How does this thing even work? It looks as though they're using human bodies as the counterweight for the typical stone on a trebuchet.
this post was submitted on 04 May 2025
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trebuchet
There are two main types of trebuchet. The first is the traction trebuchet, or mangonel, which uses manpower to swing the arm. It first appeared in China by the 4th century BC. It spread westward, possibly via the Avars, and was adopted by the Byzantines, Persians, Arabs, and other neighboring peoples by the sixth to seventh centuries AD.[6][7][8]
The later, and often larger and more powerful, counterweight trebuchet, also known as the counterpoise trebuchet, uses a counterweight to swing the arm. It appeared in both Christian and Muslim lands around the Mediterranean in the 12th century, and was carried back to China by the Mongols in the 13th century.[9]
The OG form
Ah got it, thank you.
That's a ridiculous contraption but ingenious for the time period, combining the mass and energy of multiple people to throw a single projectile.
I too was curious about this contraption. Here is a video of some people using one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5nQ3CpFCl8&t=12m39s
ridiculous contraption but ingenious for the time period
Yeah, I have to keep reminding myself that people back then were just as clever as we are today, they just didn't have as much pre-existing easily-accessible information as we do these days.
People also didn’t have the software and hardware tools we have now. As a result, many old churches in Europe were the result of trial and error. Even though you got the most experienced architects and engineers, building large stone buildings is still hard and mistakes happen. As a result, cracks begin to form, and walls were reinforced later to prevent the whole thing from collapsing.
Nowadays, you would just simulate the whole thing under various situations and fine tune the plan before even ordering the construction materials. If that’s not an option, you just have to accept the fact that you’ll discover unexpected things at inconvenient times, and you’ll have to adapt.
Excellent point. Even something as relatively simple as a spreadsheet program enables things.
That makes more sense than what I was thinking. My first thought was "How do all of those Chinese dudes land safely so they can get up and fight? Is it a numbers thing where half those fuckers will die in the fall, but the other half might not? Did they have ancient parachutes? Were they training in tactical rolling from a fall back then?"
I'm an idiot.