1 comments about Ancient Warfare: From Clubs to Catapults (Ancient Technology).

1. This book is designed to be an introduction to the technology of warfare in ancient times, for young readers. It covers everything from sticks and stones to Roman siege artillery, with many colorful pictures. Although it is too general and lacking in details to be useful for any school project, it's colorful presentation is bound to please youngsters.

   I give this book a guarded recommendation.

No comments about CATAPULT AIRCRAFT: Seaplanes That Flew From Ships Without Flight Decks.

3 comments about Catapult: A History (Weapons in History).

1. Tracey Rihll's "The Catapult" is athorough examination of the catapult during Classical, Hellenic, and Roman eras, from its invention in about 399 BCE, not only in its incarnations as large siege engines, but also as field artillery and as a personal weapon (akin to the later Medieval crossbow) and covering both tension (bow) and torsion type catapults, firing both sharp-pointed projectiles (darts, bolts, arrows, spears) and rounded objects (often lead weights and stones). Rihll's approach is often technical, but the author takes care to also describe the use of catapults in numerous sieges and battles. The existence of small "shoulder weapon" catapults may come as a surprise to many, but Rihll provides a wealth of persuasive evidence regarding their use.



2. There hasn't been a serious academic study of ancient catapult technology since E. W. Marsden's "Greek and Roman Artillery" back in 1969. This book reviews the surprisingly large amount of new textural and archaeological data and challenges many of Marsden's interpretations. The strong evidence for 1-man catapults (possibly fired from the shoulder or chest) was particularly interesting and ought to inspire some reenactors to build a few.
   
   I can only give this book 4 stars because of two major defects that proper editing should have caught:
   
   A) Rihll assumes that the reader already knows a lot about ancient catapults. Key ideas appear without adequate explanation. In fact I would suggest that you read Marsden's two slim volumes before starting this book.
   
   B) Whenever she discusses physics, ballistics, or aerodynamics the result is sheer nonsense. How can someone set out to study the most complicated of all "lost technologies" without learning basic Newtonian mechanics???



3. Tracey Rihll does a good job on on explaining and describing the history of catapults based on the Greco-Roman tradition but utterly fails to take into account the catapult development technologies from other cultures and as such, tells only half the story on catapults.

1 comments about The Practical Guide to Man-Powered Bullets: Catapults, Crossbows, Blowguns, Bullet-Bows and Airguns.

1. If, like me, you are an unapologetic fan of human-powered projectile launchers: airguns, blowguns, slingshots, bows - you will enjoy the heck out of Richard Middleton's The Practical Guide to Man-Powered Bullets.
   
   At almost every page, I found myself going "Aha!" because Middleton writes in such an entertaining and educational way, presenting both theory and practice, unexpected bits of information, experiments you can do yourself, and a lot else besides.
   
   The are 12 chapters in all, including two on crossbows, one on catapults (slingshots), one of blowpipes (blowguns), four on airguns (high pressure and low pressure, both practical and theoretical), and others on compound bows, velocity measurement, and ammunition.
   
   I found this book a delight to read, and a treat for the "big kid" in me. Highly recommended.

No comments about The Iliad of Homer.

5 comments about Catapult: Harry and I Build a Siege Weapon.

1. ...

   In this book, Jim Paul too is fascinated by catapults and by the concept of throwing stones for great distances. He wangles some grant money, recruits his friend Harry and together they build a working catapult & hurl stones off of a cliff in Marin County. Interspersed with the true story of their project are vignettes from the history of the catapult and siege engines ranging from Biblical Times to Edward "Hammer of the Scots".

   I loved it and I don't think a weird obsession with ancient weapons is required.

   GRADE: B




2. This book had more then it's share of flashbacks to the ancient days of Rome and was slightly painful to finish.

   The story follows two friends in building a home made Catapult, but the trials of finishing the thing makes the reader want to give up before the first three chapters.

   Thumbs down on this one.




3. Jim Paul found a cool rock, a piece of Red Creek quartzite some two and a half billion years old, and the heft of the thing suggested a project to him: building a catapult. So he talked his friend Harry into helping him build one, and he talked the director of the Headlands Center for the Arts into giving him $500 toward the expense of its construction. Building the catapult and firing it, he evidently claimed in his proposal to the director, "would be a way of reliving the thought and action of the army men who had lived out there in the Headlands [where Paul proposed to fire the weapon]." Harry and he would be "recapitulating the development of weapons technology, putting on the mask of the weapon-maker. It would be a Conceptual Reconstruction." For some reason, the Center bought this claim of catapult building as art and handed the author a check. But taking this money imposed certain obligations on Paul, who now had a deadline to work under and a public talk to give after he'd fired the thing. Paul's book tells the story of the catapult's construction and firing, and of the presentation with which his relationship with the catapult was concluded. After the talk the machine was disassembled and put on a scrap heap.
   
   Paul may have come up with the idea of building the catapult, but that seems to have been the extent of his intellectual contribution to the machine's construction. His friend Harry, a man with considerable mechanical sense, figured out how to build the weapon. Paul got the money, and he went out to pick up Chinese food when necessary, and he apparently read up on catapult history. As part of his research he even looked up the word "spring" in the Oxford English Dictionary. The next morning, armed with his new-found etymological expertise, Paul went off, sans Harry, and bought springs for the catapult--wholly inadequate springs for which he was overcharged, and which he purchased without any apparent consideration of the weapon's requirements.
   
   The author's foolishness in this instance is one among a number of reasons that he--or the persona he adopts for the book--is an unappealing figure. There is also Paul's disingenuous bid for grant money, his attempt to make Harry contribute to the project financially, his flippant attitude toward his promises and obligations to the Center, the fact that he made a habit of throwing tantrums on golf courses when he was fourteen, and--potentially worst of all--his careless firing of the catapult without first surveying the target area. As he and Harry later discovered, their ammunition fell not in the San Francisco Bay, but on the beach, very near where sunbathers regularly lie out in the nude.
   
   The book has other problems in addition to its principal character's questionable likeability. It contains illustrations, but they are wholly inadequate. Without decent drawings or photographs of the catapult at every stage of its construction, it is difficult to follow the author's discussions of the machine's various parts. More importantly, much of the book comes across as filler. The bare bones story of the catapult's construction could not sustain a book-length narrative--even with the page and a half spent on the protagonists' purchase of gloves:
   
   "I picked up another pair of the same kind, and we tried them on. They were nice, soft, yellowish split pigskin--the toughest hide you can get, Harry said. They had a short nap like suede, three neat seams down the back of the hand, and reinforced thumbs. We both liked them. We paid for the gloves when we rented the comealong, and pulled the tags off them as soon as they were ours. We stopped in the parking lot to put them on, stretching our fingers inside them and punching our palms to break them in."
   
   And even after the two and a half pages about Paul's trip to pick up Chinese food for dinner, something he proposed doing after, as he explains for a paragraph, he found himself with nothing to say to Harry and Harry's wife and brother-in-law. More filler was needed, and so we have numerous chapters inserted into the narrative--chapters about Bessemer and the history of steel-making, about the Roman siege of Jerusalem in the first century A.D. (it involved a catapult!), about Paul golfing with his father in his youth (hence those times when he would "stalk back to the clubhouse in tears"), about the Los Alamos project and, in yet another irrelevant chapter, about the post-War life of Frank Oppenheimer. In theory, a story that strays off-course at times to encompass interesting anecdotes only tangentially related to the main narrative is, as Martha Stewart might say, a good thing. But this peripheral information ought to arise naturally from the surrounding narrative. Paul's material just sits there, looking very much like something he foisted upon the book to add to its word count.
   
   Indeed, one has the uncomfortable sense that Paul put this book together in the same spirit that he put his proposal to the Headlands Center for the Arts together, throwing in willy-nilly whatever he could think of to make the final product acceptable to its judges, and perhaps recognizing all the while that he was a little naughtily trying to get away with something.
   
   Reviewed by Debra Hamel, author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece



4. Paul's book failed my "50 pages" rule. After 53 pages, five chapters, I found the author to be irritatingly self-indulgent. There was very little narrative apart from "this is how I feel about thinking about building a catapult". Don't waste your time. There is very little information about the catapult itself. Mr. Paul could learn a lot by reading John McPhee. No wonder this book was in the discount section of my local thrift store. I'm glad I'm only out some reading time and 50 cents.



5. Hey everybody, it's not a how-to manual, so if you come with that expectation you'll be disappointed (although there was more than enough detail for my taste). This quirky and wondrous account of two guys and their nutty project--think of Jim and Harry as ego and id--is more in the vein of Ross McElwee's Sherman's March, opening a big but oddly shaped window on history and the human soul. It also became an instant favorite of my technology besotted 10 yr old when he got hold of it.

3 comments about Backyard Catapults: How to Build Your Own.

1. Bill Wilson is no newcomer to catapults - nor to writing about them. His first book on the topic provided many insights: Backyard Catapults: How To Built Your Own offers even more, from photos of the building process updated by more recent plans and ideas to catapult websites and contests around the country. Packed with black and white photos and diagrams, Backyard Catapults is a must for any interested in the topic.



2. This short little book of about 80 pages lists instructions for building 3 devices. An onager, a Trebuchet, and a ballista. These are full size machines, all of which you build on the base of a wood pallet,THe first 19 pages are on the history of catapults.



3. There are so many good catapults in this book! My favorite is the pocket catapult, which is surprisingly strong. Not deadly, but pretty good. I also never knew you could make a catapult out of ham. I use mine to play skeet.

2 comments about The Crossbow: Its Military and Sporting History, Construction and Use.

1. This is by far the most complete history of the crossbow I've found. I strongly recommend this to any military or sporting history buff. It's a great read, and the illustrations are fantastic!



2. This book has everything you would want to ever possibly know about the crossbow: history, construction, evolution, the modern use of. The illustrations really help to show how the crossbow has changed over the centuries. This is a great look into the past and present.

2 comments about The Practical Guide to Man-Powered Weapons and Ammunition: Experiments with Catapults, Musketballs, Stonebows, Blowpipes, Big Airguns, and Bulletbows (Practical Guide).

1. Ed McGivern has really created a great book on shooting here. Whether you are a new gunslinger, or experienced marksman, there is something for everybody in here. He is historically one of the best known shooters, and gives an entertaining glimpse into all of his experimentations in shooting.



2. This book was actually written by Richard Middleton and was first published in England. Stackpole published the first American edition in 2006 under the title "The Practical Guide to Man-Powered Bullets". The book was recently reissued by Skyhorse Publishing. It's a very good book. The first review appears to have been written by the publisher, as all of his other reviews are of Skyhorse books. Despite this, it's really a great book, but the emphasis is on tension and gas weapons, not "musketballs". Great treatment of stone and pellet bows, slingshots, and homemade airguns.

2 comments about Catapult Design, Construction And Competition With the Projectile Throwing Engines of the Ancients.

1. 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.
   
   Those who involve themselves with a catapult project invariably find within themselves the enthusiasm, lit by a private spark of wonder, to participate meaningfully in the work. Almost at once and without planning, the task draws participants into a mature collaboration many have never known before. Here is a project that teaches one how to learn-- not to parrot, but to generate knowledge. Catapultors discover that they are collecting real information concerning a phenomenon about which very few people in the world know anything.
   
   It's easy to design a simple catapult with modern tools and materials, but when you constrain the project to use only tools and materials available from a thousand years ago, and require that machine to compete with modern equivalents, then you start to see a lot of creativity sprout up. It's a puzzle, a challenge that inspires people to learn and it generates new respect for the ancients and their ingenuity.
   
   The ancients had limited power and resources available, and had to concern themselves with efficiency and clever applications of leverage and other basic principles of physics. Helping kids to learn how they did these things in the Medieval world also helps those kids compete in today's world by inspiring them to be more creative and do more with our limited resources.
   
   Catapult Design, Construction and Competition is a truly unique book that describes all types of catapults, including tension bow powered machines, ballistae, onagers and mangonels, and of course, trebuchets! There are a multitude of photographs, including some truly large machines that can hurl 100 lb. missiles! But there's more than just pictures. Schematics are included for four record setting machines, and detailed descriptions of their construction too.
   
   This book also includes the results of early catapult and trebuchet competitions, and the rules and regulations for holding your own competitions. Including the definition of what is a catapult, safety, classes and categories of machines, judging, registering results, and lots of other details.
   
   Also included in this volume is The Projectile Throwing Engines of the Ancients. This is one of the most important books in the history of hurling. Written by Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey in 1907, it's the first serious work on the ancient catapults to be written in modern times.
   
   In this book, Sir Ralph explores the ancient writings of seiges and their artillery. Not content to take the writings at face value, he endeavors to assign credibility to the writer, and then go on to produce his own working versions of the ancient machines to test the principles and the claims of the ancient writers.
   
   Containing forty-four pages with over 22 illustrations, this section gives details about the design, construction and operation of the three fundamental types of siege engines- the Catapult (also known as the Mangonel or Onager), the Balista (Ballista) and the Trebuchet, as well as the history and effects of such weapons.



2. My son and I are using a design from this book as a basis for a ballista we intend to enter in the Punkin Chunkin contest. The book appears to be designs entered in a contest during the 1970s where the object was to toss a one pound bolt. That is a far cry from a pumpkin. Still it has good ideas although many are more geared to school projects rather than fathers and sons playing with power tools in the garage.