Fling-A-Keg

dave weekly writes: "Ever play Age of Empires and wonder at the trebuchets and catapults and what it would be like to launch them? Well, a bunch of medieval history and mechanical engineering geeks at Siege Engine decided to piece together several launching apparatuses and, for the benefit of the History Channel, flung kegs, pumpkins, and watermelons hundreds of feet all day long. The page also has pictures of a bunch of other sweet launchers, including air cannons."

Comments

Building a Trebuchet the old way

[alfadir]

During the spring I saw a documentary about a team building a Trebuchet with medieval tools.
It was on the Swedish science program, Vetenskapens värld.

In the NOVA/WGBH Trebuchet Project (October-November 1998),
the Timber Framers Guild helped to build two Trebuchets,
supervised by Mr Renaud Beffeyte.
A 300 pound stone ball was used to smash a a 7 foot-thick granite wall
more than 160 yards away.
No modern tools were used in the construction.

There are several types of Trebuchets and other war-mashines.
Schematic overviews and more information can be found at Medieval Mechanical Artillery

Re:Modern Tech

[Kronus]

I'm guessing they didn't use any nails way back when. Far too labor intensive and expensive to make by hand. Instead they'd use peg and hole construction, which is actually stronger than using nails. And if you split the wood yourself, it will split along the grain, which means the resulting piece of wood will be stronger than if you cut it at a mill. If anything I would imagine that the modern versions are weaker than their historical counterparts.

Pumpkin Chunkin'

[alexjohns]

The annual Pumpkin Chunkin' festival is in Delaware the weekend of November 2-4th. punkinchunkin.com My 3-year old son is gonna love it.