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The polybolos (the name means "multi-thrower" in Greek) was an ancient Greek repeating
Episode 152: Arrow Machine Gun
mythresults.com, November 3, 2010.
The Repeating Catapult of Dionysius
(clip) {{Ancient mechanical artillery and hand-held missile weapons Ancient Greek artillery Projectile weapons
The polybolos (the name means "multi-thrower" in Greek) was an ancient Greek repeating ballista
The ballista (Latin, from Greek βαλλίστρα ''ballistra'' and that from βάλλω ''ballō'', "throw"), plural ballistae, sometimes called bolt thrower, was an ancient missile weapon that launched either bolts or stones at a distant ...
, reputedly invented by Dionysius of Alexandria (a 3rd-century BC Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
engineer at the Rhodes arsenal,) and used in antiquity. The polybolos was not a crossbow
A crossbow is a ranged weapon using an Elasticity (physics), elastic launching device consisting of a Bow and arrow, bow-like assembly called a ''prod'', mounted horizontally on a main frame called a ''tiller'', which is hand-held in a similar ...
since it used a torsion mechanism, drawing its power from twisted sinew-bundles.
Philo of Byzantium ( 280 BC – 220 BC) encountered and described a weapon similar to the polybolos, a catapult
A catapult is a ballistic device used to launch a projectile a great distance without the aid of gunpowder or other propellants – particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. A catapult uses the sudden release of stor ...
that could fire again and again without a need for manual reloading. Philo left a detailed description of the gear
A gear is a rotating circular machine part having cut teeth or, in the case of a cogwheel or gearwheel, inserted teeth (called ''cogs''), which mesh with another (compatible) toothed part to transmit (convert) torque and speed. The basic ...
s that powered its chain drive
Chain drive is a way of transmitting mechanical power from one place to another. It is often used to convey power to the wheels of a vehicle, particularly bicycles and motorcycles. It is also used in a wide variety of machines besides vehicles.
...
(the oldest known application of such a mechanism) and that placed bolt after bolt into its firing slot.
Design
The polybolos would have differed from an ordinary ballista in that it had a wooden hopper magazine, capable of holding several dozen bolts, that was positioned over the mensa (the cradle that holds the bolt prior to firing). The mechanism is unique in that it is driven by a flat-link chain connected to awindlass
The windlass is an apparatus for moving heavy weights. Typically, a windlass consists of a horizontal cylinder (barrel), which is rotated by the turn of a crank or belt. A winch is affixed to one or both ends, and a cable or rope is wound arou ...
. The mensa itself was a sliding plank (similar to that on the gastraphetes) containing the claw latches used to pull back the drawstring and was attached to the chain link. When loading a new bolt and spanning the drawstring, the windlass is rotated counterclockwise by an operator standing on the left side of the weapon; this drives the mensa forward towards the bow string. At the very front, a metal lug at the front trigger the latching claws into catching the drawstring.
Once the string is held firm by the trigger mechanism, the windlass is then rotated clockwise; pulling the mensa back and drawing the bow string with it. At the same time, a round wooden pole in the bottom of the magazine is rotated via a spiral groove being driven by a rivet attached to the sliding mensa; dropping a single bolt from a carved notch in the rotating pole. With the drawstring pulled back and a bolt loaded on the mensa, the polybolos is ready to be fired. As the windlass is rotated further back to the very back end, the claws on the mensa meets another lug like the one that pushed the claws into catching the string. This one causes the claws to disengage the drawstring and automatically fires the loaded bolt. Upon the bolt being fired, the process is repeated. The repetition provides the weapon's name, in Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
, "throwing many missiles", from (), "multiple, many" and () "thrower", in turn from (), "to throw, to hurl", literally a repeating weapon.
Popular culture
In 2010 a ''MythBusters'' episode was dedicated to building and testing a replica, and concluded that its existence as a historical weapon was plausible. However, the machine MythBusters built was prone to breakdowns that had to be fixed multiple times.mythresults.com, November 3, 2010.
See also
*Gastraphetes
The gastraphetes ( grc, γαστραφέτης, , belly-releaser), also called belly bow or belly shooter, was a hand-held crossbow used by the Ancient Greeks. It was described in the 1st century AD by the Greek author Heron of Alexandria in his ...
* Repeating crossbow
The repeating crossbow (), also known as the repeater crossbow, and the Zhuge crossbow (, also romanized Chu-ko-nu) due to its association with the Three Kingdoms-era strategist Zhuge Liang (181–234 AD), is a crossbow invented during the W ...
* Rapid fire crossbow
Leonardo's crossbow designs are a series of shooting weapon schematics designed by Leonardo da Vinci that are in the ''Codex Atlanticus.'' One version, a self-spanning infantry weapon called the ''Rapid Fire Crossbow'' (''Balestra Veloce'' in I ...
* Chain gun
A chain gun is a type of autocannon or machine gun that uses an external source of power to cycle the weapon's action, rather than diverting excess energy from the cartridges' propellant as in a typical automatic firearm, and does so via a cont ...
References
Bibliography
*External links
The Repeating Catapult of Dionysius
(clip) {{Ancient mechanical artillery and hand-held missile weapons Ancient Greek artillery Projectile weapons