Len Morgan\'s latest project....

[rogue_artist]

Heck yeah man! Dave (my local area Officer) said he is putting me on the roster so I can receive the newsletter and stuff. So hopefully I will see what events there are coming up.

Im kinda interested in those Roman Days events in a few months. Maybe I can catch a ride with someone. I wont have much gear to haul lol Probably just a tunic and sandals (which I can simply put in a travel bag with my overnite stuff.

Im a work-at-home dad, self-employed. So I NEED to get out of the house once in a while and spend some time with adult males of a similar hobby interest!! I hear too much about bob the builder all day, everyday. lol

Congrats! Hope to see you at a Northeast event sometime?

Soon enough You'll be joining us in III Cyr. :twisted:

Just kidding George!

(we're mutally supportive but a little competetive between the legions 8) He's been known to say that we in III are always "stealing [his] best men")

But yes, George's Engine'O'Terror is really great, and he's done so much in re-working it to constantly improve it. It's always great to have it set up and sent bolts down-range. I'm still utterly amazed how he *fits* all of this stuff including that Ballista into his vehicle. Amazing.

[A_Volpe]

Probably just a tunic and sandals

Oh, I'm sure between XXIV and other groups they'll have plenty of spare gear to throw onto you!
...Although, I'd also suggest adding underwear to tunic and sandals...and sun screen..

I hope you come in September, it's bunches of fun!

BTW - great artwork, keep up the good work!


Dane - "Gladii/Pila Control" - Priceless!! Love it!

Randi - Us Romans are "Infernal Weapons"!

[rogue_artist]

Sun screen is a definite for me. lol

Did the Romans wear braise or some such type of undergarment? Or did you mean for the courtesy of others, dont go "traditional Scottish" lol

Thanks for the kind words on my work! Its my life and I couldnt see doing anything else.

[Crispvs]

Getting back to our dear new friend Bestia for a moment, I was helping out on her on Saturday and can testify to both Len's craftsmanship and the weight of the machine. It takes four to five of us to raise the head of the ballista and three to four even to tip it onto its end when not on its stand. It weighs in at just over a ton.
It comes apart (as we feel most of the originals must have for transporting) into the two spring frames, four steel plated front / back braces which hold the spring frames in position, four steel plated side braces, the stock/tail and the three part stand. We plan to have a trained six man team to assemble, operate and disassemble it and will probably try to have what amounts to a reserve six man team to cover those who may not be there for every show.

The test shoot is to be the Saturday after next, where we will be shooting concrete balls of the appropriate callibre and measuring the distances achieved. These distances will be able to be compared with measured draw weights. Each spring frame contains around 300 metres of nylon cord (so I am told - I was not there for the actual loading of the spring frames) and whilst this will not tell us much about the actual performance of ancient ballistas powered by sinew it should be useful for comparison purposes, particularly once it becomes possible to determine the performance of nylon compred to sinew (assuming that someone out there has been able to or will make enough sinew cord to be able to test its energy storage and spring compared to that of nylon cord). I will certainly be there for the test shoot, although whether I will be able to stick around for the massed gathering of artillery the next day is in some doubt unfortunately.

Incidentally, the catapulta with the brass front mentioned earlier in the thread was probably Tom Feeley's trispithimus, which should be in attendance on the Sunday, along with a machine from II Augusta, our trispithimus and Alan Wilkins' cheiroballistra, polybolos and onoga. There may be some other machines there as well. I don't know whether the ESG will turn up with any of their pieces, although personally I doubt that they would.


"When the government here in America caught wind of my Civil War groups' cannon, they sent us a contract to sign. The contract basically bound us to never use it as a terrorist weapon! LOL!!!"

Back in 1977, when my parents neglected to sign a declaration stating that my 18 month old younger brother was not a communist we were held under armed guard at Los Angeles airport for two hours while the plane was refueled and then returned to the departure gate under guard.

Sorry to get a little OT here.

Crispvs

[Donciorate]

Hey Jason, when you say you ended up joining XXIV this weekend do you mean at the muster on the Maumee? Congrats on joining, if you have its a great group that I pretty much follow even though I am a Celt. Our group is a sub group of XXIV and work along side David Smith for smaller events and also bigger ones such as Lafe and this most recent one.

[D B Campbell]

The test shoot is to be the Saturday after next, where we will be shooting concrete balls of the appropriate callibre and measuring the distances achieved.

Looking forward to the official report!

[rogue_artist]

My apologies for getting off-topic as well. I find your machine absolutely fascinating!! Will you be taking a video capture of the test fire?
Best of luck with it!!

And the below is just WOW!! eghads.

Back in 1977, when my parents neglected to sign a declaration stating that my 18 month old younger brother was not a communist we were held under armed guard at Los Angeles airport for two hours while the plane was refueled and then returned to the departure gate under guard.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Wish I had made it on Saturday, as I would have loved to have helped.
Hope spmeone is going to be filming /taking pictures Crispus!?

[D B Campbell]

Any photos yet?!

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I am not even sure if they have tested it yet .....I recall someone mentioned it was to be near Silverstone, but not sure if it was during this past race weekend, or if it was just near where the test was to be.

I look forward to hearing more on this too!

[Peroni]

It was test-fired at the Piddington Roman Villa site last weekend.

I have no report or photos as yet. (I could not attend) Hopefully there will be some soon!

[Crispvs]

Many photos and a good deal of digital video were taken by Alan Wilkins and hopefully an edited version of his video will be posted on the RMRS website later this year. Photos should be available in the next few weeks.

The overall testing went well although it turned out that shooting at a higher level of tension was not possible, although at low tension the machine worked very well. This was because the leather cup which the stone ball is positioned in distorted under the higher pressure and will need to be redesigned. However, by using tape to hold the ball in place we were able to detirmine that the main problem we were facing was the stability of the ball in its seat as it is carried forward. With a single piece of tape holding the ball in position to test this hypothesis we found that the machine easily cast it around 65 metres. With a redesigned cup it should travel much further, as the tape, which was intended to break a the ball left the cup, must have retarded the ball's travel somewhat. The machine would be able to be wound up to a still higher tension too, although turning the washers still took quite an effort when we took it to the higher tension which was tried. It was not possible to measure the draw weight but all of the balls had been weighed and each had its weight marked on it.
The springing material turns out to be polyester cord. I asked Len about this and he told me that the choice was to do with desities and cord diameter (I think).

It took us about an hour to set the balista up, which we were quite pleased with and with practice, we felt we could probably cut the time taken down to maybe half this time. It was certainly interesting finding out all of the things which had to be first tightened and then loosened off and then tightened again in order to get each piece to fit right. We also noticed that it is rather heavy at the head end and may need some extra weight at the tail to counter balance it further.

Congratulations must go to Len Morgan who has spent the last eighteen months building the balista, and to Alan Wilkins, who has provided most of the technical and design information and who has been involved with the process from the start.

Crispvs

[D B Campbell]

Photos should be available in the next few weeks.

Excellent!

... We also noticed that it is rather heavy at the head end and may need some extra weight at the tail to counter balance it further.

Interesting. Philon's version had its spring-frame clad in metal sheeting, which would add further to the weight! hock:

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Interesting news Crispus. Look forward to seeing the photos!
How is the cup connected to the string, so to speak?

[Nerva]

Salvete Omnes!

Are both Len and Alan ok with details of their project being discussed here? From what I know they plan to finish the weapon and testing before publishing/discussing any details.