Week 6: The Road is Clear. What next?

Hello Everyone, and welcome back to the newest issue of Ballistas to Battle Rams. 

After a long spring break, I have quite a few updates.

Looking through Marsden’s work, it becomes apparent that the only method of comparison can be with similar levels of a similar technology. Siege weaponry is boiled down into 2 forms. Non-torsion engines, which can be found described by Biton, a third century BCE historian, and Heron, a 1st century CE engineer, have significantly less power but are simpler to put together. Namely, the gastraphetes, or belly-bow, is a form of crossbow that, according to Heron’s instructions, can mostly be made through wood, with smaller metal pieces that can be worked around. 

It might seem that this certainly has to be the way I progress, but if you read carefully, there’s another form of engine: torsion. Instead of tension, like a bow string being pulled back, torsion relies on the twisting power of springs and coils of sinew. Either in a V-shape to look like a bow still, or a single string to act as a catapult, the overall mechanism becomes stronger. Why? I won’t bore you with the physics, but it essentially allows for more potential energy to be stored up in a string within a confined area compared to just bending or stretching. 

The whole point of this project is on the comparisons of technology across the ages, and tension-based mechanisms did not have that long of a life span in innovation. Within the 4 centuries between Biton’s descriptions and Heron’s descriptions lead to arguably very similar machinery based on schematics. That wouldn’t make much of an interesting journey if the differences only came up with testing. 

So, I have decided to put myself through a stronger challenge of torsion-based mechanisms. For my points of comparison, I have landed upon these. One is the straight spring engine detailed by Heron. His measurement systems are based on ratios and proportions related to artillery, so it is entirely up to my discretion. Additionally is Vitruvius’s descriptions of the Scorpio, a small scale torsion ballista weapon that needs significant scaling (measurements around 19 Roman feet at the longest end, which roughly translated to 19 Imperial feet). 

Engineering is often a lengthy process, so I am setting these as my goal, with the possibility of using Philon’s engine descriptions. This will be a slow and lengthy process, so I ask for patience with updates while I decode my sources. 

Signing off,

Aadrit T