@@michimatsch5862 he'd probably have one laying around and be like: "Nah, it's nothing great, just something I once made for fun to test the principle. Didn't have time to make it fancy or anything."
This just proves that Tod is insane. No man could have that cool a piece of kit in the shed and not take it out to play every day. Euphemism only partly intended.
Tod, "Sorry, I've rambled for far too long..." Me, "Where did the time go? This was fascinating." I like how the ratchet handle becomes the aiming handle.
Your initial understanding is correct, if i remember it clearly from an ancient war museum in Rome itself, it all starts from the original greek warmachines. Shooting bolts/javelins were for piercing (kata/cata) shields (peltas) to disrupt hoplite formations, therefore catapulta. Balista, Onagers, Scorpions etc. were later derivations, and the Romans inherited the word 1:1 in the Latin language (as in latin the two words would be foro/terebro and scutum, no resemblance to catapulta). Medieval time engineers simply read on the latin manuals, and the confusion derived from that initial "aggregation" of catapults and ballista based on machine size and shape and not projectile launched, leading to the bastardization of the term; mostly because the greek origin of the term was lost, and they only interpreted the latin version. At least, there should be a reference to this in Leonardo Da Vinci's notes too, but i can't remember where (as I said, it was a long time ago, but the source was as close to Rome as possible and they had original latin text references). The sources for the museum should be (I'd wager) pretty close to those of the book you showed, so it sounds perfectly legit.
This naming thing is incredibly confusing, because at least for italian, every source I can find says that romans were the ones that started calling this a Balista, while the greek called it Catapulta. Why are english sources saying it medieval people did this change?
@@VarenRoth Good point, so i went to doublecheck the sources straight from the Italian Wikipedia (I figured if any place had well linked sources, it'd be them). The Italian dictionary itself says that the italian term "Ballista" comes from the latin word that was itself inherited from ancient greek ( βαλλίστρα/ballistra), "A bowlike Greek and then Roman mounted warmachine". The earliest ballista project was in Syracusa around 350~B.C., as a mounted evolution of the Gastraphetes which @Tod's Workshop should be familiar with. Later, Macedonian and Hellenistic period engineers further evolved the catapulta (which now throwed rocks, "lithobolos") into throwing bigger and bigger rocks but were all called balista or lithobolosi, while the Latins only adopted the first term. The distinction in the greek machines naming was still due to the projectile loaded, but apparently this was due to their design: katapeltas were NOT using a torsion engine, while ballista were, meaning catapultas were incapable of throwing moderately big rocks by design limitation, and not by intention/field designation. Apparently, early period Roman engineers built all 3 versions with a torsion engine and named them depending on the size; the scorpion was the smallest (single operator, bolts only), then the catapulta (the field/anti-infantry one that Tod built here, with bolts or javelins) and the ballista, the siege engine proper,capable of launching all types of munitions. Since all 3 had torsion engine designs, unlike the greek one, i suspect the confusion was born at this step and not in medieval times as i've stated before. This is all tracked in the Atlantic Codex from Leonardo da Vinci and, following the source, apparently is this: Atlantic Codex, f. 140b. r, f. 152 r, f. 149b r. This is the old book (2009) that references those pages, only found it in Italian, and was written by the same curator of that museum: www.worldcat.org/it/title/635378168 If tod could see this, then he could probably double check with his book, but i suspect a similar story to be found there.
Tod, your "rambling on" had me is stitches. Loved it. When you spoke about issuing field artillery manuals whilst the English were living in mud huts cracked me up. Reminded me of the fun jousts my parents used to have. Dad was Hungarian and Mum from Lancashire. During one of these spates Dad said "You English, you were painting your bodies with berries when we were riding horses with stirrups" We all know how stirrups are an ultimate weapon. Without missing a beat in perfect English whit, Mum fired back "That's true, but it didn't take us long to surpass you."
The stones who were send over the city wall had a weight of 300 Kg. If those stones come like rain, the houses got a lot of damage too. More speed is nice but the weight brings the damages. Smaller stones came out a hot fire, making the house burn if it didn't lose it's heat quickly.
This is absolutely beautiful. The fact that it was sitting somewhere in his house for 10 years adds a lot of humor to it. Has the same energy of someone finding a Panther in their barn
I built a small one of these along with a different catapult some years back, I made it out of craft sticks and string for one of my kids school projects, I remember it really surprised me just how far such a small 'toy' could throw the arrows I made, apparently it surprised the teacher also but it was a big hit with the kids :)
Someone sponsor this man to build a siege onager already!!! We need to complete his collection ASAP! I was a footman once, but Tod put a Catapulta Bolt in my knee.
Alan Wilkins taught me Latin in the early '60's. He was an excellent and very popular teacher and the youngest teacher of Classics at our school (by several decades). His lessons were always peppered with stories and anecdotes about how the Romans actually lived and we soon cottoned on that, if the mood was right, cunningly devised questions about the Roman army - and particularly the Roman army in Britain - could set him off on a fascinating tangent for ages. I'm sure, with the wisdom of hindsight that he was aware of what we were doing, but he was so knowledgeable and enthusiastic about his interests. Top bloke.
0:35 Tod says: _This was sitting in my cupboard._ I can't imagine the size of your cupboard, are you sure you don't confuse it with this weird room in Hogwarts were they can put all the things down to remain hidden? 😁
@@Spielkalb-von-Sparta Perhaps. Even though Tod probably knows where keeps his stuff, it's hard to find a wandering person from a place as labyrinthine as that. ;)
I would think the accuracy and range gain alone might be worth it. I makes them far more useful. You could snipe enemy commanders. You could shoot at moving cavalry trying to flank you. You can lay suppressive fire at multiple enemy formations that may be having a bit too much success against your lines at any one moment. You can use them in siege warfare. They bring an element of pure chaos to the battle. Imagine being out there knowing that these things are randomly smashing into your lines possibly at head level and that if you drop your shield you're dead...........if you keep your shield up you may still be seriously injured but of course now you can't see.
@@MrBottlecapBill They were barely used in open battles. They were primarily used in sieges (by both sides) where range is the most important thing. Also in naval battles in 3rd Century BC, but not so much after. When they were used in field battles it was almost always vis-a-vis a static defences of some kind: like forcing the enemy to keep away from the bank of a river to be crossed. For example: see Caesar using them in his amphibious landing in Britain. So while they are mentioned occasionally in the sources, it's never in completely open battles. So we can only conclude that they weren't used then. There's plenty of debate to be had on _why_ something so awesome wasn't more influential in battles, but the fact that it wasn't is settled by the sources. In all likelihood, they're just too slow, too cumbersome, too expensive, and (most of all) too few for them to be decisive in the vast majority of situations. This is even more true in the raiding/skirmishing/counter-raiding that that makes up 99% of ancient warfare.
@@jonathanwessner3456 obviously but for the time and effort it takes to carry it, set it up, load it, aim it and fire it. you could throw 10-20 smaller handheld darts. would be interesting to see if it was worth it, outside of siege situations.
Would they ever have mounted the "supporting arm" prop, at the top instead of the bottom? The bottom could be loosely set in grooves or notches in the main upright that would allow pre-set range angles. Or at the very least, you wouldn't have to bend down to reset the prop.
There's virtually no primary source evidence for stands. The versions Alan and Len adopted were copied from an intaglio showing cupid shooting a cheirioballistra. Hope that helps.
I love torsion engines! I have in the making a smaller machine (3cmØ springs) for almost 9 years there is a lot of problem solving and time needed to make one, I stuck for a long time in the metalworking... I hope we see more of this
Tod ... you are amazing... you just rummage in your store and conjure the exact same machine that I am building! I was just about to finish my own when an illness struck me and I have to recover first before I finalize it. Fantastic entertainment while I am waiting!
I saw a replica very similar to this one a few days ago in in Limeseum (a small museum dedicated to the Roman castel near the Limes at Ruffenhofen / Germany). I found the metal casing at the front made it look very impressive and somewhat advanced for the age. You really did a good job with yours!
Probably could use a witness mark on the main body (when it is fully wound) to tell you exactly how far back you need to pull it for each shot. Even minor differences in initial velocity will absolutely tank your accuracy, especially when you consider that in real combat accurate and fast range estimations would already be hard enough without a random variance in bolt velocity caused by you pulling it a quarter turn (or even just a couple teeth on the ratchet) more or less. Really beautiful machine, looking forward to seeing what it can do when dialed in to its full potential. Probably should wear eye protection, a helmet and really good gloves, ideally some armor (which I assume you can get quite easily) when you get to increasing the power. The amount of energy stored in that machine when the draw weight goes to a couple hundred kilo will be crazy and definitelly warrants similar precautions like dangerous heavy machinery in industrial applications does. I am kinda nervous of what would happen to your hand should you accidentally bump the trigger or tug the trigger cord when placing the bolt. In that respect its sort of like a mortar, requiring you to put the hand in the danger area to load it.
Keep in mind that humidity is going to change the actual force at any particular draw length. If a battle started in the morning and ran until afternoon, I could easily see the device being less powerful in the morning when the ropes were damper. So they might have had to do a running calibration. It would also be interesting to know of they would keep the ropes under tension all the time, or more likely (just like with stringed instruments) back off the tension between battles. If they do that, they need some way to reliably reset the tension.
great video! One point towards safety tho: everytime you use the rachet, you put your other hand on the strings! If the ratchet would fail you would possibly get devastating ropeburns, may even loose some fingers or the hand. I can not explain how hard i cringe everytime i saw you doing it!
The legio 8 augusta from Germany did experimental fast shooting with a scorpio. I don't remember the rate of "fire", but it was extremly impressive. Three men, completely synchronized - maybe they could give you more informations.
if you increase the power via torsioning the ropes, I think you will need sturdier targets. That was punching through the ones you have on "base" settings
@@ac1dflare937 ballistic gel is a poor simulator of human flesh for slow objects. It's not really a great simulator of flesh for high velocity objects, either, but it is consistent between batches. So if you have hard lab data based on live critter testing (IIRC Fackler used 160lb goats), you can use ammunition that was heavily tested _in vivo_ and then use a more consistent substitute to see what happens. As long as the relative performance between your worst performing and best performing in vivo matches your gel tests, it's going to be an acceptable yardstick.
Love it! Maybe use some plexiglass on both sides when you go towards full power,so you can crank it up while being prepared just in case one arm breaks,or one of the bundles. 600 meters is a huge distance to go. Even 400 meters would be a great achievement IMO.
Very nice to see this. I was a Roman military re enactor some years ago with Legio XIV (Roman Military Research Society) and worked with Len Morgan for a number of years at various events. His Roman name is / was 'Fatalis', just out of interest! We had a big version like the one you showed, it was called 'Bestia' and was pretty scary. But the main weapon was a 2 span catapulta but not as pretty as yours but deadly an utilitarian! We managed to put bolts through celtic style sheilds at 50 yards on a quarter power at public events. I was a legionary infantry grunt on the crew of one of these and at the end of the day, you knew you had a damn good workout. It was compulsory for us to work the thing in full segmented armour for safety reasons. Good memories!
Great machine, seeing how fast you can fire it untrained. Guess a trained team of2-4 soldiers could get quite an impressive rate of fire out of that thing. Wondering what other kinds of unused ancient or medieval wargear Tod finds when cleaning up his attic :) BTW a catapult shoots cats, it is in the name. :D
I totally agree that the word catapult comes from the word cat and that the first projectiles they shot with them were cats. And when they ran out of cats, they started to should other things with claws. Like arrows and bolts. Today, very few people know that cats almost got extinct because of this practice back in the days.
Seeing a catapulta in action it makes so much sense why the romans used them. Its brutal and it isnt even in a realistic drawweight. I mean i want one now and this isnt even the timeperiod I do in living History🤣 Thanks you Tod for letting us have Part in your curiosity😁
You could make a simple same sided triangle out of wood with a rope hanging from a top side and a plumbob.They used it as a spirit level in construction.Now comes the fun part. You can put a notch in a triangle for degrees. That way you get yourself a gun elevation quadrant.You would need to shoot and thinker a bit with it to figure out the range of each notch but i guess thats how you would do it in ancient times. You could also put two round wooden circles with division marks below the hinge that spins it for left and right sighting to make it super accurate with a spotter.
Or he could have made the Jupiter's mouth _juuuust_ a wee bit larger so he can actually aim through it at short range. We know Romans used the "small" bolt-throwers as their version of high-powered sniper rifles, so they MUST have been able to make precise, direct fire. My money is on Todd's machine not being much able to do so being just a matter of the replica being off by a milimeter or two - just enough that you can't actually use the hole to aim through it.
Something to add to "they could have but most likely didn't" ideas: if you were using this as part of a base defense, have a weight raised ahead of time, say a bag or rocks or some such, use that stored energy to make the reloading of the initial shots quicker. The rigging and making sure you have enough weight on hand would take some calculations/trial and error.
HI Guys, I will give an update on the KS page as well. We shot 7 films over 3 days and they promise to be very interesting. In honesty I was utterly wiped out after, then both myself and the editor Mike were on holidays, but as of last week Mike is back and on it. We are aiming to have them out for mid October, but in honesty the sheer volume of work involved means that end October is more likely; but we are trying.
Nice video. Looks much faster to use than what I would had thought. Could you try to see fast it would be to use, with 2 or 3 people manning it in the next video? It looked like you could load it fast by yourself, so more hands might make it really fast. How big are the biggest of this type, that we think they used? Do you think they were ever used to shoot more than one projectile at once?
I imagine that a crew would be drilled to perform specific tasks, similar to Victorian era artillerists, and each crew member would know how to do every part of the operation in case of casualties. I imagine he'd halve the time at least.
The stand support that drops when you aim, the ratchet handle that is used as an aiming handle... somehow these were the engineering details that I liked most :) the utility of it!
I’d like to know how this performs against heavy plate armour, maybe you should get some experts together to really settle if a catapulta can penetrate heavy armours you know, just a random idea I had. ;)
Beautiful piece of kit Tod! And the reloading speed amazed me, the sliding trigger and ratchet combo really is ingenious. A question: a while ago I read about a theory; that many catapultas were in fact inswingers. I.e the limbs rotated in front of the main frame. Supposedly this configuration could get a longer power stroke. What's your take on this?
Later machines were in swingers and these were quite different and yes more powerful as they had a longer stroke. Not sure when the change happened, but I think around 200 or 250
The reload speed of a two man team would be incredible. They each put their handle 180 degrees off the other so each man is able to pull when the other's handle goes too far. Able to have simultaneous actions like one unwinding the windless while the other pulls the latch up to the bow. I imagine a well trained team could refire in less than 10 seconds.
Yes the original treatise says the cords are to be pulled tight and stretched and 'clipped' into place whilst the next wrap is made. Apparently it was preferable for the cords winders to be musical so they could hear the note of the cord prior to clipping so each pre-tension is the same.
@@tods_workshop Who was it that said "It's a lazy soldier who twist his skein tight", or something to that effect? I used 500LB rated webbing as winch line. I found the breaking strength of the webbing, then backed off a bit. I could tell by the note it rang out as fibers started to snap. lol Probably had more then 500LB per pull, so the engines were probably under more like 24,000LB of tension to start off with. Tuning is Very important. The engines must be balanced.
I would not be surprised if rather than having such a device the Romans would have "pre-plotted" the range and aiming points for the various angles of the track both up/down and left/right plus how hard or far the projectile can hit for a given tensioning/clicks on the ratchet... They liked to be very technical about their engineering.
@@Ugly_German_Truths While the idea of a fancy brass instrument is a strong urge it was likely a simple collection of marks on the frame. The naked eye can only do so much.
One thing to note with any weapon like this: accuracy is relative. If you're one soldier charging 1 catapulta, the accuracy of the weapon and rate of fire mean you have a reasonable chance of getting into melee range and killing the operator. If you're a group of 200 people charging en masse toward a dozen catapulta being operated by however many people it takes to maximize rate of fire and provide acceptable accuracy, each volley is probably taking out at least one person each. Given the power described for a fully tuned catapulta and given many of the peoples Rome fought against didn't very sophisticated armour or shields, it's not entirely unreasonable to expect a bolt to go through the front rank and kill the person immediately behind them too. This of course depends on which front of expansion they were using this - Greece, Egypt and the Middle East had fairly sophisticated technology and would have had iron breastplates and wood backed iron shields. The Gauls and the peoples of Germania....don't have the same kind of reputation. (Of course, we've mostly only got Roman history books on this, and Roman histories are probably the least reliable source for accurate descriptions of Gallic and Germanian battle tactics and equipment. Other Mediterranian cultures have their own records written down, largely in formats we can read.)
Ancient artillery pieces were not used in mass against massed infantry charges. That's what archers were for. Artillery was used to supress a besieged fortification's archers from larger rane than they could retaliate. Fortification's artillery was used to supress assaulting artillery. Both roles required actually quite good accuraccy. That a guy who just built a catapulta only manages top hit with half his bolts doesn't mean that a trained artillerist wouldn't have been able to consistently hit a man-sized target at long range (and as a matter of fact, period sources often mention that being the case). Also, man, _everyone_ had iron armor by the time catapultas were in use. (What they would NOT have is iron shields. These weren't used then. Too heavy. Closest thing were bronze-faced wooden shields, of which the _thin sheet_ bronze was just a more durable facing than felt or leather.) The end of the broze age had been a whole milenium before that! By that time, every army (including Germans) used chain mail (which is actually a Celtic invention, not a Greek nor Roman one), plate armor was actually out of fashion (Greeks stopped favoring full cuirasses around 500 years before this kind of artillery was developed, and moved to lynothorax; and the famed Roman banded armor, the lorica segmentata, was in common use for just over a century and a half), and the cutting edge of armor was scale armor. We actually have a LOT of information regarding all this stuff. I direct you to a good source in English, Peter Connolly's "Greece and Rome at war". Good book which drinks from many period sources, by the grand-daddy of historical reenactors.
THis vidieo awnsers so many question's I had for many years. its one of the most interesting and reliably about facts that Ive seen so far on youtube. Wel done
May I ask Mr. Cutler, if you have a video on how you got to this point? You seem to have had a lot of experience in the movie/tv side of things. Did you start as an engineer? Artist? I’d be interested in hearing some of the story.
Luck and just never stopping making and never stopping learning and a natural understanding of engineering. From birth I have always made things and that was encouraged by my dad. Career to date; Business studies degree, Product design masters degree, Jim Hensons Creature workshop (accidental meeting), product designer (3 years), special effects in London (10 years), design tutor at University (2 years). Special effects lead to specialist engineering for TV shows like Scrapheap Challenge. Had kids, wanted to move out of London and was already making historical replica weapons so took that up full time. Been around cameras and media since the mid '90's so am comfortable with that side.
@@tods_workshop Do you utilize things like AutoCAD or 3D printing when you’re prototyping something? Or can you just look at historical sources and drawings and make the thing without needing to convert it into a modern technical drawing?
Big red wolf. Not really, sometimes I get people who do that stuff to help in ways, but that is very rare - I just like making things and if it is tricky then I will learn more for next time; I like my hands
I admit I'd feel much safer if the trigger had a safety-pin you could put through to prevent some idiot like me from stepping on the string and having all that power go off unexpectedly.
Now clearly this is intended for use against soldiers - it's field artillery. Those darts won't do much good for destroying fortifications. Which makes me curious: what would a dart do against the sorts of wooden shields Rome's enemies were using? Also: this reminds me of the polybolos - basically a Greek scorpion with a magazine.
It's used in sieges to clean enemy marksmen off the walls, essentially ancient covering fire. Also shields don't stand a chance, those things could probably make it through multiple hoplites before getting stuck in the Aspis of one lucky albeit definitely traumatised guy in the back rows.
You were talking about how size changes the force. You said 3x the size, did you mean 3 times the dimensions, or 3 times the mass/volume. For instance if you have solid 1 centimetre cube of constant density and you multiply the dimensions by 3 I would say it becomes 9 times the size or volume/mass not 3 times.
I did fumble at one point. To clarify, the size of all the components can go from 1/3 of this one up to this full size of 1/1 and the performance remains the same, but the bolt is now 9 times heavier so packs loads more punch
@@tods_workshop : 27 times heavier, if it's 3 times larger in all 3 dimensions, so even more of a load more punch than that. :) And, yes, that's fascinating indeed!
@@tods_workshop Could be a good time to mention that ancient artillery manuals even had convenient size tables for "if you want to throw a projectile of this mass, just build a machine of this scaling factor" so you knew which size you had to build your artillery piece! People tends to _grossly_ understimate how developed the technology was by the end of ancient times...
Did I see that right? It shot straight through those plywood knights at 13:05 even with it being tensioned as low as Tod has it? That's amazing. Can't wait to see what it'll do tuned up!
Oh man, it is so great to see you having fun with cool technical&historical things, be it machines, tools, or even places. I am certainly looking forward to seeing more of this!
To throw a spanner in the works, a Latin text from around 400AD, De rebus bellicus, calls a torsion bolt-thrower a ballista fulminalia (thunderbolt ballista). There are also later sources from the Eastern Roman Empire that use the term ballista for a bolt-throwing engine. There are also cheiroballisa which appear to have shot either. "This type of ballista, essential for the defence of walls, has been found by experience to be superior to all others in range and power. When a steel bow has been placed in position above the groove from which the bolt is discharged, a strong sinew-rope [i.e., the bowstring] is pulled back by an iron drawing-claw, and, when released, it shoots the bolt with great force at the enemy." The Latin text says ballistae and sagittam (literally, an arrow).
Thanks Aaron. Maybe I am being too pedantic, but the texts that these were made from were significantly earlier. However I am on thin ice here, but will stick to what I was taught it was called, but thanks again for the reference. I guess the word did change over time
Katapeltes is greek for through shields, kata, through. Peltas, shield. So catapulta in latin, obviously derives from that and their ability to pierce in some fashion, like a spear or arrow. So just from a language standpoint, unless the romans knew less than us about ancient greece (lol) then id assume youre correct in naming it a catapulta.
A note on the linguistic side of things: _catapultae_ or _ballistae_ ? It shouldn't matter. In all likelihood, different primary sources used different terms for them. They would have freely moved between the Latin and the Greek. And, over centuries, languages evolve. Not least of all in military contexts where everything gets a nickname. Caring too much about the "proper" terms for things is a modern amateur obsession that not only distracts from the history, but is itself ahistorical. Like some in HEMA circles who have overly strong opinions about the difference between a glaive and a partisan.
@@elchudcampeador5642 Firefly is a beast. 5000lb draw weight at 34". 700 yard max range. Accurate enough at 500 yards to hit a man-sized target with a 1¼lb bolt.
@@ScottKenny1978 I've watched some of his latter tests and he even managed to shoot above 900 yards with lighter bolts. Honestly I'd much prefere to see those types of engines tested more often rather than older outswinging wood-frame models
Brilliant!! A small hook on the body of the machine forward of the windlass as well as a weight on the end of the trigger rope might be an effective way to keep the trigger handy when the machine is set to fire🤔
When I was a kid we played D and D, I invented the "arrow slapper" .. a box with sub-boxes that could be loaded with multiple arrows in each sub-box. Huge piece of metal that gets pulled back like a giant flyswater. As it hits the box, the top arrows go farther, lower arrows wont - but it will cover an area of ground outside a castle. I wonder if that would work or if anything like it exists?
I absolutely adore this channel and the amount of knowledge, experience, effort, and understanding Tod possesses. I've been a blacksmith doing residential and artistic metalwork for many years, but I also took archaeology electives when in college and grad school and I did some experiments trying to recreate the pattern welding in some carolingian swords. I have learned more from a few hours of Tod's videos especially on armor and its damage tolerance than in months of searching for period sources and writings. I did find "The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini" which taught me a great deal, I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Renaissance bronze work or sculpture.
Thanks for addressing the naming issue. I'd be totally confused (thinking - if there's a bow and it shoots an arrow-like projectile, then it's a ballista), but your explanation seems quite clear, at least for the ancient period :) Great to see another device from your workshop! Whoa, the scalability is amazing!
Fascinating! A while back I was looking at a TH-cam review of a modern crossbow and noticed that instead of drawing the cord back to the anchor/release mechanism with a separate system the release mechanism itself was pushed up to engage the cord, then wound back to span the crossbow. Should have known. The Greeks and/or Romans figured it out first. Couple of tweaks, though...the modern system employs an automatic ratchet, so that the winding cord doesn't need to be pulled out before pushing the release mechanism forward.
Have you seen the repeating crossbow made by JoergSprave (videos on his channel)? For aiming you could place the arming handle upright in the end of the cross bar to use as an aid similar to a pistol, distances could be notched in the side to give visual height adjustment.
I like that Tod had an unused catapulta sitting in his cupboard for a decade.
Lmfao
I just imagine a friend showing up one day going : "Tod! It's the Irish! They are invading!" And Tod just goes: "Hang on. I got just the thing."
Imagine the fortress he could build in a zombie apocalypse.
@@michimatsch5862 he'd probably have one laying around and be like: "Nah, it's nothing great, just something I once made for fun to test the principle. Didn't have time to make it fancy or anything."
This just proves that Tod is insane. No man could have that cool a piece of kit in the shed and not take it out to play every day. Euphemism only partly intended.
Tod, "Sorry, I've rambled for far too long..."
Me, "Where did the time go? This was fascinating."
I like how the ratchet handle becomes the aiming handle.
Theory: nobody on this channel every minded Tod rambling. Ever.
Thanks for the nice thoughts, but some strays who find themselves here don't get it
@@tods_workshop well.. we all pay more attention to the nay-sayers.. don’t we. Love you Tod. More please. ;)
@@tods_workshop If they don't like rambling, direct them over to watch some Lindey Beige videos 😁😁😁👍
@@euansmith3699 cmon man, that's psychological abuse🤣
Your initial understanding is correct, if i remember it clearly from an ancient war museum in Rome itself, it all starts from the original greek warmachines. Shooting bolts/javelins were for piercing (kata/cata) shields (peltas) to disrupt hoplite formations, therefore catapulta. Balista, Onagers, Scorpions etc. were later derivations, and the Romans inherited the word 1:1 in the Latin language (as in latin the two words would be foro/terebro and scutum, no resemblance to catapulta).
Medieval time engineers simply read on the latin manuals, and the confusion derived from that initial "aggregation" of catapults and ballista based on machine size and shape and not projectile launched, leading to the bastardization of the term; mostly because the greek origin of the term was lost, and they only interpreted the latin version. At least, there should be a reference to this in Leonardo Da Vinci's notes too, but i can't remember where (as I said, it was a long time ago, but the source was as close to Rome as possible and they had original latin text references).
The sources for the museum should be (I'd wager) pretty close to those of the book you showed, so it sounds perfectly legit.
Since armored regiments include things like tanks etc.
catapulta is similar to the description/understanding of anti-tank (propelled grenade)
This naming thing is incredibly confusing, because at least for italian, every source I can find says that romans were the ones that started calling this a Balista, while the greek called it Catapulta. Why are english sources saying it medieval people did this change?
One problem here is the a Pelta is the crescent shield used by Greek skirmishers the Peltasts, not Hoplites who used the Hoplon.
@@adambielen8996 aspis. Hoplon was the term for whole equipment.
@@VarenRoth Good point, so i went to doublecheck the sources straight from the Italian Wikipedia (I figured if any place had well linked sources, it'd be them). The Italian dictionary itself says that the italian term "Ballista" comes from the latin word that was itself inherited from ancient greek ( βαλλίστρα/ballistra), "A bowlike Greek and then Roman mounted warmachine". The earliest ballista project was in Syracusa around 350~B.C., as a mounted evolution of the Gastraphetes which @Tod's Workshop should be familiar with. Later, Macedonian and Hellenistic period engineers further evolved the catapulta (which now throwed rocks, "lithobolos") into throwing bigger and bigger rocks but were all called balista or lithobolosi, while the Latins only adopted the first term. The distinction in the greek machines naming was still due to the projectile loaded, but apparently this was due to their design: katapeltas were NOT using a torsion engine, while ballista were, meaning catapultas were incapable of throwing moderately big rocks by design limitation, and not by intention/field designation.
Apparently, early period Roman engineers built all 3 versions with a torsion engine and named them depending on the size; the scorpion was the smallest (single operator, bolts only), then the catapulta (the field/anti-infantry one that Tod built here, with bolts or javelins) and the ballista, the siege engine proper,capable of launching all types of munitions. Since all 3 had torsion engine designs, unlike the greek one, i suspect the confusion was born at this step and not in medieval times as i've stated before.
This is all tracked in the Atlantic Codex from Leonardo da Vinci and, following the source, apparently is this: Atlantic Codex, f. 140b. r, f. 152 r, f. 149b r. This is the old book (2009) that references those pages, only found it in Italian, and was written by the same curator of that museum: www.worldcat.org/it/title/635378168
If tod could see this, then he could probably double check with his book, but i suspect a similar story to be found there.
Tod, your "rambling on" had me is stitches. Loved it. When you spoke about issuing field artillery manuals whilst the English were living in mud huts cracked me up. Reminded me of the fun jousts my parents used to have. Dad was Hungarian and Mum from Lancashire. During one of these spates Dad said "You English, you were painting your bodies with berries when we were riding horses with stirrups" We all know how stirrups are an ultimate weapon. Without missing a beat in perfect English whit, Mum fired back "That's true, but it didn't take us long to surpass you."
Always cool to see the pre-gunpowder solutions to "how can I make a thing go really fast towards the enemy"
The stones who were send over the city wall had a weight of 300 Kg. If those stones come like rain, the houses got a lot of damage too. More speed is nice but the weight brings the damages. Smaller stones came out a hot fire, making the house burn if it didn't lose it's heat quickly.
And it's always cool to see what comes out from Tod's workshop.
This is absolutely beautiful. The fact that it was sitting somewhere in his house for 10 years adds a lot of humor to it. Has the same energy of someone finding a Panther in their barn
I built a small one of these along with a different catapult some years back, I made it out of craft sticks and string for one of my kids school projects, I remember it really surprised me just how far such a small 'toy' could throw the arrows I made, apparently it surprised the teacher also but it was a big hit with the kids :)
The King of Ancient Machinery is back! Hurray!
Someone sponsor this man to build a siege onager already!!! We need to complete his collection ASAP!
I was a footman once, but Tod put a Catapulta Bolt in my knee.
Tod said they scale, would love to see an Onager scale Catapulta
sir, i think you don't have a knee anymore.
Alan Wilkins taught me Latin in the early '60's. He was an excellent and very popular teacher and the youngest teacher of Classics at our school (by several decades). His lessons were always peppered with stories and anecdotes about how the Romans actually lived and we soon cottoned on that, if the mood was right, cunningly devised questions about the Roman army - and particularly the Roman army in Britain - could set him off on a fascinating tangent for ages.
I'm sure, with the wisdom of hindsight that he was aware of what we were doing, but he was so knowledgeable and enthusiastic about his interests. Top bloke.
0:35 Tod says: _This was sitting in my cupboard._ I can't imagine the size of your cupboard, are you sure you don't confuse it with this weird room in Hogwarts were they can put all the things down to remain hidden? 😁
I guess if I were to find the Room of Requirements in Hogwarts I would find myself standing in Tods cupboard...
A UK TV presenter called Ray Mears was wandering my workshop last week and loved it, particularly the smell
@@tods_workshop Is he still in there? Not that the BBC lose one of their employees in your cupboard.
@@Spielkalb-von-Sparta Perhaps. Even though Tod probably knows where keeps his stuff, it's hard to find a wandering person from a place as labyrinthine as that. ;)
@@pRahvi0 Indeed! And maybe this "Ray" guy doesn't want to be found because he loves it there, as Tod has stated.
Oh yes - I enjoyed this hugely! How could I not when Tod's bursting with enthusiasm! What a wonderful start to a new week, thank you.
Thank you and more to come
Looks like fun. Would like to see the penetrating power compared to a thrown dart etc. See if the extra steps are worth it.
I would think the accuracy and range gain alone might be worth it. I makes them far more useful. You could snipe enemy commanders. You could shoot at moving cavalry trying to flank you. You can lay suppressive fire at multiple enemy formations that may be having a bit too much success against your lines at any one moment. You can use them in siege warfare. They bring an element of pure chaos to the battle. Imagine being out there knowing that these things are randomly smashing into your lines possibly at head level and that if you drop your shield you're dead...........if you keep your shield up you may still be seriously injured but of course now you can't see.
You're investing metal, high grade wood, skilled artisans, and a team to run the bloody thing; The Romans understood accounting.
@@MrBottlecapBill They were barely used in open battles. They were primarily used in sieges (by both sides) where range is the most important thing. Also in naval battles in 3rd Century BC, but not so much after. When they were used in field battles it was almost always vis-a-vis a static defences of some kind: like forcing the enemy to keep away from the bank of a river to be crossed. For example: see Caesar using them in his amphibious landing in Britain.
So while they are mentioned occasionally in the sources, it's never in completely open battles. So we can only conclude that they weren't used then. There's plenty of debate to be had on _why_ something so awesome wasn't more influential in battles, but the fact that it wasn't is settled by the sources.
In all likelihood, they're just too slow, too cumbersome, too expensive, and (most of all) too few for them to be decisive in the vast majority of situations. This is even more true in the raiding/skirmishing/counter-raiding that that makes up 99% of ancient warfare.
based on how it punched through those plywood soldiers (and the bracings for them) I think it was much better
@@jonathanwessner3456 obviously but for the time and effort it takes to carry it, set it up, load it, aim it and fire it. you could throw 10-20 smaller handheld darts. would be interesting to see if it was worth it, outside of siege situations.
Would they ever have mounted the "supporting arm" prop, at the top instead of the bottom? The bottom could be loosely set in grooves or notches in the main upright that would allow pre-set range angles. Or at the very least, you wouldn't have to bend down to reset the prop.
I would have to look at the book again to see how the stand should be.
There's virtually no primary source evidence for stands. The versions Alan and Len adopted were copied from an intaglio showing cupid shooting a cheirioballistra. Hope that helps.
Possible, but if this was a crew-served engine, I wager one of the operators would have the job of resetting the prop arm.
Always had a soft spot for these, seriously cool stuff!
Fascinating, plus I finally found out what a 'scorpion' actually was.
I love torsion engines! I have in the making a smaller machine (3cmØ springs) for almost 9 years there is a lot of problem solving and time needed to make one, I stuck for a long time in the metalworking... I hope we see more of this
Good luck - that sounds like a 1 span machine or a bit smaller
Tod ... you are amazing... you just rummage in your store and conjure the exact same machine that I am building!
I was just about to finish my own when an illness struck me and I have to recover first before I finalize it.
Fantastic entertainment while I am waiting!
Thanks Artur and good luck with everything
I saw a replica very similar to this one a few days ago in in Limeseum (a small museum dedicated to the Roman castel near the Limes at Ruffenhofen / Germany). I found the metal casing at the front made it look very impressive and somewhat advanced for the age. You really did a good job with yours!
It’s interesting that it seems to load faster than the windlass crossbow. Cool machine and great video.
Probably could use a witness mark on the main body (when it is fully wound) to tell you exactly how far back you need to pull it for each shot. Even minor differences in initial velocity will absolutely tank your accuracy, especially when you consider that in real combat accurate and fast range estimations would already be hard enough without a random variance in bolt velocity caused by you pulling it a quarter turn (or even just a couple teeth on the ratchet) more or less.
Really beautiful machine, looking forward to seeing what it can do when dialed in to its full potential. Probably should wear eye protection, a helmet and really good gloves, ideally some armor (which I assume you can get quite easily) when you get to increasing the power. The amount of energy stored in that machine when the draw weight goes to a couple hundred kilo will be crazy and definitelly warrants similar precautions like dangerous heavy machinery in industrial applications does. I am kinda nervous of what would happen to your hand should you accidentally bump the trigger or tug the trigger cord when placing the bolt. In that respect its sort of like a mortar, requiring you to put the hand in the danger area to load it.
Keep in mind that humidity is going to change the actual force at any particular draw length. If a battle started in the morning and ran until afternoon, I could easily see the device being less powerful in the morning when the ropes were damper. So they might have had to do a running calibration.
It would also be interesting to know of they would keep the ropes under tension all the time, or more likely (just like with stringed instruments) back off the tension between battles. If they do that, they need some way to reliably reset the tension.
@@lwilton Still, a scale along the side is a great idea. You could write "adjust three points in wet conditions" underneath it or whatever.
" i had this thing in my cupboard." favorite quote of Tod.
Tod; I could listen to you ramble on about a catapulta/ballista all day!
Thanks and I suspect I will be back
Your enthusiasm is infectious. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do next.
great video!
One point towards safety tho: everytime you use the rachet, you put your other hand on the strings! If the ratchet would fail you would possibly get devastating ropeburns, may even loose some fingers or the hand.
I can not explain how hard i cringe everytime i saw you doing it!
Your curious enthusiasm is a joy to watch. Looking forward to learning more about these.
The legio 8 augusta from Germany did experimental fast shooting with a scorpio. I don't remember the rate of "fire", but it was extremly impressive. Three men, completely synchronized - maybe they could give you more informations.
Rome is so fascinating. I also love the theory that Rome was founded by the survivors of Troy.
if you increase the power via torsioning the ropes, I think you will need sturdier targets. That was punching through the ones you have on "base" settings
Dummy labs torso in body armour and shield would be amazing to see, as it's hard to visualise the power involved at this scale
@@ac1dflare937 ballistic gel is a poor simulator of human flesh for slow objects.
It's not really a great simulator of flesh for high velocity objects, either, but it is consistent between batches. So if you have hard lab data based on live critter testing (IIRC Fackler used 160lb goats), you can use ammunition that was heavily tested _in vivo_ and then use a more consistent substitute to see what happens. As long as the relative performance between your worst performing and best performing in vivo matches your gel tests, it's going to be an acceptable yardstick.
I attached a coffeemaker to mine, now I have a Barrista.
I love the sound of reloading it, so lovely!
He really is a very talented engineer and fabricator. I can’t wait for more !
Love it! Maybe use some plexiglass on both sides when you go towards full power,so you can crank it up while being prepared just in case one arm breaks,or one of the bundles. 600 meters is a huge distance to go. Even 400 meters would be a great achievement IMO.
Great idea! Maybe a bit or armour would be handy
@@tods_workshop Just be sure to place GoPro between you and machine - at least it will take the blow :D
Very nice to see this. I was a Roman military re enactor some years ago with Legio XIV (Roman Military Research Society) and worked with Len Morgan for a number of years at various events. His Roman name is / was 'Fatalis', just out of interest!
We had a big version like the one you showed, it was called 'Bestia' and was pretty scary. But the main weapon was a 2 span catapulta but not as pretty as yours but deadly an utilitarian! We managed to put bolts through celtic style sheilds at 50 yards on a quarter power at public events.
I was a legionary infantry grunt on the crew of one of these and at the end of the day, you knew you had a damn good workout. It was compulsory for us to work the thing in full segmented armour for safety reasons. Good memories!
Can we see Catapulta vs armor please?
Hi its Todd from Todd's Workshop, Todd Cutler here. ...Not enough Todds
Never enough Tods!
Great machine, seeing how fast you can fire it untrained. Guess a trained team of2-4 soldiers could get quite an impressive rate of fire out of that thing.
Wondering what other kinds of unused ancient or medieval wargear Tod finds when cleaning up his attic :)
BTW a catapult shoots cats, it is in the name. :D
I totally agree that the word catapult comes from the word cat and that the first projectiles they shot with them were cats.
And when they ran out of cats, they started to should other things with claws.
Like arrows and bolts.
Today, very few people know that cats almost got extinct because of this practice back in the days.
Ballista shoots balls. Footballs, basketballs, baseballs, severed goats balls……
@@The_Judge300 Yes they nearly went extinct from being used as ammunition but always managed to land on their feet.
@@leeboy26
And that was what saved them and made it possible for the crazy cat ladies to thrive.
Another endangered species.
Todd's kid-with-a-new-toy-grin always brings me joy. I love these videos!
Seeing a catapulta in action it makes so much sense why the romans used them. Its brutal and it isnt even in a realistic drawweight.
I mean i want one now and this isnt even the timeperiod I do in living History🤣
Thanks you Tod for letting us have Part in your curiosity😁
I love your enthusiasm for these types of projects :D I too look forward to seeing the machine in its tuned and powered up state!
I never knew that catapult(a)s and ballistas had the reverse meaning in Roman times. "Ballistas shoot pointy sticks" has been ingrained in my brain.
I love the clanking sound when you put tension on it. Fantastic. Really looking forward to seeing more of this.
You could make a simple same sided triangle out of wood with a rope hanging from a top side and a plumbob.They used it as a spirit level in construction.Now comes the fun part. You can put a notch in a triangle for degrees. That way you get yourself a gun elevation quadrant.You would need to shoot and thinker a bit with it to figure out the range of each notch but i guess thats how you would do it in ancient times.
You could also put two round wooden circles with division marks below the hinge that spins it for left and right sighting to make it super accurate with a spotter.
Or he could have made the Jupiter's mouth _juuuust_ a wee bit larger so he can actually aim through it at short range. We know Romans used the "small" bolt-throwers as their version of high-powered sniper rifles, so they MUST have been able to make precise, direct fire. My money is on Todd's machine not being much able to do so being just a matter of the replica being off by a milimeter or two - just enough that you can't actually use the hole to aim through it.
Something to add to "they could have but most likely didn't" ideas: if you were using this as part of a base defense, have a weight raised ahead of time, say a bag or rocks or some such, use that stored energy to make the reloading of the initial shots quicker. The rigging and making sure you have enough weight on hand would take some calculations/trial and error.
Hey Tod, can you can give us an estimation when we can expect your follow-up videos about arrow vs armour?
I think either this month or early October
Yes, Tod. Are we close? There must be thousands awaiting this next arrow penetrating video. There, I have goosebumps just thinking of it.
HI Guys, I will give an update on the KS page as well. We shot 7 films over 3 days and they promise to be very interesting. In honesty I was utterly wiped out after, then both myself and the editor Mike were on holidays, but as of last week Mike is back and on it. We are aiming to have them out for mid October, but in honesty the sheer volume of work involved means that end October is more likely; but we are trying.
@@tods_workshop Thanks for the update! I'm really looking forward to it!
@@tods_workshop No need to rush; as long as we know it's coming we can wait. Thanks for the update!
Very enlightening. Thanks. Buying the book asap.👍
Nice video. Looks much faster to use than what I would had thought.
Could you try to see fast it would be to use, with 2 or 3 people manning it in the next video? It looked like you could load it fast by yourself, so more hands might make it really fast.
How big are the biggest of this type, that we think they used?
Do you think they were ever used to shoot more than one projectile at once?
I imagine that a crew would be drilled to perform specific tasks, similar to Victorian era artillerists, and each crew member would know how to do every part of the operation in case of casualties. I imagine he'd halve the time at least.
Fantastic work as always Tod! Cheers
Man, i’ve been waiting for you to branch into catapultas… these are awesome. Looking forward to seeing your wonderful work
Maybe Tod and Jörg Sprave can team up to make The Instant Giant Legolas?
The stand support that drops when you aim, the ratchet handle that is used as an aiming handle... somehow these were the engineering details that I liked most :) the utility of it!
I’d like to know how this performs against heavy plate armour, maybe you should get some experts together to really settle if a catapulta can penetrate heavy armours you know, just a random idea I had. ;)
The sound of the ratchet, the creaking of the wood, it sounds damn good when you're preparing the thing to shoot
Beautiful piece of kit Tod! And the reloading speed amazed me, the sliding trigger and ratchet combo really is ingenious. A question: a while ago I read about a theory; that many catapultas were in fact inswingers. I.e the limbs rotated in front of the main frame. Supposedly this configuration could get a longer power stroke. What's your take on this?
Later machines were in swingers and these were quite different and yes more powerful as they had a longer stroke. Not sure when the change happened, but I think around 200 or 250
The reload speed of a two man team would be incredible. They each put their handle 180 degrees off the other so each man is able to pull when the other's handle goes too far. Able to have simultaneous actions like one unwinding the windless while the other pulls the latch up to the bow. I imagine a well trained team could refire in less than 10 seconds.
When the different sizes first came up I immediately wondered if it could possibly scale like that. Astonished to find that it explicitly does.
To get the most out of it, you have to pe-tension the skein. I built custom winches to pull each wrap to 1000 pounds.
yes, he said exactly that
Yes the original treatise says the cords are to be pulled tight and stretched and 'clipped' into place whilst the next wrap is made. Apparently it was preferable for the cords winders to be musical so they could hear the note of the cord prior to clipping so each pre-tension is the same.
@@tods_workshop Who was it that said "It's a lazy soldier who twist his skein tight", or something to that effect? I used 500LB rated webbing as winch line. I found the breaking strength of the webbing, then backed off a bit. I could tell by the note it rang out as fibers started to snap. lol Probably had more then 500LB per pull, so the engines were probably under more like 24,000LB of tension to start off with. Tuning is Very important. The engines must be balanced.
Tod, thank you for the video! Greek and Roman ballistarii (artillery crews) wore helmets and armor for a reason!
It's a very interesting machine. I'd have assumed it needs sights for the gunner though. At the very least a hole to aim through.
I would not be surprised if rather than having such a device the Romans would have "pre-plotted" the range and aiming points for the various angles of the track both up/down and left/right plus how hard or far the projectile can hit for a given tensioning/clicks on the ratchet... They liked to be very technical about their engineering.
I suspect Ugly German has it
@@Ugly_German_Truths While the idea of a fancy brass instrument is a strong urge it was likely a simple collection of marks on the frame.
The naked eye can only do so much.
I've always wanted one myself, but I never got the time to work on a project. Watching you shoot yours has put the fire back into me to build one.
One thing to note with any weapon like this: accuracy is relative. If you're one soldier charging 1 catapulta, the accuracy of the weapon and rate of fire mean you have a reasonable chance of getting into melee range and killing the operator.
If you're a group of 200 people charging en masse toward a dozen catapulta being operated by however many people it takes to maximize rate of fire and provide acceptable accuracy, each volley is probably taking out at least one person each. Given the power described for a fully tuned catapulta and given many of the peoples Rome fought against didn't very sophisticated armour or shields, it's not entirely unreasonable to expect a bolt to go through the front rank and kill the person immediately behind them too.
This of course depends on which front of expansion they were using this - Greece, Egypt and the Middle East had fairly sophisticated technology and would have had iron breastplates and wood backed iron shields. The Gauls and the peoples of Germania....don't have the same kind of reputation. (Of course, we've mostly only got Roman history books on this, and Roman histories are probably the least reliable source for accurate descriptions of Gallic and Germanian battle tactics and equipment. Other Mediterranian cultures have their own records written down, largely in formats we can read.)
Ancient artillery pieces were not used in mass against massed infantry charges. That's what archers were for. Artillery was used to supress a besieged fortification's archers from larger rane than they could retaliate. Fortification's artillery was used to supress assaulting artillery. Both roles required actually quite good accuraccy. That a guy who just built a catapulta only manages top hit with half his bolts doesn't mean that a trained artillerist wouldn't have been able to consistently hit a man-sized target at long range (and as a matter of fact, period sources often mention that being the case).
Also, man, _everyone_ had iron armor by the time catapultas were in use. (What they would NOT have is iron shields. These weren't used then. Too heavy. Closest thing were bronze-faced wooden shields, of which the _thin sheet_ bronze was just a more durable facing than felt or leather.) The end of the broze age had been a whole milenium before that! By that time, every army (including Germans) used chain mail (which is actually a Celtic invention, not a Greek nor Roman one), plate armor was actually out of fashion (Greeks stopped favoring full cuirasses around 500 years before this kind of artillery was developed, and moved to lynothorax; and the famed Roman banded armor, the lorica segmentata, was in common use for just over a century and a half), and the cutting edge of armor was scale armor. We actually have a LOT of information regarding all this stuff. I direct you to a good source in English, Peter Connolly's "Greece and Rome at war". Good book which drinks from many period sources, by the grand-daddy of historical reenactors.
THis vidieo awnsers so many question's I had for many years. its one of the most interesting and reliably about facts that Ive seen so far on youtube. Wel done
May I ask Mr. Cutler, if you have a video on how you got to this point? You seem to have had a lot of experience in the movie/tv side of things. Did you start as an engineer? Artist? I’d be interested in hearing some of the story.
Luck and just never stopping making and never stopping learning and a natural understanding of engineering. From birth I have always made things and that was encouraged by my dad. Career to date; Business studies degree, Product design masters degree, Jim Hensons Creature workshop (accidental meeting), product designer (3 years), special effects in London (10 years), design tutor at University (2 years). Special effects lead to specialist engineering for TV shows like Scrapheap Challenge. Had kids, wanted to move out of London and was already making historical replica weapons so took that up full time. Been around cameras and media since the mid '90's so am comfortable with that side.
@@tods_workshop Do you utilize things like AutoCAD or 3D printing when you’re prototyping something? Or can you just look at historical sources and drawings and make the thing without needing to convert it into a modern technical drawing?
@@tods_workshop Now LIVING THE DREAM!!!-For all of us who can't.
Big red wolf. Not really, sometimes I get people who do that stuff to help in ways, but that is very rare - I just like making things and if it is tricky then I will learn more for next time; I like my hands
DUDE! My favorite piece of artillery from history. Thanls Tod!
I admit I'd feel much safer if the trigger had a safety-pin you could put through to prevent some idiot like me from stepping on the string and having all that power go off unexpectedly.
this was seriouslly useful for writing a scene. Thank you, I was pretty lost with this whole thing until I found this vid
Now clearly this is intended for use against soldiers - it's field artillery. Those darts won't do much good for destroying fortifications. Which makes me curious: what would a dart do against the sorts of wooden shields Rome's enemies were using?
Also: this reminds me of the polybolos - basically a Greek scorpion with a magazine.
It's used in sieges to clean enemy marksmen off the walls, essentially ancient covering fire. Also shields don't stand a chance, those things could probably make it through multiple hoplites before getting stuck in the Aspis of one lucky albeit definitely traumatised guy in the back rows.
I think shields will be coming
or the other way around, small enough to put on a palisade and outrange an archer.
@@konzetsu6068 archers brigade: throw volley of arrows from a fort
The guys on the legio's carriages: guess what m8s *squeeky catapulta noises*
As someone mentioned in another comment, the name appears to come from the Greek for "shield-peircer". I expect there's your answer. :)
I am really excited to see this thing get powered up to see its full potential and power as they used it in the past!
Tod has a TREBUCHET!
And a BALLISTA.. I mean CATAPULTA!
So a machine that can throw sticks at 20 meters. How impressed. Such wow. Much impressed.
You were talking about how size changes the force. You said 3x the size, did you mean 3 times the dimensions, or 3 times the mass/volume.
For instance if you have solid 1 centimetre cube of constant density and you multiply the dimensions by 3 I would say it becomes 9 times the size or volume/mass not 3 times.
I did fumble at one point. To clarify, the size of all the components can go from 1/3 of this one up to this full size of 1/1 and the performance remains the same, but the bolt is now 9 times heavier so packs loads more punch
@@tods_workshop : 27 times heavier, if it's 3 times larger in all 3 dimensions, so even more of a load more punch than that. :) And, yes, that's fascinating indeed!
@@tods_workshop Could be a good time to mention that ancient artillery manuals even had convenient size tables for "if you want to throw a projectile of this mass, just build a machine of this scaling factor" so you knew which size you had to build your artillery piece! People tends to _grossly_ understimate how developed the technology was by the end of ancient times...
Did I see that right? It shot straight through those plywood knights at 13:05 even with it being tensioned as low as Tod has it? That's amazing. Can't wait to see what it'll do tuned up!
Yes, but thin ply. Much more to come though
@@tods_workshop even still, that's pretty cool! Can't wait to see what's next, cheers from Oregon!
If he had the desire & time, I am sure Tod could make a secondary channel dubbed Tod's siege workshop.
Oh man, it is so great to see you having fun with cool technical&historical things, be it machines, tools, or even places. I am certainly looking forward to seeing more of this!
Mostly I love finding out details that I didn't know before
Có thể nói anh là một kỹ sư❤
Can't wait for the indepth on the engineering on this. Most interested in the trigger.
Haven't completely watched the video, but I already want those targets. Also, who doesn't love ancient technology/weapons?
Boring people?
They will be for sale soon
great "new" toy for Tod - and his audience. As usual i could listen to you for hours and am looking very forward to seing what's upcoming next :)
To throw a spanner in the works, a Latin text from around 400AD, De rebus bellicus, calls a torsion bolt-thrower a ballista fulminalia (thunderbolt ballista).
There are also later sources from the Eastern Roman Empire that use the term ballista for a bolt-throwing engine.
There are also cheiroballisa which appear to have shot either.
"This type of ballista, essential for the defence of walls, has been found by experience to be superior to all others in range and power. When a steel bow has been placed in position above the groove from which the bolt is discharged, a strong sinew-rope [i.e., the bowstring] is pulled back by an iron drawing-claw, and, when released, it shoots the bolt with great force at the enemy."
The Latin text says ballistae and sagittam (literally, an arrow).
Thanks Aaron. Maybe I am being too pedantic, but the texts that these were made from were significantly earlier. However I am on thin ice here, but will stick to what I was taught it was called, but thanks again for the reference. I guess the word did change over time
Katapeltes is greek for through shields, kata, through. Peltas, shield. So catapulta in latin, obviously derives from that and their ability to pierce in some fashion, like a spear or arrow.
So just from a language standpoint, unless the romans knew less than us about ancient greece (lol) then id assume youre correct in naming it a catapulta.
A note on the linguistic side of things: _catapultae_ or _ballistae_ ? It shouldn't matter. In all likelihood, different primary sources used different terms for them. They would have freely moved between the Latin and the Greek. And, over centuries, languages evolve. Not least of all in military contexts where everything gets a nickname. Caring too much about the "proper" terms for things is a modern amateur obsession that not only distracts from the history, but is itself ahistorical. Like some in HEMA circles who have overly strong opinions about the difference between a glaive and a partisan.
Tod, have you seen Watts Unique "Firefly"?
It's an inswinger ballista/catapulta. The arms rotate inwards, towards the center.
We definitely need to see more models like that being tested.
@@elchudcampeador5642 Firefly is a beast. 5000lb draw weight at 34". 700 yard max range. Accurate enough at 500 yards to hit a man-sized target with a 1¼lb bolt.
@@ScottKenny1978 I've watched some of his latter tests and he even managed to shoot above 900 yards with lighter bolts. Honestly I'd much prefere to see those types of engines tested more often rather than older outswinging wood-frame models
@@elchudcampeador5642 amen to that!
I just wish I lived closer so I could meet the man himself.
I can't believe O got a slow-mo guys tease on tod's workshop. Best collab ever
Thanks for the great work Sir
I'm so glad Jorge introduced you to us Todd!
That's so awesome!
you never fail to impress me. your kind of building skill ... thank you for sharing
Brilliant!!
A small hook on the body of the machine forward of the windlass as well as a weight on the end of the trigger rope might be an effective way to keep the trigger handy when the machine is set to fire🤔
Tod, you are unique, my friend !
Congrats !!!!!
When I was a kid we played D and D, I invented the "arrow slapper" .. a box with sub-boxes that could be loaded with multiple arrows in each sub-box. Huge piece of metal that gets pulled back like a giant flyswater. As it hits the box, the top arrows go farther, lower arrows wont - but it will cover an area of ground outside a castle. I wonder if that would work or if anything like it exists?
It's always a great day when Tod releases a video.
Fascinating, and a beautiful marching. Looking forward to more videos about this ancient device.
There are not many videos that I don't flick through.........this channel I never do, fascinating. Thanks Tod
Thank you, that's very generous
A marvelous piece of engineering and a work of art!
Cant believe tods channel doesnt have yet 1 mil subs at least! Ur channel kicks arses!
Always worth stopping by one of.your videos and seeing you nerd out about something!
This IS just that cool!
Thanks
I absolutely adore this channel and the amount of knowledge, experience, effort, and understanding Tod possesses. I've been a blacksmith doing residential and artistic metalwork for many years, but I also took archaeology electives when in college and grad school and I did some experiments trying to recreate the pattern welding in some carolingian swords. I have learned more from a few hours of Tod's videos especially on armor and its damage tolerance than in months of searching for period sources and writings. I did find "The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini" which taught me a great deal, I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Renaissance bronze work or sculpture.
Thanks for addressing the naming issue. I'd be totally confused (thinking - if there's a bow and it shoots an arrow-like projectile, then it's a ballista), but your explanation seems quite clear, at least for the ancient period :) Great to see another device from your workshop!
Whoa, the scalability is amazing!
Fascinating! A while back I was looking at a TH-cam review of a modern crossbow and noticed that instead of drawing the cord back to the anchor/release mechanism with a separate system the release mechanism itself was pushed up to engage the cord, then wound back to span the crossbow. Should have known. The Greeks and/or Romans figured it out first. Couple of tweaks, though...the modern system employs an automatic ratchet, so that the winding cord doesn't need to be pulled out before pushing the release mechanism forward.
Incredible design. Thanks for the video Tod.
That torsion mechanism is so cool. The device is also so much more compact than an equivalent crossbow.
Have you seen the repeating crossbow made by JoergSprave (videos on his channel)?
For aiming you could place the arming handle upright in the end of the cross bar to use as an aid similar to a pistol, distances could be notched in the side to give visual height adjustment.