The Mangonel

The Mangonel is what many people think of when they think of a catapult. It is derived from the Latin word "manganon," which means engine of war. The Mangonel was invented by the Romans in 400 B.C. The Mangonel consists of a long wood arm with a bucket, with a rope attached at the end. Older models used a sling instead of a bucket. The arm is then pulled back from a natural 90 degree angle, then energy is stored in the tension of the rope and the arm. The bucket would be loaded. When released, the Mangonel's arm returns to its equilibrium position. When it comes in contact with the beam, the arm stops, but the missiles stored in the bucket continue to launch toward the enemy. The Mangonel fired projectiles in an overhead arc, …show more content…
The Mangonel was capable of firing projectiles as far as 1,300 ft. The Mangonel was easy to construct and wheels were added to the design to make it movable. The mangonel was best suited for launching projectiles at lower angles to the horizontal, which was useful for destroying walls, as opposed to the trebuchet, which was well suited for launching projectiles over walls. However, the mangonel is not as energy efficient as the trebuchet for the main reason that the arm reaches a high speed during the launch. This means that a large percentage of the stored energy goes into accelerating the arm, which is energy wasted. This is unavoidable, however, since the payload can only be launched at high speed if the arm is rotating at high speed. So the only way to waste as little energy as possible is to make the arm and bucket as light as possible, while still being strong enough to resist the forces …show more content…
Unlike a trebuchet, this mechanism is more direct. It consists of either a tension device or a torsion device, either of which is directly connected to the arm. The other type of energy storage mechanism is a torsion device, which can consist of twisted rope. This allowed for greater throwing power than the tension device in ancient catapults. The figure below illustrates the torsion device.The twisted rope is commonly referred to as a torsion bundle. It consists of several lengths of rope with the arm inserted in between them. The rope is then twisted manually on both sides of the arm, using levers. Upon release, the torsion bundle rotates the arm at high speed, launching the payload.The figure below shows the mangonel at the launch point. To launch the payload, the restraining rope is released. The fact that a mangonel uses an energy storage device that consists of a deforming material, like wood or rope, means that the throwing distance will not be as consistent as a trebuchet. This is because these materials naturally wear and lose elasticity during their use. This is something that needs to be constantly monitored during a battle, with replacement materials made readily