How did they manage accuracy with traction trebuchets?
score:13
As Steve Bird implied in his comment, firing at a very large target that isn't moving doesn't require pinpoint accuracy. Nonetheless, some degree of accuracy would undoubtedly have been desirable.
W. T. S. Tarver, in The Traction Trebuchet: A Reconstruction of an Early Medieval Siege Engine (this link downloads a pdf) makes several observations "based on five years of experience with this kind of machine". Among them are:
- One discovery was that
By shooting as fast as possible (a bit over four shots per minute) the operator and the crew fall into a rhythm which makes the shots more powerful and consistent.
- Later in the trials,
an even more effective method of shooting was discovered. Very simply, the crew counts to three, giving a light tug on each of "one" and "two," and hauling through on "three." This slightly slows the rate of shooting but coordinates the pull of the crew to a remarkable extent.
- Tarver also realised that
consistently sized ammunition is crucial for accurate shooting because the mass of the projectile is an integral part of the dynamic system which propels it.
On this last point, Tarver gives some examples of cluster patterns achieved by a team of 16 pullers:
with a 41-inch sling and a 5-inch hook set at 40 degrees discharged six 4.7-kg balls in one minute and ten seconds to distances of 81, 79, 76, 77, 76, and 76 m
and
a different crew of fifteen pullers using the same hook and sling settings shot six 4.7-kg balls to distances of 100, 90, 105, 100, 105, and 93 m. The second 100-m ball landed on the first, destroying both.
Travers also states that
….In 1989, I could usually strike a round target 10 m in diameter a distance of 90 m away on the second shot given consistent ammunition, and accuracy improved in 1991. Medieval artillerists took great care to control the weight of their shot, having each projectile chiseled to a near-perfect sphere.
Although "identical ammunition is best", Travers believes a skilled operator should be able to "compensate for variations of up to plus or minus 10 percent in mass".
In building and operating the traction trebuchet, Tarver made use of medieval illustrations and, most importantly, "the military manual of Mardi b. 'Ali b. Mardi al-Tarsisi, written around A.D. 1187", but he also points out that (being made primarily of wood) none have survived so it is impossible to be sure exactly how they were constructed.
This illumination from the Bible de Maciejowski shows how, sometimes, the operator didn't release until he was off the ground. Attrib: The Morgan Library & Museum [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
A final point worth making is that traction trebuchets had a faster rate of fire than the more accurate counterweight ones so there was some compensation there.
More post
- 📝 Was There Compensation For Requisitioned / Impressed Aircraft In WW2?
- 📝 Identify these Cold War speeches from a movie trailer
- 📝 Where did Germany get their oil during WW2?
- 📝 Did the cold war affect the development of the internet?
- 📝 My father (DOB 09/03/1919) entered the army 01/1942. By 12/42 he made Sgt. He was a 1st Sgt. when separated 10/45. Is this unusual?
- 📝 Polytheism and war
- 📝 Before WW2, how did Japan pay for imported US oil?
- 📝 What did the Romans call black people (sub-Saharan)?
- 📝 Is the Terrorist Exclusion List (TEL) still used for anything?
- 📝 Disappearance and reappearance of helmets in European armies circa 1600 to 1900
- 📝 Did the Byzantine Empire persecute Christian sects?
- 📝 Who said: "Armies prepare to fight their last war, rather than their next war"?
- 📝 Did the Babylonian priesthood flee to Pergamum?
- 📝 Could George I (of Great Britain) speak English?
- 📝 What was a "census" (some sort of compensation) in early medieval Europe?
- 📝 Micromanagement before the modern era?
- 📝 Was the financial crash of 2008 caused by top graduates of the American Ivy Leagues working at wall street banks?
- 📝 Were regular citizens of the Republic of Venice permitted to own and carry arms/weapons?
- 📝 How did Aztec armor and weaponry match up to the Spaniards?
- 📝 What impact did the rocket inventions of the German rockeeters have on WW2?
- 📝 How did the Apollo-Soyuz test project affect the relationship between the USSR and USA during the cold war?
- 📝 What does MLK mean by "lonely island" and "vast ocean"?
- 📝 Why were the ship names "Scharnhorst" and "Gneisenau" used together?
- 📝 In a feudal system the king would give land to the knights in exchange for military services. Where did he get his money from then?
- 📝 During the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, did society question whether or not recovered patients will remain immune?
- 📝 Were Soviet warships allowed to use the Panama canal?
- 📝 How long might the campaigning season in the Caucasus have lasted for the Germans?
- 📝 Is "Lenin’s Testament" authentic?
- 📝 Help identifying image of winged robed figure and young man
- 📝 Is there evidence that scrubbing floors on one's hands and knees was a commonplace drudgery for women in the past?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How did they manage accuracy with traction trebuchets?
- 📝 During the U.S. Prohibition, how did they get away with drinking alcohol?
- 📝 Were there industrial tycoons with only daughters? How did they handle inheritance?
- 📝 How did Belgium manage to maintain control over their colonies while they were occupied?
- 📝 How did the USSR manage to innovate in an environment characterized by government censorship and high bureaucracy?
- 📝 How did they cook on ancient ships?
- 📝 How did the ancient Romans count with their fingers?
- 📝 Transatlantic Zeppelin trips usually took > 100 hours. How did they stock enough food, and where did they sleep?
- 📝 How did people deal with ice on the roads during the horse-and-buggy era?
- 📝 How did people react to Cavendish bananas when they first replaced the Gros Michel strain?
- 📝 Were secret treaties ratified? How did they become official while remaining secret?
- 📝 What historical reasons did the Nazis give for hating the Jews? How did they identify non-practicing Jews?
- 📝 Were bookshops 'common' in the late 19th century, and how did they differ from modern ones?
- 📝 How did the US government manage to enforce the 1980 boycott of the Olympic Games in Russia?
- 📝 Did the Nazis identify as being Fascists? How exactly did they view themselves?
- 📝 How did France worsen its relationship with Turkey?
- 📝 How did Azerbaijan come to be allied with Turkey and Israel?
- 📝 How did the Catholic Pope manage to become more powerful than Kings in old Europe?
- 📝 How much contact did Sub-Saharan Africa actually have with the rest of the world since the beginning of civilization?
- 📝 What was the program of the Mensheviks in their later years? How did they hope to achieve it?
- 📝 How did the Falasha make contact with Jews outside Ethiopia?
- 📝 How did the way commanders ask their troops to deal with the immediate death of their comrades vary by country/culture during WWII?
- 📝 How did the Swedish army deal with prisoners of war in the Thirty Years War?
- 📝 How did they measure speed in the 19th century so they could issue the first speeding ticket?
- 📝 How did the US "Greek" fraternity system at universities arise and what is its relationship with ancient Greece?
- 📝 How did the Dutch East India Company (VOC) have so much revenue when they only control small part of Indonesia?
- 📝 How did the Carthaginians manage to survive three years of siege?
- 📝 How did lower classes with aspirations to high social standing greet each other in the Paris of the 1630's?
- 📝 In the "Immigrationist theory" of Romanians (Vlachs), how did they became the vast majority in Transylvania?
- 📝 How did agricultural productivity change in Italy with the fall of the Roman Empire and through the early Middle Ages?