Artillery Safety

[Caius Fabius]

As someone who had more than 30 years of experience with modern and black powder artillery, (tanks, machine-guns, & running military firing ranges), live fire competition with black powder cannon (Ft. Sill), and making and firing medieval artillery; I see that one of the most overlooked things in the previous posts is the safety person.

This is the person who is stationed back away from the piece (weapon, gun..) and watching for any wrong sight or sound. He or she is often the first one to see that something is going wrong and call tell onlookers and crew to step away, duck, run, ad direct medical personnel to the right place if all else fails. He or she can watch and make sure the crew is not being unsafe, leaning over a throw arm to reach a part, or whatever.

This person should be so picky about safety and procedure that they almost get on your last nerve, allowing no horseplay, no smoking and joking, and not allowing the crew to have alcohol or anything that could hinder a safe operation.

When something fails, this is the person who watches where the parts went, and notices who is laying on the ground when they shouldn't be.

We practice proper crew drills without any tension or ammo, until each person can do each job without supervision, then we supervise anyway.

Even so, it still doesn't always work, but that is another story.



hock:

[P. Clodius Secundus]

Add that position to the duty roster and the pre-range checklist. Be sure that that person has a cell phone or other means avaliable to summon help. While we're at it someone with knowledge of first aid and some essential items might be handy if things go wrong. These types of things should be included in the planning of any event but especially live shoots. The only thing worse than seeing someone get hurt is standing around afterwards saying "I thought you had that covered."

[marsvigilia]

I do not have the reference, and don't even know if it is correct.

However, I think I remember someone saying that an ancient source describes a rare catastrophic failure where the machine would essentially fly apart and kill the entire crew. Perhaps the arm breaking before the stop point so the entire torsion in the spring could continue to spin the broken arm, thus releasing its entire potential energy and scattering large splinters.

If there is a potential for such a mishap, it might be a good idea to figure how it could have happened, and some way of preventing.

On the other hand, I may have completely misunderstood.

[Robert]

To protect a ballista from an attack, it would not be essential for friendly troops to stand directly in front of it while in operation. Closing the ranks as a counterattack was launched should do the job, because then the enemy was closing and the long range ability of the ballista countered. I would not position troops directly in front of any projectile weapon, let alone a somewhat erratic torsion weapon.
A safety officer is always a good idee, be it working on the railroad or firing a piece, but working out a well rehearsed and correct firing drill to watch over is step one and I have seen quite a few haphazzard ballista crews to date. Perhaps a good manual posted on RAT by an experienced gunner (Et tu, Caius) could/would help streamline ballista operation.

[Crispvs]

In answer to the question of why we cock the weapon first and then load, it was exactly the safety aspect that led to this. It was reasoned that to load the manuballista (or the trispithimus for that matter) prior to drawing the bowstring back, it would be necessary to place the bolt onto the slider in its extruded position in front of the spring frame. This would not cause any issues with the manuballista frame, but with the trispithimus the bolt would need to pass backwards through the keyhole where its flights could possibly catch and dislodge it from its correct positioning on the slider track as the slider was being pulled back into the cocked position (bearing in mind that the slider must be pushed forward in order to cock the weapon). This meant that it was deemed safer to load the bolt once there was sufficient space available on the slider track to place it in on the crew's side of the spring frame, thus ensuring that the bolt was properly seated prior to being released.
For ease of operation we use the same artillery drills for both machines.



"The cheiroballista as a hand- held weapon"

Was this the case? Does the fact that the cheirobalistra is called a manuballista in Latin mean that it was necessarily hand held, or simply that it can be easily carried by hand? We have found that one man can carry the manuballista (plus another man with the stand and ammunition) but it takes three to four men to move the trispithimus and its stand and ammunition. As far as know Heron does not tell us how the weapon was mounted.

Crispvs

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Loading a 'cocked' weapon should be same to accomplish, as the loader can place thee bolt on the track, while remaining out of the arc of a snapped string....common s ense would tell you not to stand in front of the arm while it is in tension.. :wink:

[Caius Fabius]

Common sense... is really not that common. :lol:

[A_Volpe]

If there is a potential for such a mishap, it might be a good idea to figure how it could have happened, and some way of preventing.

Sounds like a job for Mythbusters! 8)

Any chance they could get Kari to work on my engine? :lol:

[marsvigilia]

Any chance they could get Kari to work on my engine? :lol:

She could really get you in a twist. That level of torsion could be dangerous. :twisted:

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Common sense... is really not that common. :lol:

Sad, but true! Even with the common man! :lol:

[A_Volpe]

That level of torsion could be dangerous

but sooooo worth it...