Catapult Design, Construction And Competition With the Projectile Throwing Engines of the Ancients

by Ron L. Toms, Ralph Payne-Gallwey

If you've ever wondered how to build a catapult or trebuchet, or wondered what you'd do with it once you've built one, then this book can help. Filled with anecdotes, plans, photographs, drawings and detailed descriptions of the workings and history of all the major types of catapults, these pages will help you get started in this fascinating hobby. You too will feel the joy of harnessing the power and energy of simple and ancient machines, then use them to hurl all sorts of silly things into the air, just to watch them splat!

180 pages, Paperback

First published January 30, 2006

Reviews

[J. Boo]

Brief book on designing catapults by the founder of the National Catapult Contest, which ran from 1966 - 1977. For high school Latin students, records progressed from the initial damp squib -- a hundred and three pound rock propelled three feet, to the 100 pounder thrown almost six hundred. (I expect a major reason that the contest ended was that the students became too successful at it.)

Videos exist on the internet. Barcio was also the founder of Pompeiiana, a newsletter mostly written for and by Latin students, archived here.