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In the year 1304, Edward Longshanks, more formally known as King Edward I of England, mounted the greatest siege of his reign against the Scots and their castle at Stirling. The attack dragged on. Impatient for victory, Edward ordered 50 carpenters to immediately begin building a monstrous new weapon. So powerful, it would breach the strong walls of Stirling Castle. Details about the weapon design are tantalizingly vague, except that it was nicknamed Wallwolf, and its appearance outside the walls terrified the garrison. Was it the atomic bomb of the Middle Ages?
With one blow, Wallwolf leveled a section of wall, successfully concluding the siege of Stirling Castle. What kind of a weapon was Wallwolf?
What are we doing? Are you, you won't to go up there now? Do you think you'd better take a pair of pliers up in case that......?
Hew Kennedy is a Shropshire landowner and medieval armor expert. Ten years ago, he became intrigued by a picture of a machine drawn by Leonardo da Vinci. It appeared to be a device for throwing dead horses, called a trebuchet. Inspired by the power of the machine that could hurl such heavy missiles, Hew decided to try building one himself-a quest, which eventually led to this piano-flinging contraption, a mechanized catapult made from a laminated beam, scrap metal, telephone poles and steel cable.
In essence, a trebuchet is a giant seesaw with a very heavy weight at one end and a much lighter missile attached to the other. As the heavier weight drops, the lighter projectile's swept by its sling towards the enemy. Hew is convinced that Warwolf, Edward's great wall busting siege engine, must have been a trebuchet.
If you chuck a thing that heavy at a stone wall, it will shatter it. Stone missiles are a lot more effective than grand pianos.
To test out Hew's confidence in the destructive capability of a medieval trebuchet, NOVA is preparing some hard sandstone balls weighing 250 pounds, and a wall is made of sandstone and lime mortar. In construction and design, it is based on the upper section of a typical castle wall of the 13th century. Hew wants to build a trebuchet capable of knocking it down. But at a range of 200 yards it will require precision as well as brute force.
From the wind persistence point of view, it's much more .....I don't know, it could go further
Michael Prestwich, a medieval historian, will ensure that Hew's next trebuchet will be based on an authentic 13th century design.
And I suppose when it's got to the top of its trajectory, it starts coming down again. And it really looks quite frightening.
Yeah
But I am glad I wasn't standing underneath it.
It would bust up a building all right, wouldn't it?
It's the first time I,ve seen a full-scale trebuchet in operation, to see the high trajectory of it, and the way the missile and the sheer speed with which it falls. It's a fantastic sight.
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