the ram down a hill at speed, although the river is about 30 m (100 feet) wide at this point). For other rivers named "Severn" see Severn River. The River Severn ( Welsh: Afon Hafren, Latin The metre or meter is a unit of Length. It is the basic unit of Length in the Metric system and in the International A foot (plural feet or foot; symbol or abbreviation ft or sometimes &prime – the prime symbol) is a non-SI unit
A capped ram is a battering ram that has an accessory at the head (usually made of iron or steel and sometimes shaped into the head and horns of a ram) to do more damage to a building.
Modern use
Battering rams still serve many different roles in modern times, sometimes mounted on vehicles. SWAT teams and other police forces often use small two-man metal rams for opening locked doors and effecting a forced entry. SWAT ( Special Weapons And Tactics) is an elite special operations tactical unit in American Police departments similar to the Taiwan Thunder Squad Forcible entry is defined by Mirriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law as the unlawful taking of possession of real property by force or threats of force or unlawful entry Other modern battering rams include a cylinder in which a piston gets fired automatically upon impact, which enhances the momentum of the impact significantly.
Use in fiction
- In The Lord of the Rings, a battering ram named Grond, the Hammer of the Underworld, was used in the breaking of the great gate of Minas Tirith. The Lord of the Rings is an epic Grond (called the Hammer of the Underworld) is the name of two fictional weapons from the works of J This article is about the city in the Third Age. For the First Age tower of the same name see Minas Tirith (First Age.
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