When was trebuchet first used

Mobile Newsletter banner close. Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe. The first, called a "ballista" or tension catapult, looks like an oversized crossbow and works on the same principles, generating force from the tension of the bow arms. The ballista was invented by the Greeks in B. The second, known as an " onager " or torsion catapult, gets its power from a rope-like bundle of animal sinew and hair.

The rope is twisted tightly to create torsion, which, when released, generates enough force to launch a small projectile from a catapult arm. The Romans named the onager after a wild donkey that delivered an especially strong kick.

The third type of catapult is a trebuchet, perhaps the simplest yet most powerful catapult of all. The arm of a trebuchet is actually a long lever that's swung into motion by pulling downward with ropes or dropping a heavy counterweight. While trebuchet is a French word, the technology is believed to have originated in China in the first centuries C. Now That's Cool! Cite This! Try Our Crossword Puzzle!

What Is the Missing Number? Try Our Sudoku Puzzles! More Awesome Stuff. The placing of wheels allowed the machine to move forward and backward with the motion of the arm and swinging action of the counterweight. The first recorded use of a trebuchet is in Europe in the 12th century.

It was the machine of choice for the siege of castles, and far eclipsed the range of the simple catapult. The catapult used potential energy stored in twisted rope to hurl objects. While catapults could be reloaded more quickly, their range was less and their payload lighter. Trebuchets were very heavy and often built on-site, and were not designed to be mobile, but to lay siege to a castle or city and destroy its protective walls.

The counterweight greatly extended the range of the trebuchet so that it could remain far enough from its target to be out of reach of serious harm, but still close enough to unleash its deadly terror. Trebuchets were known to hurl stones weighing pounds up to yards.

King Edward I built the largest known trebuchet, called Warwolf, to assault Stirling Castle in Scotland after a long siege in When the inhabitants saw what was being built, they tried to surrender based on the sight of it alone.

The counterweight trebuchet, also a Chinese invention, replaced the traction trebuchet in the middle of the 12th century and remained in use through the 15th century.

It was able to hurl a projectile up to metres but the steep arc of its flight limited effectiveness against fortifications. This has led to the idea that trebuchets were used mainly to launch items over the walls, including diseased animal carcasses or the heads of captured men.