10-24-2014, 07:08 PM
Ah, OK, well, I have fired those in France. Good fun, too! And it lobs a hefty stone a good distance, even with only about 6 guys manning it. From my observation, to hurl a stone requires explosive power, so pulleys are more or less out. A crane would have to have a very long boom to drop a rock on any defensive position (the construction of such a thing near the enemy positions looks like suicide), so I like your idea of the early use of the traction trebuchet. I wonder if you could calculate the amount of force 20 or so pullers could exert on the boom. Also, we need to look into the advantage gained using one. I can think of the firing rate being a good bit higher, as there is no need to crank the machine to a working torsion.
