Flying First Class
Freestyle Skiing
Goblin Shark
The Three Stooges
Benelli M4 Super 90
Tanker 910
Breast Reduction
Hiller X-18
Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Down Syndrome
Spider Monkey
Union Pacific Big Boy
Warrenpoint Ambush
Apollo 11
Les Stroud
Richard Pryor
Concussion
North American X-15
Blue Ringed Octopus
Rhytidectomy (Facelift)
Saint Valentine's Day Massacre
Big Mac Index
Annelid
Tiger Shark
Niagara Falls
Heckler & Koch MP5
Hyena
2008 Toronto Propane Explosion
Lamborghini Countach
Breast Implant
Delorean DMC-12
Tonopah Test Range Airport
Buran Program
Poison Dart Frog
Samuel Adams Beer
Outlaws Motorcycle Club
P-51 Mustang
Fluorescence
Simo Hayha
Hot Dog
Airwolf
Golden Eagle
Halabja Poison Gas Attack
HMS Ardent
Taurus Judge
Antipredator Adaption
Tom Savini
Black Ice
Hyacinth Macaw
AH-1 Super Cobra
Honey Badger
Traumatic Brain Injury
Emma Maersk
Magma
Patterdale Terrier
Evergreen Supertanker
Andre The Giant
Minigun
Irukandji Jellyfish
.357 SIG
The Greatest American Hero
USS Thresher (SSN-593)
Richard Simmons
Ingrown Toenail
Spud Gun
Trebuchet
Go-Go Dancing
Suicide By Cop
Floater
Rubber Band Gun
KITT
Green Anaconda
Richard Kuklinski
Rip Current
Buzkashi
1993 Storm Of The Century
Kidney Transplant
Polar Bear Plunge
Times Square Ball
The Year Without A Santa Claus
Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
K2
Blue Footed Booby
Massive Ordinance Penetrator
Neuschwanstein Castle
SR-71 Blackbird
Glow Stick
Venus Fly Trap
Mitch Hedberg
German Battleship Tirpitz
Chironex Fleckeri
Boss Hoss Motorcycles
USS Nautilus
Project Excelsior
John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame
LZ 129 Hindenburg
Mount Everest
Emphysema
C-130 Hercules
Zone Of Alienation
Target Girl
Jimmy Hoffa
Code Talker
SS Andrea Doria
Ramstein Airshow Disaster
Caddyshack
MacGyver
Flamethrower
United States Bullion Depository
Hells Angels
Yellow Jacket
Cluster Bomb
Body Suspension
Piper Alpha
Molotov Cocktail
Gumpert Apollo
Russian Knights
John Gotti
Ashley Force
Ilyushin Il-62
Audi R10 TDI
Kim Peek
Pancreatic Cancer
Cordyceps
Ebola
BGM-109 Tomahawk
Sid Haig
Burj Dubai
Bagger 288
Goliath Birdeater
Robert Lasardo
Antonov An 225
HU-16 Albatross
Galileo Spacecraft
Crack Cocaine
Lyle Alzado
Caterpillar 797
Muay Thai
Saleen S7
The Benny Hill Show
Aortic Aneurysm
Cinnamon
Rheinmetall 120mm Gun
Iran Hostage Crisis
GE Genesis
Air Ambulance
M18A1 Claymore Antipersonnel Mine
Traci Lords
Methamphetamine
Manta Ray
Centralia, Pennsylvania
M*A*S*H (TV Series)
Nurse Shark
Harland "Colonel" Sanders
Celiac Disease
Sailing Stones
Soviet Aircraft Carrier Varyag
Dome Car
Dung Beetle
Spirit of Esctasy
Differential (Mechanical Device)
Bill Hicks
Shortfin Mako Shark
The Notorious B.I.G.
Marlboro Man
The Day After
Proton Rocket
Cardiac Surgery
Operation Crossroads
Unimog
Polydactyl Cat
MV Blue Marlin
Bone fracture
Astute Class Submarine
Great Train Robbery of 1963
Uruguayan Flight 571
Sears Tower
Harley Davidson WLA
Sten Gun
Swordfish
USS Liberty Incident
Blue Whale
Air India Flight 182
Achille Lauro
Driver Ant
Bobby Orr
.700 Nitro Express
Pan Am Flight 103
High Speed Photography
Saguaro
Chess Boxing
Tybee Bomb
Brittle Star
Operation El Dorado Canyon
Boston Garden
Shuttle Carrier Aircraft
Dennis Miller
Adventure (Atari 2600)
Narwhal
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Phalanx CWIS
|
|
A trebuchet is a siege engine that was employed in the Middle Ages either to smash masonry walls or to throw projectiles over them. 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", the original version with pulling men instead of a counterweight. The counterweight trebuchet appeared in both Christian and Muslim lands around the Mediterranean in the twelfth century. It could fling up to three-hundred and fifty pound projectiles at high speeds into enemy fortifications. On occasion, disease-infected corpses were flung into cities in an attempt to infect or terrorize the people under siege—a medieval form of biological warfare. Trebuchets were far more accurate than other medieval catapults. 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. Trebuchets were used both at the siege of Burgos (1475–1476) and siege of Rhodes (1480). One of the last recorded military uses was by Hernán Cortés, at the 1521 siege of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán. 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. Trebuchets are used to throw pumpkins at the annual Pumpkin chunking contest held in Sussex County, Delaware. The record-holder in that contest for trebuchets is the Yankee Siege, which at the 2009 Championship tossed a pumpkin 2034 feet. The 51 foot tall, 55,000 pound trebuchet fires 8–10 pound pumpkins. [READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE]
