BBC one-talent ballista

[Anonymous]

Interesting news from Dr. Baatz web-site:<br>
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In 2002 BBC London had a replica of a very large two-armed torsion stone-thrower (palintonon, ballista) built by a special timber framing company. The replica was constructed for throwing a stone ball of 1 talent (ca. 26 kg). The impressive machine fired a round of trial shot which will be transmitted by television in January 2003. Later on, the ballista will be on exhibition in London Museum. For information see the short report 'Building the BBC Ballista' by G. Macdonald, G. Mullen und A. Wilkins in: Timber Framing 65, September 2002, 10-19. A particular detail of the ballista is open to criticism: the construction of the BBC replica can fire the stone ball in a high trajectory only, whereas in Antiquity firing the ball in a flat trajectory was normal practice. There are also some minor technical details open to discussion.<br>
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Some photos of this monster:<br>
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www.xlegio.ru/ildar/one_t...ista-1.gif<br>
www.xlegio.ru/ildar/one_t...ista-2.gif<br>
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Ildar<br>
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forum.xlegio.ru <p></p><i></i>

[richsc]

Welcome Idlar! That is an amazing machine, but the website is all in cyrillic; is there a babelfish that can translate that? <p>Richard Campbell, Legio XX<br>
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</p><i></i>

[Robert Vermaat]

A small report in English can be found at: www.materials.ac.uk/featu...evious.asp<br>
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There's a slightly smaller ballista on www.bbc.co.uk/history/anc...h_01.shtml with Adam Hart-Davis as a delightful Roman.<br>
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Cheers,<br>
Robert<br>
<br>
'Cives Francorum, Miles Romanorum'<br>
www.fectio.org.uk <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

Hi, Richard!<br>
<br>
The point is that my site ( www.xlegio.ru ) has been intended for the Russian users. )) For translation try www.translate.ru/default.asp?lang=en . Some of their services are free.<br>
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Ildar<br>
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forum.xlegio.ru <p></p><i></i>

[richsc]

Aha! it just struck me that you're the same Legio X in Russia who's webaddress I've seen for some time, but from whom we (that is, us outside Russia, ie, me) haven't heard. Glad that you found your way here!<br>
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I think everyone here would be interested in more detail of your activities in Russia. <p>Richard Campbell, Legio XX<br>
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</p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

No, Richard. Our site isn't related to the reconstruction team which are known as Legio X Fretensis, St.-Petersburg. I only know some of them, for example, Yaroslav Fedorov (Corvinvs). The point is that they had some organizational problems which, I hope, they have overcome safely. They recently acquired new domain (www.legio-x.ru) but it is under construction yet. As far as I know, they closely communicate with the guys from Legio VIII Augusta, Germany.<br>
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Regards,<br>
Ildar<br>
www.xlegio.ru <p></p><i></i>

[mcbishop]

The programme was shown towards the end of 2002 and was notable for the fact that the machine collapsed after shooting (they kept saying 'firing' and it ANNOYED me inordinately every time they did...) only two rounds (it clearly wasn't built by Krupps). It didn't achieve the distance it was supposed to (despite some adjustment of the relevant source texts ;-) but, shivver me timbers, it <em>looked</em> magnificent!<br>
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Mike Bishop <p></p><i></i>