Catapult
A catapult is a ballistic device used to launch a projectile a great distance without the aid of gunpowder or other propellants – particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines.
Most convert tension or torsion energy that was more slowly and manually built up within the device before release, via springs, bows, twisted rope, elastic, or any of numerous other materials and mechanisms.
In modern times the term can apply to devices ranging from a simple hand-held implement (also called a "slingshot") to a mechanism for launching aircraft from a ship.
The earliest catapults date to at least the 7th century BC, with King Uzziah of Judah recorded as equipping the walls of Jerusalem with machines that shot "great stones".
Primitive catapults were essentially "the product of relatively straightforward attempts to increase the range and penetrating power of missiles by strengthening the bow which propelled them".
1st century AD), who referred to the now lost works of the 3rd-century BC engineer Ctesibius, this weapon was inspired by an earlier foot-held crossbow, called the gastraphetes, which could store more energy than the Greek bows.
2nd century BC), whose reliability has been positively reevaluated by recent scholarship,[8][22] described two advanced forms of the gastraphetes, which he credits to Zopyros, an engineer from southern Italy.
[17] Philo of Byzantium provides probably the most detailed account on the establishment of a theory of belopoietics (belos = "projectile"; poietike = "(art) of making") circa 200 BC.
[17] An extant inscription from the Athenian arsenal, dated between 338 and 326 BC, lists a number of stored catapults with shooting bolts of varying size and springs of sinews.
[28] The later entry is particularly noteworthy as it constitutes the first clear evidence for the switch to torsion catapults, which are more powerful than the more-flexible crossbows and which came to dominate Greek and Roman artillery design thereafter.
[30] At the same time, Greek fortifications began to feature high towers with shuttered windows in the top, which could have been used to house anti-personnel arrow shooters, as in Aigosthena.
[dubious – discuss] In 2024, during the Israel-Hamas war, a trebuchet created by private initiative of an IDF reserve unit was used to throw firebrands over the border into Lebanon, in order to set on fire the undergrowth which offered camouflage to Hezbollah fighters.
[50] In the 1840s, the invention of vulcanized rubber allowed the making of small hand-held catapults, either improvised from Y-shaped sticks or manufactured for sale; both were popular with children and teenagers.
[54] Early launched roller coasters used a catapult system powered by a diesel engine or a dropped weight to acquire their momentum,[55] such as Shuttle Loop installations between 1977 and 1978.
