07-10-2008, 09:08 PM
Crispvs, thank you for the reasoned comments. Emotions can suddenly peak quite high, much like happens with the English War Bow people, where conversations become very passionate indeed. Deaths may even occur 
That bloody crescentic thingie is a real bugaboo with me, at least. These machines, from the smallest to the largest, are so perfectly balanced on the fulcrum point, they can be elevated and traversed with one hand, or even finger, and it is a wonder to do that with a 2 ton ballista. A handle seems totally unnecessary. Perhaps we will never know what it was for.
Indeed, you would thiink the iron framed cheiroballistra would be better in a number of ways. But what if it wasn't? Not that I believe that, but perhaps the simplified construction and time to build one had something to do with it surplanting the wooden framed models. One real life example of an improved weapon system falling short is the US M60 machine gun. It was designed, I believe, after the MG42, or was supposed to have many of the amazing features of the German machine gun, but it was in many respects never a successful weapon. I was a pig gunner, so I am speaking from painful experience with the damn thing. Still, it was kept in the inventory from the 1960s until not that long ago. History is filled with these kind of strange happenings.
Regarding horse hair rope, the only viable way to obtain it and not burn up your wallet is to make it. Horse hair is not horribly expensive, fortunately, and as tempting as going to the hardware store and coming home with enough nylon rope for multiple springs, making it is the way I am going. I am still wondering wheather to braid it or twist it. Any ideas for Roman rope, since I am not an expert in what kind of rope was available in AD100?
The personal holy grail for me is sinew rope, and as I have pointed out here on RAT, it will take a very gruesome set of trips to slaughter houses to extract the sinew from newly slaughtered animals. That is not something I am looking forward to, and it will be years perhaps before I undetake that journey. Something to look forward too, however, and I am guessing that the performance of sinew rope would blow away any other type of rope. And, it would be facinating to find out just what its strengths and weaknesses would be in actual field conditions, which is one of the most interesting reasons to build accurate field artillary. Failure can often teach us more than success can.
Human hair rope is a bit more simple to ponder, as there are dealers in human hair, I guess for wig making is what they use it for. If I can find all women's hair, all the better.
That bloody crescentic thingie is a real bugaboo with me, at least. These machines, from the smallest to the largest, are so perfectly balanced on the fulcrum point, they can be elevated and traversed with one hand, or even finger, and it is a wonder to do that with a 2 ton ballista. A handle seems totally unnecessary. Perhaps we will never know what it was for.
Indeed, you would thiink the iron framed cheiroballistra would be better in a number of ways. But what if it wasn't? Not that I believe that, but perhaps the simplified construction and time to build one had something to do with it surplanting the wooden framed models. One real life example of an improved weapon system falling short is the US M60 machine gun. It was designed, I believe, after the MG42, or was supposed to have many of the amazing features of the German machine gun, but it was in many respects never a successful weapon. I was a pig gunner, so I am speaking from painful experience with the damn thing. Still, it was kept in the inventory from the 1960s until not that long ago. History is filled with these kind of strange happenings.
Regarding horse hair rope, the only viable way to obtain it and not burn up your wallet is to make it. Horse hair is not horribly expensive, fortunately, and as tempting as going to the hardware store and coming home with enough nylon rope for multiple springs, making it is the way I am going. I am still wondering wheather to braid it or twist it. Any ideas for Roman rope, since I am not an expert in what kind of rope was available in AD100?
The personal holy grail for me is sinew rope, and as I have pointed out here on RAT, it will take a very gruesome set of trips to slaughter houses to extract the sinew from newly slaughtered animals. That is not something I am looking forward to, and it will be years perhaps before I undetake that journey. Something to look forward too, however, and I am guessing that the performance of sinew rope would blow away any other type of rope. And, it would be facinating to find out just what its strengths and weaknesses would be in actual field conditions, which is one of the most interesting reasons to build accurate field artillary. Failure can often teach us more than success can.
Human hair rope is a bit more simple to ponder, as there are dealers in human hair, I guess for wig making is what they use it for. If I can find all women's hair, all the better.
Dane Donato
Legio III Cyrenaica
Legio III Cyrenaica
