Trebuchet at Château des Baux, France

A trebuchet^[1] or trebucket^[2] is a siege engine that was employed in the Middle Ages either to smash masonry walls or to throw projectiles over them. Les Baux-de-Provence is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France, in the province of Provence This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. A siege engine is a device that is designed to Break or circumvent City walls and other Fortifications in Siege warfare. Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar, and the term "masonry" can also refer to the units themselves A wall is a usually solid structure that defines and sometimes protects an area A projectile is any object propelled through space by the exertion of a force which ceases after launch It is sometimes called a “counterweight trebuchet” or "counterpoise trebuchet" in order to distinguish it from an earlier weapon that has come to be called the “traction trebuchet”, though this is redundant.

The counterweight trebuchet appeared in both Christian and Muslim lands around the Mediterranean in the twelfth century. It could fling three-hundred-pound (140 kg) projectiles at high speeds into enemy fortifications. On occasion, disease-infected corpses were flung into cities in an attempt to infect the people under siege—a medieval variant of biological warfare. Biological warfare (BW — known as a germ warfare, biological weapons and bioweaponry — is the use of any Pathogen ( Bacterium Trebuchets appear in China in about the 4th century BCE and in Europe in the 6th century CE, and did not become obsolete until the 16th century, well after the introduction of gunpowder. Trebuchets were far more accurate than other medieval catapults. A catapult is any one of a number of non-handheld mechanical devices used to throw a Projectile a great distance without the aid of an explosive substance—particularly various

The basic workings of a trebuchet

A strobe picture of a simulated trebuchet in action

A trebuchet works by using the mechanical principle of leverage to propel a stone or other projectile much farther and more accurately than a catapult, which swings off of the ground. Simulation is the imitation of some real thing state of affairs or process A catapult is any one of a number of non-handheld mechanical devices used to throw a Projectile a great distance without the aid of an explosive substance—particularly various The sling and the arm swing up to the vertical position, where usually assisted by a hook, one end of the sling releases, propelling the projectile towards the target with great force. ^[3]

Many advancements have been made upon the trebuchet. Scientists are still in argument over whether the ancients used wheels to absorb some of the excess power and put it back into the projectile. A scientist, in the broadest sense refers to any person that engages in a systematic activity to acquire Knowledge or an individual that engages in such practices A wheel is a circular device that is capable of rotating on its axis facilitating movement or transportation whilst supporting a load ( Mass) or performing labour in machines In Physics, power (symbol P) is the rate at which work is performed or energy is transmitted or the amount of energy required or expended for It is known that troughs, often rotated in either direction for aiming, were used for the projectile to slide along, thus increasing accuracy. A projectile is any object propelled through space by the exertion of a force which ceases after launch A bar placed at the stopping point of the arm may have been used to take more advantage of the wood (or metal)'s natural springiness, though this much more resembles a catapult. Wood is hard fibrous lignified structural tissue produced as secondary Xylem in the stems of Woody plants notably trees but also shrubs The M acro E xpansion T emplate A ttribute L anguage complements TAL, providing macros which allow the reuse of code across

Trebuchets vs. Torsion

The trebuchet is often confused with the earlier, less powerful torsion engines. The term torsion may refer the following In geometry Torsion of curves Torsion tensor in differential geometry The main difference is that a torsion engine (examples of which include the mangonel and ballista) uses a twisted rope or twine to provide power, whereas a trebuchet uses a counterweight on a fulcrum, usually much closer to the fulcrum than the payload for mechanical advantage, though this is not necessary. A mangonel was a type of Catapult or Siege machine used in the medieval period to throw projectiles at a castle 's walls The ballista ( Latin, from Greek βαλλίστρα - ballistra, from - βάλλω ballō, "to throw" plural ballistae In Physics and Engineering, mechanical advantage (MA is the factor by which a mechanism multiplies the force put into it A trebuchet also usually has a sling holding the projectile, which provides a larger arc without having to have a taller trebuchet, because it can be tucked underneath.

Both trebuchets and torsion engines are classified under the generic term "catapult," which includes any non-handheld mechanical device designed to hurl an object without the aid of an explosive substance. A catapult is any one of a number of non-handheld mechanical devices used to throw a Projectile a great distance without the aid of an explosive substance—particularly various

Floating Arm Trebuchet

A floating arm trebuchet (FAT) is a modern variant of a trebuchet. The main difference is that an FAT drops the weight straight downwards from a longer height, and the arm is mounted on wheels to keep it from interfering. This increases the energy output, even with an arm with less mechanical advantage. ^[4]

History

A Chinese Song Dynasty naval river ship with a Xuanfeng traction trebuchet catapult, taken from the Wujing Zongyao text of AD 1044. The Song Dynasty ( Wade-Giles: Sung Ch'ao was a ruling dynasty in China between 960&ndash1279 CE it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms The Wujing Zongyao ( was a Chinese military compendium written in 1044 AD during the Northern Song Dynasty.

Side view

The trebuchet derives from the ancient sling. A sling is a projectile Weapon typically used to throw a blunt Projectile such as a stone A variation of the sling contained a short piece of wood to extend the arm and provide greater leverage. This evolved into the traction trebuchet by the Chinese, in which a number of people pull on ropes attached to the short arm of a lever that has a sling on the long arm. Chinese civilization originated in various city-states along the Yellow River ( valley in the Neolithic era This type of trebuchet is smaller and has a shorter range, but is a more portable machine and has a faster rate of fire than larger, counterweight-powered types. The smallest traction trebuchets could be powered by the weight and pulling strength of one person using a single rope, but most were designed and sized for between 15 and 45 men, generally two per rope. These teams would sometimes be local citizens helping in the siege or in the defense of their town. Traction trebuchets had a range of 100 to 200 feet when casting weights up to 250 pounds. It is believed that the first traction trebuchets were used by the Mohists in China as early as in the 5th century BCE, descriptions of which can be found in the Mojing (compiled in the 4th century BCE). Mohism or Moism ( was a Chinese philosophy developed by the followers of Mozi (also referred to as Mo Di 470 &ndashc China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National Mozi ( Lat as Micius, ca 470 BCE&ndashca 391 BCE was a Philosopher who lived in China during the Hundred Schools of Thought

The traction trebuchet next appeared in Byzantium. This article is about the city See also Byzantine Empire. Byzantium ( Greek: Βυζάντιον Latin: la BYZANTIVM The Strategikon of Emperor Maurice, composed in the late 6th century, calls for "ballistae revolving in both directions," (Βαλλίςτρας έκατηρωθεν στρεφόμενας), probably traction trebuchets (Dennis 1998, p. Flavius Mauricius Tiberius Augustus (Φλάβιος Μαυρίκιος Τιβέριος Αύγουστος Մավրիկ Mavrig; 539 &ndash November 27 99). The Miracles of St. Demetrius, composed by John I, archbishop of Thessalonike, clearly describe traction trebuchets in the Avaro-Slav artillery: "Hanging from the back sides of these pieces of timber were slings and from the front strong ropes, by which, pulling down and releasing the sling, they propel the stones up high and with a loud noise. " (John I 597 1:154, ed. Lemerle 1979)

There is some doubt as to the exact period in which traction trebuchets, or knowledge of them, reached Scandinavia. The Vikings may have known of them at a very early stage, as the monk Abbo de St. A Viking is one of the Norse ( Scandinavian Explorers Warriors Merchants, and pirates who raided and colonized wide areas Germain reports on the siege of Paris in his epic De bello Parisiaco dated about CE 890 that engines of war were used. The Siege of Paris of 885 to 886 was a Viking siege of Paris, then capital of the kingdom of the West Franks. Another source mentions that Nordic people or "the Norsemen" used engines of war at the siege of Angers as early as CE 873.

The first clearly written record of a counterweight trebuchet comes from an Islamic scholar, Mardi bin Ali al-Tarsusi, who wrote a military manual for Saladin circa 1187. Mardi bin Ali al-Tarsusi was a 12th century Ayyubid writer and expert on Military matters Salahadin Ayyubi ( Arabic:صلاح الدين يوسف بن أيوب Kurdish: سه‌لاحه‌دین ئه‌یوبی Selah'edînê Eyubî; c He describes a hybrid trebuchet that he said had the same hurling power as a traction machine pulled by fifty men due to "the constant force [of gravity], whereas men differ in their pulling force. " (Showing his mechanical proficiency, Tarsusi designed his trebuchet so that as it was fired it cocked a supplementary crossbow, probably to protect the engineers from attack. ) [1].

He allegedly wrote "Trebuchets are machines invented by unbelieving devils. " (Al-Tarsusi, Bodleian MS 264). This suggests that by the time of Saladin, Muslims were acquainted with counterweight engines, but did not believe that Muslims had invented them. Salahadin Ayyubi ( Arabic:صلاح الدين يوسف بن أيوب Kurdish: سه‌لاحه‌دین ئه‌یوبی Selah'edînê Eyubî; c Al-Tarsusi does not specifically say that the "unbelieving devils" were Christian Europeans, though Saladin was fighting Crusaders for much of his reign, and the manuscript predates the Chinese and Mongol weapons (Needham p. 218). They took about twelve days to build depending on how big the structure was going to be.

In his book, Medieval Siege, Jim Bradbury [[2]] extensively quotes from Mardi ibn Ali concerning mangonels of various types, including Arab, Perisan and Turkish, describing what could be trebuchets, but not quoted as above. Jim Bradbury (born 1937 is a British Historian specialising in the military history of the Middle Ages. A mangonel was a type of Catapult or Siege machine used in the medieval period to throw projectiles at a castle 's walls In On the Social Origins of Medieval Institutions [3], more detailed quotes by Mardi ibn Ali may be found on the various types of trebuchets, including the "Christian" type used by the Crusaders.

P. E. Chevedden states that his recent research shows that trebuchets reached the eastern Mediterranean by the late 500s, were known in Arabia and were used with great effect by Islamic armies. The technological sophistication for which Islam later became known was already manifest. He says that in particular, Islamic technical literature has been neglected. The most important surviving technical treatise on these machines is Kitab Aniq fi al-Manajaniq ( كتاب أنيق في المنجنيق, An Elegant Book on Trebuchets), written in 1462 by Yusuf ibn Urunbugha al-Zaradkash. One of the most profusely illustrated Arabic manuscripts ever produced, it provides detailed construction and operating information.

Chevedden further states: Engineers thickened walls to withstand the new artillery and redesigned fortifications to employ trebuchets against attackers. Architects working under al-Adil (1196–1218), Saladin’s brother and successor, introduced a defensive system that used gravity-powered trebuchets mounted on the platforms of towers to prevent enemy artillery from coming within effective range. These towers, designed primarily as artillery emplacements, took on enormous proportions to accommodate the larger trebuchets, and castles were transformed from walled enclosures with a few small towers into clusters of large towers joined by short stretches of curtain walls. The towers on the citadels of Damascus, Cairo and Bosra are massive structures, as large as 30 meters square.

19th century French three-quarter drawing of a medieval trebuchet. The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar

At the Siege of Acre in 1191, Richard the Lionheart assembled two trebuchets which he named "God's Own Catapult" and "Bad Neighbour". The Siege of Acre was the first confrontation of the Third Crusade, lasting from August 28, 1189 until July 12, 1191, and the Richard I (8 September 1157 &ndash 6 April 1199 was King of England from 6 July 1189 until his death During a siege of Stirling Castle in 1304, Edward Longshanks ordered his engineers to make a giant trebuchet for the English army, named "Warwolf". For ships named after the castle see Stirling Castle (disambiguation Stirling Castle, located in Stirling, is one of the largest Edward I (17 June 1239 – 7 July 1307 popularly known as Longshanks, was a King of England who achieved historical fame by conquering large parts of Wales and almost Warwolf, or War Wolf or Ludgar ( Loup de Guerre) is believed to be the largest Trebuchet ever made Range and size of the weapons varied. In 1421 the future Charles VII of France commissioned a trebuchet (coyllar) that could shoot a stone of 800 kg, while in 1188 at Ashyun, rocks up to 1,500 kg were used. Charles VII (22 February 1403 – 22 July 1461 called the Victorious (le Victorieux or the Well-Served (le Bien-Servi was King of France from 1422 Average weight of the projectiles was probably around 50-100 kg, with a range of ca. 300 meters. Rate of fire could be noteworthy: at the siege of Lisbon (1147), two engines were capable of launching a stone every 15 seconds. The Siege of Lisbon, from July 1 to October 25 of 1147, was the military action that brought the city of Lisbon under definitive Portuguese Also human corpses could be used in special occasion: in 1422 Prince Korybut, for example, in the siege of Karlštejn shot men and manure within the enemy walls, apparently managing to spread infection among the defenders. For other nobles of the same name please see Sigismund. Sigismund Korybut (Žygimantas Kaributaitis Zikmund Korybutovič ca See other locations named Karlštejn. Karlštejn (Karlstein is a large Gothic Castle founded in the 14th century

Counterweight trebuchets do not appear with certainty in Chinese historical records until about CE 1268, when the Mongols laid siege to Fancheng and Xiangyang, although Joseph Needham has propounded the view that Qiang Shen, a Chinese commander of the Jurchen Jin Dynasty, 1115-1234, may have invented an early counterweight engine independently in CE 1232 (Needham, Volume 4, p. Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham, CH, FRS, FBA ( December 9, 1900 – March 24 1995) was a British The Jurchens ( were a Tungus people who inhabited the region of Manchuria ( Northeast China) until the 17th century when they adopted the name Manchu This is an article for the Jurchen Jin Dynasty (1115–1234 For other Chinese dynasties whose names are also rendered "Jin" in Pinyin, see Jin Dynasty 30). At the Siege of Fancheng and Xiangyang, the Mongol army, unable to capture the cities despite besieging the Song defenders for years, brought in two Persian engineers who built hinged counterweight trebuchets and soon reduced the cities to rubble, forcing the surrender of the garrison. The Battle of Xiangyang ( Chinese: 襄陽之戰 was a six-year battle between invading Yuan Dynasty armies founded by Mongols and Southern Song forces between The Song Dynasty ( Wade-Giles: Sung Ch'ao was a ruling dynasty in China between 960&ndash1279 CE it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms These engines were called by the Chinese historians the Huihui Pao (回回砲)("huihui" means Muslim) or Xiangyang Pao (襄陽砲), because they were first encountered in that battle.

The largest trebuchets needed exceptional quantities of timber: at the siege of Damietta, in 1249, Louis IX of France was able to build a stockade for the whole Crusade camp with the wood from 24 captured Egyptian trebuchets.

With the introduction of gunpowder, the trebuchet lost its place as the siege engine of choice to the cannon. Gunpowder is a an explosive mixture of Sulfur, Charcoal and Potassium nitrate (also known as saltpetre/saltpeter that burns rapidly producing volumes | NOTE Throughout this article "cannon" is used as BOTH the || singular and plural Trebuchets were used both at the siege of Burgos (1475-1476) and siege of Rhodes (1480). At the Siege of Burgos September 19 to October 21, 1812, the Anglo-Portuguese army led by General Marquess of Wellington failed to capture In 1480 the Knights Hospitaller garrison of Rhodes withstood an attack of the seemingly unstoppable Ottoman Empire. The last recorded military use was by Hernán Cortés, at the 1521 siege of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán. Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro 1st Marqués del Valle de Oaxaca ( 1485&ndash December 2, There are some towns in Mexico which are spelled "Tenochtitlán" like San Lorenzo Accounts of the attack note that its use was motivated by the limited supply of gunpowder. The attempt was reportedly unsuccessful: the first projectile landed on the trebuchet itself, destroying it.

In 1779 British forces defending Gibraltar, finding that their cannons were unable to fire far enough for some purposes, constructed a trebuchet. Gibraltar (dʒɨˈbrɒltər is a British overseas territory located near the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar It is unknown how successful this was: the Spanish attackers were eventually defeated, but this was largely due to a sortie. Sortie is a term for deployment or dispatch of one military unit be it of Aircraft, Ship or in older times of columns of troops from a fort

Models

A commercial model of a medieval trebuchet

Today, smaller trebuchets are built for school science and history fairs, competitions or as a hobby. These can be purchased from Renaissance Fairs, or from several online stores. A Renaissance fair, Renaissance faire, or Renaissance festival is an outdoor weekend gathering usually held in the United States, open to the public and Models range from small, 1/30th scale models to full size trebuchets.

See also

• Catapult
• Medieval Warfare
• Onager
• Siege Engine

References

• Chevedden; et al. (July 1995). "The Trebuchet", Scientific American, 66-71.  [4]
• Chevedden; et al. (July 1995). "The Trebuchet", Scientific American (Original Version), 66-71.  [5]
• Chevedden; et al. (2002). "The Trebuchet", Scientific American (Reduced Online Version with fewer images), 1-5.  [6]
• Chevedden, Paul E. (2000). "The Invention of the Counterweight Trebuchet:A Study in Cultural Diffusion (TEXT)", Dumbarton Oaks Papers, No. 54, 72-116.  [7]
• Chevedden, Paul E. (2000). "The Invention of the Counterweight Trebuchet:A Study in Cultural Diffusion (PLATES)", Dumbarton Oaks Papers, No. 54, 72-116.  [8]
• Dennis, George (1998). "Byzantine Heavy Artillery: The Helepolis". Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies (39).  
• Gravett, Christopher (1990). Medieval Siege Warfare. Osprey Publishing.  
• Hansen, Peter Vemming (April 1992). "Medieval Siege Engines Reconstructed: The Witch with Ropes for Hair". Military Illustrated (47): 15-20.  
• Hansen, Peter Vemming (1992). "Experimental Reconstruction of the Medieval Trebuchet". Acta Archelologica (63): 189-208.  [9]
• Jahsman, William E. ; MTA Associates (2000). The Counterweighted Trebuchet -- an Excellent Example of Applied Retromechanics.  [10]
• Jahsman, William E. ; MTA Associates (2001). FATAnalysis.   [11]
• Archbishop of Thessalonike, John I (1979). Miracula S. Demetrii, ed. P. Lemerle, Les plus anciens recueils des miracles de saint Demitrius et la penetration des slaves dans les Balkans. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.  
• Liang, Jieming (2006). Chinese Siege Warfare: Mechanical Artillery & Siege Weapons of Antiquity - An Illustrated History.  
• Needham, Joseph (2004). Science and Civilization in China. Cambridge University Press, 218.  
• Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Part 2. Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd.
• Payne-Gallwey, Sir Ralph (1903 Reprinted). "LVIII The Trebuchet", The Crossbow With a Treatise on the Balista and Catapult of the Ancients and an Appendix on the Catapult, Balista and Turkish Bow, 308-315.  
• Saimre, Tanel (2007). TREBUCHET – A GRAVITY-OPERATED SIEGE ENGINE A Study in Experimental Archaeology.  [12]
• Siano, Donald B. (Mar 28, 2001). Trebuchet Mechanics.  [13]
• Al-Tarsusi (1947). Instruction of the masters on the means of deliverance from disasters in wars. Bodleian MS Hunt. 264. ed. Cahen, Claude, "Un traite d'armurerie compose pour Saladin". Bulletin d'etudes orientales 12 [1947-1948]:103-163.  

External links

• Secrets of Lost Empires: Medieval Siege (building of and history of trebuchets), from the NOVA website
• Trebuchet Mechanics (in PDF format)
• Video of a Spring Trebuchet in action
• Homemade Propped CW Trebuchet Design
• Historical accounts of the Trebuchet
• Evolution of Sling Weapons
• Blueprints for a Trebuchet