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TREBUCHET

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 233 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TREBUCHET , a See also:

medieval See also:siege See also:engine, employed either to See also:batter See also:masonry or to throw projectiles over walls. It was See also:developed from the See also:post-classical See also:Roman onager (See also:wild See also:ass), which derived its name from the kicking See also:action of the See also:machine. It consisted of a See also:frame placed on the ground to which a See also:vertical frame of solid See also:timber was rigidly fixed at its front end; through the vertical frame ran an See also:axle, which had a single stout spoke. On the extremity of the spoke was a See also:Cup to receive the projectile. In action the spoke was forced down, against the tension of See also:twisted See also:ropes or other springs, by a windlass, and then suddenly released. The spoke thus kicked the crosspiece of the vertical frame, and the projectile at its extreme end was shot forward. In the trebuchet the means of propulsion was a See also:counter-See also:weight. The axle which was near the See also:top of a high strutted vertical frame served as the See also:bridge of a See also:balance, the shorter See also:arm of which carried the counter-weight and the longer arm the See also:carrier for the shot. An alternative name for the trebuchet is the mangonel (mangonneau).

End of Article: TREBUCHET

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