332 Sir Ralph Paijne-GaUwey, Bart, [May 20, 



of numerous military historians and engineers, both Greek and 

 Roman. 



The books of Heron, Philo, Athen^eus, Colonna, A'itruvius, 

 Ammianus, Diodorus, Procopius, Poly bins, Plutarch, and Ca3sar give 

 many details, and for later times, Froissart, Camden, Holinshed and 

 Pere Daniel may be consulted. 



Projectile engines were in general use in sieges for both attack 

 and defence until near the last quarter of the 14th century, when 

 cannon superseded them in warfare, though not entirely. 



For example, we read in (xuillet's Life of Mahomet the Second, 

 " that at the siege of Pthodes in 1480, the Turks set up a battery of 

 sixteen great cannon, but that an engineer in the besieged town made 

 an engine for casting stones of such a terri])le size that the enemy 

 was prevented from pushing forward his breast-works, his mines were 

 discovered, and his troops were filled with carnage when they came 

 within rano-e." 



Later still, in 1521, at the siege of Mexico, Cortes had a huge 

 engine built in order that it might take the place of his cannon, the 

 ammunition for which was exhausted. 



This engine was, however, a failure, as the first stone it cast fiew 

 straight upwards instead of into the town, and then dropping perpen- 

 dicularly from a great height it fell on the engine itself and destroyed 

 its mechanism. 



The final appearance of any weapon of the kind in warfare was at 

 the siege of (libraltar by the French and Spanish Fleets, 1779-1782. 



On this occasion (leneral George Eliot, afterwards Lord Heath- 

 field, had a catapult constructed for throwing heavy stones over the 

 edge of a precipice, so that they might fall on a ledge of rock occupied 

 by the Spaniards. 



The old engines were of three distinct kinds, and though their 

 names have been much confused l)y historians, one name being often 

 applied to aU three, they may l)e known as the Catapult, the Balista, 

 and the Trebuchet. 



The propulsive power of both the catapult and the balista was 

 derived from a very tightly twisted coil, formed of horse-hair rope, 

 or of hide cut into strips, the latter being obtained from the vast 

 number of oxen consumed by the besieging army, or by the besieged 

 as the case might be. Horsehair was perhaps more elastic than hide, 

 but was not available in the same quantity. As to women's hair, we 

 have all read the story of how the brave matrons and maids of Car- 

 thage cut off their tresses to supply power to the new engines that 

 the Carthagenians were unexpectedly forced to construct for defence 

 against the Romans, after all their old ones had been surrendered. 



The Catapult had a single arm to which a sling for throwing its 

 missile was attached. The primitive manual sling, with a staff and a 

 pocket at its outer end for the stone, probably suggested the action of 

 the arm of the catapult. 



