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Came across this museum pic of unidentified ballista (bottom right):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ancie ... Pic_01.jpg
Any information appreciated.
Thanx in advance.
Warhammer1
Torsion rules! - Joel from Ham. Ont. Ca.
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That's easy. It's Schramm's Luftspanngeschütz, which was his version of Philon's aërotonon. At 77.9-78.26 (= Marsden 1971, pp. 152-155), Philon describes "what is called the air-spring catapult, being a stone-projector", which was invented by Ctesibius.
(I suppose someone should add the identification to the Wikipedia caption.)
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The
caption is now complete.
PS: How are these springs in the bronze-spring catapult called anyway? In German, I think it is
Blattfedern. Could it be that this is the very first technical application of this kind of springs?
Stefan (Literary references to the discussed topics are always appreciated.)
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Quote:Elastic Guest, Romans were capable of making steel springs for locks but apart from Rudolf Schneider's and Chevedden's claims Romans never used such metal springs to power their artillery.
Well, there are different types of springs and my question is if these bronze springs in Philo's Chalkotonon were
leaf springs (
disassembled view) and if they had other technical applications, too. I know very little about it, but it seems that such leaf springs were not the type of mechanism used in
old locks.
Stefan (Literary references to the discussed topics are always appreciated.)