catapult (katapult)

[= F. catapulte = Sp. Pg. It. catapult a, Catapult. Its construction is nowhere explained with any fullne , and it is uncertain whether its action was that of a cro later authors thientaiselling the catapult and ballista seem to or be concon founded. In the middle ages the name is hardly used, except where a writer is evidently seeking to give a cla ical form to his composition. In the annexed cut, which represents a catapult of the later period when no distinction was made between it and the ballista, F is the end of a strong lever, which revolves on an axis and is held down by a windla , A. At the extremity is a fork, E E, with the prongs curving slightly upward so as to afford a bed for a barrel of combustible matter or a heavy mi ile confined by a rope with a loop at the end, the loop being pa ed through a hook, D. When the lever was released it bounded suddenly upward, the centrifugal force causing the loop C to slip off the hook, whereupon the barrel held on the fork was liberated and projected toward catasarca