Catapult Design, Construction and Competition
Downloadable E-book in PDF format.
If you thought the modern sport of hurling began with Punkin ChunkinŽ, you might want to read this book! Remember the 1960's? The Vietnam war and flower power were getting all the attention, so you might have missed the NATIONAL CATAPULT COMPETITIONS that occurred between 1966 and 1978.
That competition was all but forgotten, until I happened to find a book that was written by its organizer, Dr. Bernard F. Barcio. Barcio was a Latin professor in the 1960s and 70s, and he organized the largest competition of catapults in modern times.
This book is all about that competition and the catapults, the results and records, winners and runners-up. But the book was out of print, and I had one of only two copies known to exist. This book is far too important to the art of hurling to allow it to disappear into oblivion, so I negotiated a deal with Dr. Barcio to re-publish that book again!
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 of the record setting machines, and detailed descriptions of their construction too.
