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The Catapult
It is made of soft hide, doubled and packed with horsehair, and should
be nailed to the cross-bar.
Without this protection the arm and cross-bar would soon be shattered.1
Fig. 196. - The After End of the Catapult. Scale 1/2
in. = 1 ft.
A spanner for turning the winches is shown in position
on one of the pinion wheels.
The Arm of the Catapult
The arm (of ash, straight grained and without a knot or shake) is 7
ft. long and 4 1/2 in. thick, with rounded edges. It tapers from a width
of 8 in. at its butt-end, to a width of 6 1/2 in. at the part above the
ring-bolt where it commences to enlarge into the cup that holds the stone.
The tendency of the arm of a catapult is always to draw out of the skein
of cord, in which its butt-end is placed.
This is the result of the strain applied to the arm when it is being
1 In my largest catapult ,the sound made by
the striking the crossbar can be heard at a distance of over a mile. |
