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Onager with a bowl bucket Sketch of an onager with a sling, a later improvement that increased the length of the throwing arm, from Antique technology by Diels.. The onager (UK: / ˈ ɒ n ə dʒ ə /, / ˈ ɒ n ə ɡ ə /; US: / ˈ ɑː n ə dʒ ə r /) [1] was a Roman torsion-powered siege engine.
Onager: 353 BC Rome: The Onager was a Roman torsion powered siege engine. It is commonly depicted as a catapult with a bowl, bucket, or sling at the end of its throwing arm. Trebuchet: 4th Century BC China: Similar to the catapult, but uses a swinging arm to launch projectiles. It is usually considered to be stronger than the catapult. [4 ...
The earliest known medieval illustration of a torsion engine (onager), from Walter de Milemete's De nobilitatibus, sapientiis, et prudentiis regum, 1326 [29] Arabs besieging Samarkand with a traction trebuchet (mangonel), Sogdian mural from Panjakent in Tajikistan, 8th c. [30] A Sicilian-Byzantine depiction of a mangonel, 12th-13th century [31]
The onager was a torsion-powered siege engine in which a sinew or horse hair spring mounted on a wooden frame swung an arm vertically against a stop, hurling projectiles in a high arc. It launched stones from a cup or sling, and it was named after a species of Asiatic ass due to its kick.
Sketch of an Onager, from Antique technology by Diels. The onager was a post-classical Roman siege engine, which derived its name from the kicking action of the machine, similar to that of an onager (wild ass). It is a type of catapult that uses torsional pressure, generally from twisted rope, to store energy for the shot.
The onager (/ ˈ ɒ n ə dʒ ər /) (Equus hemionus), also known as hemione or Asiatic wild ass, is a species of the family Equidae native to Asia. A member of the subgenus Asinus , the onager was described and given its binomial name by German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas in 1775.
The Roman onager, a catapult powered by rope torsion, was sometimes referred to as a stone-thrower. Archimedes reportedly designed a steam-powered gun to shoot spherical projectiles using the same principle of gas pressure as a gunpowder cannon. Leonardo da Vinci drew a design for a steam gun that he named "Architronito", citing Archimedes. [2]
Mangonel was a general term for medieval stone-throwing artillery and was used more specifically to refer to manually (traction--) powered weapons. It is sometimes wrongly used to refer to the onager. [10] Modern military historians came up with the term "traction trebuchet" to distinguish it from previous torsion machines such as the onager. [11]